Subject:
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Re: why eBay proxy bidding is broken
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.market.theory
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Date:
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Sun, 10 Oct 1999 00:15:15 GMT
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Viewed:
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400 times
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In lugnet.market.theory, James Brown writes:
> 3:Essentially, eBay is lazy. It doesn't negotiate the bids out (like Auczilla
> does, for example. see: http://www.auczilla.com/lego/x/7.html for a more in-
> depth explanation there), but instead simply uses (AFAICT) a simple less
> than/greater than equation. So, it will check an incoming bid. If it is
> greater than the current bid ->by at least the minimum increment<- and it is
> greater than the proxy ->by any amount <- it will accept the new bid.
> definition of 'minimum increment', and see if you can spot the
> inconsitency:
> HTH
> James
> http://www.shades-of-night.com/lego/
Auczilla isn't perfect at negotiating bids either. Let's say you have a max
bid of $10 for fifteen identical lots with the current bid at $3. I come
along and say, "Wow, look at those!" and bid $12 on one lot, Auczilla will
proxy every single lot you have up to $10. That will basically cause some
dissatisfaction. Granted, this scenerio is extreme, but it is based on a
known flaw. I also recall doing this out of spite, but I can't remember the
lot it was on. (Incidentally, you can always go back and outbid easily, since
you now know the other bidder is maxed out.)
The way I look at it, there are two ways to go about the outbidding. They
aren't better or worse, just different. At first glance, I would prefer the
person who bids later to beat the earlier bid by the increment, but either
way, you will have a mad bidder. Lat us say that I saw the car at $3000 and
bid $6200 only to see it go to the other guy for $6000 before I could ratchet
up my bid. Would I not be angry, being outbid by somebody who was $200 lower
than me?
Really, a bid of $6200 is the proper increment above the minimum bid, so it
will be accepted. It is just a different way that eBay has of hashing out who
wins. The main problem I see is that in some instances, it bumps up a penny
and some it bumps up the full increment. They should always go up by the same
amount. Since it can't go up the full increment, it should go up by a penny.
That is the way that makes sense to me. This way, it is consistant.
Mike
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Message has 2 Replies:
 | | Re: why eBay proxy bidding is broken
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| (...) I don't beleive it's a flaw or known bug, per se. It is in fact intentional behaviour. See: (URL) to readers in the distant future, that URL may not work. At the time of writing, X was the current auction... if it doesn't try whatever the (...) (25 years ago, 10-Oct-99, to lugnet.market.theory)
| | | Re: why eBay proxy bidding is broken
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| (...) Auczilla (...) I don't have a problem with Auczilla doing things that way. It saves lots of time because I assure you, if I want one of those 15 lots it saves me lots of time rather than bidding up one, followed by another, followed by.... (...) (25 years ago, 11-Oct-99, to lugnet.market.theory)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: why eBay proxy bidding is broken
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| (...) minimum (...) Well, it's sort of an innate fairness, I suppose, but also partly a difference of opinion about what a proxy bid is. I'll attempt an explanation. 1: eBay as written, allows the system to be cheated. Let's assume, for the sake of (...) (25 years ago, 8-Oct-99, to lugnet.market.theory)
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