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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Mon, 11 Oct 1999 15:00:13 GMT
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Viewed:
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391 times
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In lugnet.market.theory, Mike Poindexter writes:
> 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.)
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....
>
> 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?
I think eBay doesn't care as much about the bidder - they don't want the SELLER
angry. Do I want $6000 for my car or $6200? Do I really care about the
annoyed loser? No, that's eBay's problem. eBay's attitude is that you have to
bid at least a minimal raise, but after that it's the high bidder. I
personally don't agree with it, but that's probably my own personal sense of
fairness. I at least know the rules, and being outbid by 1 cent or $2000
doesn't matter - I bid as much as I was willing to and if I don't win, I just
walk away knowing there will be something else along shortly.
>
> 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 is in Reply To:
 | | Re: why eBay proxy bidding is broken
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| (...) 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. (...) (25 years ago, 10-Oct-99, to lugnet.market.theory)
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