Subject:
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Re: CFD: e-bay (aka ranting and raving)
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.debate
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Date:
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Wed, 10 Feb 1999 00:41:18 GMT
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Viewed:
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434 times
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James Brown wrote:
> On about 2/3 of the auctions I've participated in, or followed, there has been
> a similar flow to the bids. Several people bid on it in the first day or so
> (sometimes more, sometimes less, depending on how popular it is), it reaches a
> fairly reasonable price, and sits there, uncontested, until 4-6 hours before
> the auction ends. Several people bid on it in the last few hours, and in some
> cases, the last few minutes. This sometimes pushes the price beyond
> reasonable(2), but more often, the 'high bidder' is over-turned on his high bid
> by the absolute minimum necessary, before they have a chance to react. One
> (probably extreme) case saw an item jump from 4 bids to 11 bids in the last
> hour, all from only 1 bidder.
Well...to be fair, eBay /does/ have that 'bidding gnome' thing. The idea is
that
you tell it the maximum you want to pay for the set, and it does the bidding
for
you so you don't have to watch it. This is why the final bid is usually only
the
minimum raise above the previous bid.
Trouble is, people get 'bidding fever' - they see that someone has beat their
last
bid by 'only a quarter' or some such, so they bid again...and again...and they wind
up bidding a lot more than they originally had as their max.
In short, eBay would work fine, if it weren't for human nature. ;)
Personally, I have both gotten some good deals on eBay [1] and succumbed to
'bidder's
fever' once or twice. (Fortunately, I was always outbid in the latter case
and was
able to come to my senses...)
J
[1] - I honestly didn't think one was a /great/ deal at the time, just a good
one, but
I have since seen the set auctioned on RTL with a minimum bid of half again
what I
paid...too much to my mind, but hey, if you want something you want it I guess...
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Message has 3 Replies:
 | | Re: CFD: e-bay (aka ranting and raving)
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| Jeff Johnston wrote in message <36C0D5AC.3D7D0B2@me...ne.net>... (...) I think one of the key reasons they use that system is human nature. In other words, it is working fine--even better than fine, perhaps. Jesse ___...___ Jesse The Jolly Jingoist (...) (26 years ago, 10-Feb-99, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
| | | Re: CFD: e-bay (aka ranting and raving)
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| (...) The other trouble is, if I'm bidding in multiple auctions, my maximum bid in one auction depends on what I end up spending in other auctions. So I can't (always) put an absolute maximum bid on a lot, and then just wait to see how it turns out. (...) (26 years ago, 10-Feb-99, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
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