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 05:48:17 GMT
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Viewed:
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495 times
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In lugnet.off-topic.debate, bwappo@ee.net (Adam Yulish) writes:
> [...]
I've been lurking on this thread but I have to jump in here.
> I simply do not understand why people get upset at being outbid at the
> last minute.
It's very simple: Because people don't know what they're willing to pay.
They think they're mad at the other bidder, but what they're actually mad at
(without usually knowing it) is a stupid, broken auction system which forces
them to come up with contrived maximums -- best guesses as to what they
think they might be willing to pay, push come to shove.
The problem lies not in the act of being outbid but in a poorly designed
system -- a system designed for the cashflow & glory of the system's
designers and sellers rather than in the best interests of the buyers.
> This is a *proxy* bidding system. I put in the maximum that
> I'm willing to pay.
But you don't know what the maximum is that you're willing to pay. You
can't. No one can. It's an imaginary concept. Strike it from your memory.
It doesn't exist. If you believe it does, then you are either wrong or not
human.
> If I bid $50, and get upset about being outbid at
> $51, then $50 wasn't really the maximum I was willing to pay.
Precisely. It's a type of paradox.
> "But of
> course I'd be willing to go a little more if it means digging up some
> change out of the couch!". What, and the other guy wouldn't? Those two
> people I mentioned earlier must have thought they had $2000 worth of
> change in their couch. :) The reason "sniping" has become such an issue
> on online auction services is because most bidders are looking to pay
> the least amount they can, when that's not the way auctions work for any
> online or real-life formats.
Either that or (independent of how much they're willing to pay) they know
that sniping works on eBay and proxy bidding without sniping doesn't work.
> Bidders aren't honest with themselves about
> what they're willing to pay.
It has nothing to do with honesty or correctness. The concept of "how much
you're willing to pay" is a menagerie.
> If I bid $50 at the beginning of an
> auction, and at the last minute someone jumps in with $50.01 (and this
> has happened to me), more power to 'em. That's one cent more than I
> would have honestly been willing to pay.
I don't believe that for a second. I must be misunderstanding you. Let me
see if I understand what you're saying... You're saying that you'd
willingly pay $50.00 for something, but you wouldn't pay $50.01?
Do you honestly believe that you can decide ahead of time how much you're
willing to pay for something -- down to a dividing line of $0.01 -- and
stick to it? If that's true, then I submit that you are doing some serious
rationalization to cope with eBay's twisted system.
> If I was going to quibble over
> couch change (or much more), I should have made that part of my original
> bid.
You can't. The eBay system doesn't allow it. This is the heart of the
problem. This is WHY people hate eBay.
--Todd
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: CFD: e-bay (aka ranting and raving)
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| <snip> (...) I agree that [eBay's] system has more than a few loose hoses, but designed for the cashflow and glory of the designers and sellers? All the grumbling about eBay doesn't point to very much glory, and the cashflow would be higher if eBay (...) (26 years ago, 10-Feb-99, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: CFD: e-bay (aka ranting and raving)
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| <snip> (...) I'd say more than 2/3. Almost all of the auctions I've been in as a buyer and a seller follow this pattern. (...) Remember that in a proxy bidding system such as eBay, the highest bid is defined as "just a little more" than the second (...) (26 years ago, 10-Feb-99, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
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