31 Mar
2009
31 Mar
'09
2:33 p.m.
On Tue, Mar 31, 2009 at 1:35 PM, Jeff Walther <trag at io.com> wrote:
Yes, and if you are rational, and enter your real maximum bid, you will lose
the auction to someone who bids higher than your maximum. If you go back
later and change your maximum, then I would consider that irrational.
If you come along and outbid them, they will do this again.
If you go back and increase your "maximum bid", then you are acting in an
irrational manner. The maximum you had previously entered wasn't really
your maximum, was it?
Date: Mon, 30 Mar 2009 19:05:08 +0100 (BST)
From: ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk (Tony Duell)
I don;t understnad this. How come if I put in my
high bid several days
before the end of the auction does it make others bid higher?
Because many of the buyers on Ebay are not rational--or at least, not what
you and I would consider rational. Rather than deciding ahead of time on
their maximum bid, they check the item over an over again during the
auction and if they've been outbid, they enter a higher bid--usually $2 at
a time, until theirs is the highest bid. The only way to defeat these jokers is to not bid
until the last moment,
depriving them of the chance to come nickel and dime you to death.
No, the only way to defeat these jokers is to actually decide on a maximum
bid, and stick with it. You are assuming that these jokers wouldn't have
bid the item up in the absence of your bid. The only thing you are doing by
bidding in the last 30 seconds is to set a maximum bid that is higher than
the one you would have set if you had acted rationally. "I won the auction"
is not an appropriate means to determine whether your strategy works. The
way to determine whether it works would be to find out if snipers pay lower
prices than rational bidders for the same item. (Note: I don't consider
bidding in the last minute on an item that has no bids to be sniping.)
Even if they don't outbid you, several of their
little increments will
drive your price up. Remember, you don't pay your bid amount, you pay a
fixed increment higher than the second highest bid amount.
Actually, I believe you pay the second highest bid amount. And I don't
really think you can make an informed case that the second highest bid
amount is lower if you snipe.
Of course, from a seller's point of view, these
folks are (maybe) useful.
Yeah, we wouldn't want a system that is fair to both buyers and sellers.