18 Oct
1999
18 Oct
'99
3:30 a.m.
The eBay folks are making money, and that's what they set out to do. It's
to their advantage to get the highest bids because they get a cut. Sealed
bids don't necessarily get that, because, though they tap into the
insecurity a bidder may have about what an item will bring, they don't tap
into the last-minute feeding frenzy which often drives prices up.
If you set up your bid so you enter your highest bid right away, but let the
system make minimum incremental bids automatically each time someone
overbids you, that's essentially the best of both worlds for the buyer. He
can pay less than, but not more than, what is essentially a sealed bid. He
is allowed to continue bidding after his maximum is reached, but the system
won't do it automatically.
Dick
-----Original Message-----
From: Hans Franke <Hans.Franke(a)mch20.sbs.de>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Date: Monday, October 18, 1999 6:41 AM
Subject: Re: My Biggest eBay gripe..
better
happens
dollar
On Sun, 17 Oct
1999, Marvin wrote:
> John Lawson wrote:
> > My main concern with the eBay auction algorithm is that it is
> > time-limited, rather than bid-limited.... the aution closes after a
> > fixed span **no matter what the bidding activity is**.
> > 'Normal' auctions close when **no further bids are recieved** in an
> > agreed-upon span.
> > You are forgetting the sealed bid auctions. IMNSHO, it would be far
> > for ebay to add the capability to make sealed
bids (and yes, I have
> > suggested that to them.) That would eliminate this inching up just to
see
> where the
high bid is prior to closing.
> > Ebays suggestion that you just bid your maximum and wait to see what
> > is a good thought. But making that bid early
just invites "well, I'll
just
> > bid one more dollar to see what happens"
and thus driving the price up.
Most
> > ebay buyers have educated themselves to know
that early bids do not
bring
> > the best prices. Hence the popularity of
sniping. A combination of
sealed
> > and open bidding would most likely work out
better than the current
mess.
Yes, which is really what "sniping" is;
a user-created form of sealed
bidding.
Come on - that would be if you where just allowed to enter one bid.
> People like me are the reason that bidding the max early is no good. I am
> a fool with my money, and I don't know when to say "when." I view a
> as something that won't even buy me a cup of
coffee most places, so it's
> never a big deal to say, "Hmmm...just one more dollar..." to try to top a
> bid. That's the biggest reason I bid in the final few seconds, to protect
> me from myself. By the time I can reload the page after I bid, the
auction
is over and I
either won for that amount or lost...
In fact, the eBay scheme comes from an overidealistic view of
their users - if all are well defined ethical beeings beting
... ah bidding acording to the idealistic rules, everything
would work fine - just, people are not like that. And by
insisting that their rules are the one and only way, the eBay
guys are just as stubborn as all idiologic kind.
So my solution would be in offering different auction styles,
giving the seller the freedom of choice what kind of auction
he likes:
- classic eBay with fixed end date
- seald bid, you are allowed _one_ bid, the amount is secret
until the final time _and_ the named amount is the amount
to go for (!)
- time driven - every last bid extends the closing time by
60 Minutes (to allow slow line / bussy people to place a
new bid)
Well, the sealed bid could be modified to a seled bid light,
where the mechanics of the classic eBay scheme is used, which
results into paying only the next step after the second highest
bid (unlikely that a seller will select that if he has a choice
between both).
Also the time driven may be enhanced with a final date (unknown
to public) to ensure that there is no endless auction.
Anyway, I don't think we will see such a variety on eBay - Giving
fredom of coice isn't everybodys thing...
Gruss
H.
BTW: this issue even arosed in the new 'eBay' Magazine... No joke,
there is a news stand magazine about eBay (and similar stuff),
licencing their name!
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Ich denke, also bin ich, also gut
HRK