10 May
2000
10 May
'00
4:04 a.m.
John Wilson wrote:
I seriously think eBay is likely to trigger some kind
of 12-step program
for auction junkies. Really, it's a bit like gambling, people get really
competitive sometimes and end up paying prices that have nothing to do with
anyone's concept of what the item is worth, just because they feel that they
need to win at any cost.
Sure, that's the "auction fever" that E-bay has been so good at tapping
into.
There is one very simple rule to follow at any auction: know what you're
willing to pay at the start, and never go over it. And it's actually easy,
with E-bay's Proxy Bidding, to do this on E-bay by simply bidding your
highest amount early on. No more worry about someone outbidding you by
'sniping' at the end!
Of course, whenever I mention this strategy I get flamed horribly by
"E-bay experts" at how awful it is. How they tried it once and got outbid
by $1 and lost. Or how it drives up prices for all buyers. I don't agree,
E-bay provides you with a powerful tool - proxy bidding - and you should
use it to its full advantage. Getting caught up in the frenzy is the
sure way to lose in the big picture (though you may "win" the auction),
because you end up paying more than you wanted to.
Tim.
10 May
10 May
7:26 a.m.
On Wed, May 10, 2000 at 09:04:28AM -0400, CLASSICCMP(a)trailing-edge.com wrote:
Of course, whenever I mention this strategy I get
flamed horribly by
"E-bay experts" at how awful it is. How they tried it once and got outbid
by $1 and lost. Or how it drives up prices for all buyers.
I know that logically it makes sense that the proxy bidding should totally
avoid the ugly live auction stuff, but it does seem like all the action
always seems to happen in the last 1/2 hour of the auction anyway. Which is
exactly what proxy bidding is supposed to avoid... So I really get better
results by waiting until the last second and jumping in then. I don't want
to give other people time to talk themselves into raising their max.
I really hate it when I make my max bid early, and it turns out that the
existing high bidder's bid already covers it. So all I did was cost this
poor guy money. And of course, bidding against someone who's familiar from
the mailing lists is bad mojo!!!
John Wilson
D Bit
11:14 a.m.
Tim wrote:
"E-bay experts" at how awful it is. How
they tried it once and got outbid
by $1 and lost.
Everyone complains about that, but when you are the second-highest bidder
in an eBay auction, there's no way to know how much you were outbid by.
It only *appears* that you were outbid by the minimum bid increment,
due to the nature of the proxy bidding system. It's possible that you
were outbid by thousands of dollars. Only the winning bidder and eBay
know.
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CLASSICCMP＠trailing-edge.com -
eric＠brouhaha.com -
wilson＠dbit.dbit.com