Why do people bid on items with days of the auction to run?

[Raymond Lin]

Fair enough, if i was spending that much money i would want to buy in person.

It is over 150 miles away in Yorkshire. 6 hours return trip. I would go get it but I got plans all weekend.

 

[wannabedamned]

So what your saying is you dont want an auction site but you want a lottery site.

Maybe you should go and look up the term auction.

No, I'm well aware of what one is. What I'm saying is, To win you generally need to use common sense.

Dont enter max bid right away. Wait until the last 60 seconds and put it in. That way the other bidders who are also looking for bargains may have a lower max bid than you, and have no chance to amend their high bid.

example: You put in £450 for £500 bargain amp. The opponents max bid may come back at you. And you'll see the max bid ramp up. And this point put in your potential maximum last bid, Seconds before the auction ends. For example £550.51p.

At this point, anyone without a max bid higher than yours loses out, and people there ready to snipe, and alter their max bid will miss out.

 

[Pug]

totally this.

 

[Glaucus]

They just wouldn't though, your assumption is the only bidders have the same mindset that bidding late = cheaper

Lots of people don't share than and hence they bid early.

.

That's the entire point. They are idiots for bidding early and should bid law.

The reasoning is human nature.
People don't bid just once, even if it's their maximum bid. People will and do bid again.
So on average if everyone bid late, prices would be less.

 

[Mercenary Keyboard Warrior]

rob - i appreciate your much less inflammatory response

there is absolutely NOTHING to lose from whacking your highest max bid in late, and the small potential to lose for whacking it in early

No doubt you may be right, but the point is:

Well 2 examples where that fails:

Item where two bidders will pay 500 thats listed at 50, first guy bids day after auction starts and bids 500. 2nd guy bids 500 at last second, guy one wins. Bidding late failed to secure item yet you valued it the same.

Early bids can bid less than the bid increment if the max bid is higher than the new bid if that makes sense. Plus the earlier the bid it gains preference on any bid placed later of the same amount. IE you need to beat the max previous to win it.

Lots of us dont want to have to sit in front of a screen to bid on items at whatever second of the day they come up, guess what, we value our free time and hence are willing to possibly pay a little more to secure and item, but its still at or below the price we were willing to pay. Win win. We get the item and still have our free time. Maybe you can argue that we could use a sniper to do this with the same effect, and its valid for sure, so point two is really 50/50 I give

 

[Vonhelmet]

Either way, its the same.
If the auction starts at 500, you can bid 500 and enter a max bid of 600.
Or you can enter a bid at 600 which will put £500 against the auction and keep a 600 max bid

Ah, you mean where you bid and then it immediately asks if you want to enter a higher max bid?

 

[Glaucus]

So bid £500 now with a max bid of £600
Doesnt matter if you bid now or in the last 3 seconds, if nobody else wants to pay £600, you'll win. If other people bid more than 600, you'll lose.

Human nature, people are more likely to bid more if they see the price rising and will push their max bid higher. Bid late and they don't get that nagging feeling and don't place a higher bid.

 

[Vonhelmet]

My friends Von, being a Dr they are my circle of friends, not people typically being described as being scum, which is why i found it intriguing.

Well, you committed a logical fallacy in your post by assuming I mean that all GPs are scum. I don't. The ones that shill bid on ebay are, though. Nothing to do with them being GPs.

 

[SciNeT]

Well ths amp I want is listed with a starting bid of £500 ( was a £1,000 amp), no bids at the moment and I would love to get it for £500 to £550, £600 being the max.

Question is do I bid now?

No, never do this, it starts to show interest for one thing, the more bids an item gets the more the value/desirability is confirmed to people who are teetering.

Put £601 in auctionsniper with a 4 second lead time.

EDIT, you're not buying it!

 

[Jonny69]

I'm not always around for the auction end, so I'll put a bid in just in case. I know how much I want to spend. If someone wants to bid over that at the last minute then they are welcome.

 

[touch]

Ah, you mean where you bid and then it immediately asks if you want to enter a higher max bid?

Yes. I told him to do that because i think its easier to understand.

You could just as easily whack in your maximum bid and ebay will use the next increment on the auction as your bid.

 

[Spikey Willow]

I'll usually put a bid in a few days before the end, with my max bid in place, as I can't be bothered to remember to check back at 10:47PM to snipe at the end.

I won't always bid straight away, but that is to wait to see if the item crops up elsewhere at a cheaper price.

 

[Raymond Lin]

No, never do this, it starts to show interest for one thing, the more bids an item gets the more the value/desirability is confirmed to people who are teetering.

Put £601 in auctionsniper with a 4 second lead time.

EDIT, you're not buying it!

Not when it is £500 and not insured.

 

[touch]

No, never do this, it starts to show interest for one thing,

Interest isnt always a bad thing.
He says this amp is worth around £1000.
If the seller sees his auction still at £500 with no bids at 10mins to go, he's likely to end the auction and nobody will win it.

 

[Mercenary Keyboard Warrior]

Ok well im bailing on this thread now.
The only people I can see defending last second are all after bargains, and will lose to the guys whos bidding early who is will to pay a set amount.

I get it, you dont get it. I have won plenty of auctions bidding early that havent cost me any more and yet the people who tried to outbid me last seconds failed cos I had bidded early on what I was willing to pay. Just that what I was willing to pay, if I lost and I have done one some things I lost to someone willing to pay more, it made no matter if it was another early bid or a last minute one, he was willing to pay more than me so he won.

You dont see many auctions, well I haven't where you get a massively overpriced auction reaching high values early on that stay at that value.

The only people who keep bidding and bidding haven't bid the real amount they were willing to pay early on. They seem to think they will get it cheaper by just keep beating the other person. Still makes no difference to the ultimate price unless they are just hooked on that cycle and end up bidding more than they value the item at.

 

[wannabedamned]

^ You seem upset lol

basic rule of thumb...Pay under what shops are selling them at, but pay over what your opponent is willing to pay. Not hard to understand... If the opponents max bid is what the item is worth. Then you're not going to pay more are you...

Also...If you bid at 60 seconds, you find out what the early bidders max bid is... Thats why you bid at 60 seconds, as it gives you chance to amend your own bid. And put in your real max mid if need be(if it doesnt beat the early bidder)

 

[fendi]

shill bidders - that is a reason why you could see a price high early on with days/weeks of the auction left to run. or an ebay noob starting out

about the shill bidding.. if someone has genuinely bid on an item. if there are a number of days left there is nothing to stop a friend of the seller out bidding the original bidder (but with no intention of winning the item). by out bidding them they might entice the genuine buyer to place a higher bid again. however.. if there was no interest in the item in the first place – just the original bidder. If his person left it to the end of the auction to bid then there would be little to no chance of shill bidding going on.

that is another reason why i leave it very late to bid.

my boss shill bid their caravan up and made a extra few hundred on top of what it should have gone for – just because they thought it was undervalued and didn’t want to lose out!. disgusting behaviour (they should have put on a reserve) – note, this is something eBay claims they are on top of tackling.

 

[godinman]

I always leave it until the last 4 seconds and then put my max bid in, that way no one can change their mind and increase their max bid because of mine...

 

[bam0]

No, never do this, it starts to show interest for one thing, the more bids an item gets the more the value/desirability is confirmed to people who are teetering.

This is exactly why robskinner is wrong. People see an interest in an item and rate its value higher than they would otherwise because other people value it. I'm sure this must have been looked at by game theorists.

 

[Mercenary Keyboard Warrior]

^ You seem upset lol

basic rule of thumb...Pay under what shops are selling them at, but pay over what your opponent is willing to pay. Not hard to understand... If the opponents max bid is what the item is worth. Then you're not going to pay more are you...

Also...If you bid at 60 seconds, you find out what the early bidders max bid is... Thats why you bid at 60 seconds, as it gives you chance to amend your own bid. And put in your real max mid if need be(if it doesnt beat the early bidder)

That makes absolutely no sense at all.
So your assuming everything bid on is available in the shops
To find someones max bid you bid at 60 seconds? huh no idea what thats about to find it you would hve had to bid more anyway.
You could have put in your real max bid at 60 seconds would make no diff and if another sniper comes along at 4 secs to go and bids more than you he should win, although may fall foul of the not increasing the bid amount enough.

I'm lost at the amout of illogic in this thread in general (not your post specifically) hence why I'm not staying.

I'm just glad to see how many last second bidders there are and how their (il)logic works, just confirms to me how I am doing it right to win what I want by going when it makes sense to me. If people want to bid over and over to beat me they can, they will pay more than I am willing to pay for the item.

If people want to try to snipe me last second they can, again they have to pay more than I would to win so they valued it higher. If we both bid last 4 secs it would make no diff they would still have to beat me and by the same amount = same result.