P3D Re: ebay question

[michaelk@xxxxxxxxxxx (Michael Kersenbrock)]

> I did my first ebay auction this week.  Bought a set of stereoviews from P3D / APEC's own Dan Shelley.   I understand how the ebay
> bidding system is designed to work.  What I don't understand is the logic behind how folks seem to use it.  Looking at the bid
> history after the auction is over, it's clear people wait till the last hour or 1/2 hour to bid. Some _rebid_ at literally the
> last minute.  What's the logic?

It's auction-logic.  The "real" auction is primarily at the end both with the
people "live" and with those by ebay proxy.  Although one is "supposed" to bid
by proxy with the largest bid that one is willing to pay (early), many don't for
various reasons, one of which is "auction-think".  That is, one is willing
to pay more in an auction than one is willing to if they think about it first.
So they're willing to do so, but ONLY at the last minute when there is a "true" 
auction sort of atmosphere.  I'll admit to doing this too, and I've bid on many (with 
as many as four other participants bidding once or multiple times in the last couple
minutes and gone past my rational price).  

Reason to rebid is that one may not think one's previous bid will hold up to the 
last minute bidding (or  was just out bid and "by golly I WANT IT no matter what
the price!!!!!!".  :-)  I also will do this -- reason being that I'll often make 
a very low initial bid just to use the bid as a "placeholder" so it'll show up in 
my "My ebay" listing -- just out of curiosity as to what it'll sell for with this as
a way of tracking it, but if it's really low, I'll go and bid on it anyway.  
Very late bids is called "sniping" (sp?) which many complain about, but it's done 
because in practice (IMO), it'll likely yield  the  bidder a lower net price.  If 
bidders *really* bid their highest acceptable price early, then this practice 
would be useless -- but people don't.  They try for a bargain as their maximum bid, 
then complain that their bids didn't win even though they were willing to pay more.  
If eBay didn't have their proxy mechanism (which exists in some "real" auctions 
for absentees) this would be (again IMO) a valid complaint. It's the "greed" to 
want that bargain that keeps people from bidding what they are
really willing to pay (last minute or not) that keeps them from winning.

I've occasionally won an ebay auction for half the price I actually had bid.
Not often, but sometimes (I've probably have had maybe 150 or so transactions
on ebay over the last two years).

Mike K.


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