End of the auction bidding

thawk

thawk

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Oct 28, 2006
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http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250662785993&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

Would someone try to explain how this bidder won this knife? His bid was one penny more than the next highest bid, and the winner bid at the wire. I've made that bid before, for even maybe 50 cents more, and the bid did not happen. There have been a few times I have won by a couple of cents over.

With Ebay, is it hit or miss when you bid at the end of an auction, or is there something I don't get. I've made thousands of bids and I still do not understand how the increment rule works or does not work at the end of an auction. Especially wondering what frnorth thinks. You've been around a few auction endings.

I suspect it may not be an exact science.
 
Two thoughts come to mind for me. . .
1. Goober just got lucky or. . 2. Sometimes those last seconds have to be timed just right to get in before the buzzer with a cheesey bid like that. Although you'd have to wonder how they could have guessed a bid that was exacly a penny more.

I've had an auction or two where I have tried to slip in on the last few seconds only to have the computer hiccup and cost me the auction. I do believe there is some form of set incremental increase that is proportional to the delta between the first few bids, but damn if I've been able to figure it out.

I really believe it is a function of the first few bids. It seems that the auctions somehow gauge how bad an item is sought. I guess what I mean is if the difference between the first few competing bids is small, the increment seems to remain small through the bidding, say a $10 first bid and a $20 second bid. On the other hand if the first person's max bid is say $20 and the next bid against him is $50, the computer recognizes the larger delta and "bumps" the increment amount by a larger margin or percentage which in my mind drives it to a higher price more quickly. Maybe I'm just dreaming this up, but I've watched a number of knives escalate rather quickly as compared to others. Just my two cents.

Chuck
 
Here's how it went. The second bidder put in his max of $75 about 10:25 PDT.
When bidder #3 bid 69.50 at 18:30 PDT, he drove number two up to the next increment (up to $70.50?)
When top bid hit it at 19:10 PDT it was with $75.01, beating the increment, and beating number 2!! Number two's bid came up to $75, showing his max, but in fact coming in behind AND after top dog!!
All Kosher, because number two's max of $75 came in after top's $75.01, but from $70.50!
Git it??:D
 
Could it be that the times you lost, your clock was not synchronized with eBay's and you actually came in too late?
 
Esav Benyamin said:
Could it be that the times you lost, your clock was not synchronized with eBay's and you actually came in too late?
Click to expand...

No, it wasn't that . I've seen it happen both with a manual bid and with an automated one. It's been a long time since I've had one come down to the penny like that.
 
waynorth said:
Here's how it went. The second bidder put in his max of $75 about 10:25 PDT.
When bidder #3 bid 69.50 at 18:30 PDT, he drove number two up to the next increment (up to $70.50?)
When top bid hit it at 19:10 PDT it was with $75.01, beating the increment, and beating number 2!! Number two's bid came up to $75, showing his max, but in fact coming in behind AND after top dog!!
All Kosher, because number two's max of $75 came in after top's $75.01, but from $70.50!
Git it??:D
Click to expand...

I might git it... Here are the last three bids.

US $75.01 Jul-14-10 19:10:43 PDT
US $75.00 Jul-14-10 10:25:52 PDT
US $69.50 Jul-14-10 18:30:12 PDT

Are you saying Charlie is has to do with the actual max bid showing when the final bid is placed? If 75,00 would have been showing at the wire, would $75.01 have failed, because the increment was not met on the max showing?
 
waynorth is dead on. BZ waynorth (good job) :thumbup:
Even in the case of a tie, the earlier bid wins. A tie can happen when a bidder puts in a bid more than required by the minimum bid increment. And the next bidder does the same thing, with the same exact bid. I actually lost one that way, we both bid $300.77 but the other guy put his bid in a few seconds before mine. In the case of a tie, the earliest bid wins.

It all has to do with incremental bids AND timing.

Bridgy
 
I'm with you on the timing of it Charlie, great analysis. Hal, thanks for the info on the bidding increments, my lazy streak got the better of me on taking the time to look that up. Either way, it is pretty shrewd on the part of the high bidder to bid in early and anticipate that last $75 bid and have the extra penny tacked on. I guess not wanting to pay a penny more didn't apply to him :D

Chuck
 
I have three stategies. First of all I use a sniping robot service. Second of all I bid more than it's worth and more than I can afford. Third, if I don't win I still enjoy the process and don't sweat the loss. And fourth, and most important of all, and what has worked perfectly for 60 years: "Buy high and sell low!"
 
Tongueriver, you have just outlined exactly the way i bid. Bidding "more than it's worth and more than I can afford" has resulted in now owning a great many knives and zero retirement savings.
The "Buy high and sell low!" is what i am best at.
However, i am having fun.
roland
 
rprocter said:
Tongueriver, you have just outlined exactly the way i bid. Bidding "more than it's worth and more than I can afford" has resulted in now owning a great many knives and zero retirement savings.
The "Buy high and sell low!" is what i am best at.
However, i am having fun.
roland
Click to expand...

You can always go for the "Make Offer" option of "Buy It Now" and us the strategy of "Make them an offer they can't understand." (or understand yourself why you did it). I won a couple like that yesterday. That's fun too. :p

Just for the record, Roland, I enjoy your, "Why not add just one more knife to the group." strategy, too. :D
 
rprocter said:
Tongueriver, you have just outlined exactly the way i bid. Bidding "more than it's worth and more than I can afford" has resulted in now owning a great many knives and zero retirement savings.The "Buy high and sell low!" is what i am best at.
However, i am having fun.
roland
Click to expand...

You know what they say, you can't take it with you. . .

Chuck
 
Right, you can't take anything with you, not even treasured knives. All gets left to the children. In my case, i have 4, so each will get about 1000 knives.
I hope they are happy with this instead of receiving the money i spent buying them. (unlikely)
roland
 
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