May 30, 2017 10:19:03 GMT MkX said:
Hi Zeb,My apologies to alex for cluttering up his thread with ebay trivia.
You are quite right in stating that Maximum bid should MEAN the maximum amount you're prepared to bid. In the real world lots of people will up their maximum as the auction progresses - particularly if it's a long auction. Bidders will re-assess what value the item actually holds for them particularly in the closing minutes of an auction. If they've been looking forward to acquiring or 'winning' that item for the past 10 days and see it slipping away, Bidders get carried away and will often bid more than the item is worth just to get the feeling of being a 'winner', (OK, I know it sounds daft but it happens).
I will confess on prior purchases to having re-evaluated the worth of an item during the progress of the auction and consequently increasing my maximum bid although, being descended from Cardiganshire farming stock, I'm never likely to overpay.
The maximum bid feature represents the maximum you're prepared to pay, not always the maximum you will pay.
e.g. I'd put a WW1 medal on ebay 2 years ago, I know from research the value was in the region of £50.00-£70.00 and if I was advertising it as 'buy it now' it would have been priced within these parameters. The 'winning' bidder paid £155.00, I know the guy, he's a multi-millionaire militaria fanatic, (as it sold for more than I'd anticipated I made a decent donation to 2 military charities). This multi-millionaire collector wins whatever he bids for because he's got the deepest pockets and doesn't need to count the pennies. He's a very busy fellah and I don't see him sitting watching the closing minutes of all the auctions he's bidding on. The under-bidder was obviously prepared to pay more than twice the market value of the medal but had obviously set his maximum bid to £150.00. I won't know how much the winning bidder set as his maximum; £200.00? £300.00? £500.00? but I doubt the £155.00 came anywhere near his specified maximum bid, he's prepared to pay whatever to 'win' at all costs even when he's paying way over market value so he'd have set a figure which he knew no-one in possession of their sanity would outbid.
I'm not sure you do understand the benefits of sneaking in with a very late bid so I'll attempt to elucidate. I've kept the auction scenarios to 2 bidders for the sake of simplifying the explanation and the scenario is a bit contrived to underline the point;
Scenario 1:
You have seen an item on ebay which you really really want. It's a 10 day auction. You assess the value of the item at £700.00 and decide you are prepared to pay up to £500.00. The start price is £150.00
[Bidder 1] Bids £150.00 and sets a maximum bid of £250.00.
[You] Bid £155.00 and set a maximum bid of £500.00. The ebay automated bidding system immediately bids up to Bidder 1's maximum and then outbids in your favour. Highest bid stands at £255.00.
[Bidder 1] Closing 20 minutes of auction, sees he's going to lose the item and increases maximum bid to £300.00. He's immediately outbid on the automated bidding with your automated bid standing at £310.00. He again ups his maximum to £350.00 and is outbid in microseconds. The high bid stands at £360.00. You win and you haven't paid your maximum - you're happy with the outcome.
Scenario 2:
Same item. I'm bidding, I've made an assessment, like yourself, that the item is worth £700.00 and I'm prepared to bid up to £500.00.
[Bidder 1] Bids £150.00 and sets a maximum bid of £250.00. The auction runs until the final minutes with no other bids, Bidder 1 is salivating at the prospect of getting this item worth £700.00 for just £150.00.
[Me] With 3 seconds of the auction left to run I submit a bid of £155.00 with a maximum bid of £500.00. The automated bidding system instantaneously bids up to Bidder 1's maximum and outbids it. The high bid stands at £255.00.
[Bidder 1] Realises he's going to lose the item, desperately attempts to increase his maximum bid by £100.00 but the auction ends before he can complete this action. My winning bid stands at £255.00.
We were both prepared to pay up to £500.00 - by sneaking in at the 12th hour I've stolen the item and paid £105.00 less than you'd have paid using your bidding style.
Making a very late bid is just about paying as little as possible of the amount you are prepared to pay.
OK, it's not always going to work out as it does in these contrived scenarios but I buy a lot from ebay and I'm sure that doing this has saved me quite a chunk of money over the years. No smoke & mirrors, just sneaky strategy!
Chris
If bidder 1 had actually put in his maximum bid at £500 from the outset and actually put that in as their maximum bid they would have still won the auction with a winning price of £255, right?
Your way works perfectly if the other bidders are waiting for a last minute bid, basically doing what you are doing but losing out because their maximum bid turns out to be lower than your last minute punt or is the same as yours but your bid came first?
In the second scenario, i could not have paid more than my maximum and the only way I could have paid close to it would be for last minute bidders to push up the bids, which you will expect, so long as its not shill bidding!
Interesting how we all perceive things, maybe your way is the best, may give it a go sometime.
If this was the scenario, Yes, he would have won but he'd have paid £500.00 as his £500 maximum bid would take precedence over your £500.00 maximum bid because his was made first. However in both scenarios he has shown that he is prepared to bid up to a maximum of £355.00 so wouldn't have been the winning bidder.
Re. "Your way works perfectly if the other bidders are waiting for a last minute bid, basically doing what you are doing but losing out because their maximum bid turns out to be lower than your last minute punt or is the same as yours but your bid came first?" They're not necessarily going to make a late bid but my very late bid robs them of the option to do so. The automated bidding process will (in microseconds) bid up to the limit of the lowest maximum bid and make the winning bid over this. If 2 people make the same maximum bid the person who has input their bid first wins.
Re. "In the second scenario, i could not have paid more than my maximum and the only way I could have paid close to it would be for last minute bidders to push up the bids, which you will expect, so long as its not shill bidding!" The scenarios are, as I've said, simplified to make them comprehensible. Multiple bidders complicates the issue but the aim is the same - to be the last person to make a plausible bid thereby leaving other bidders no time to re-think or alter their maximum bid amount. In that final 3 seconds by the time your higher bid registers on the other persons monitor they've lost a second or two and don't have the time to physically input a greater amount and hit enter.
With any auction, and at any stage in that auction, there is always the possibility for shill bidding to inflate the sale price.