SmittyAW
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posted on August 24, 2001 12:56:23 PM
webrover..
Calling other posters names is against the Comminity Guidelines and will not be allowed. Please review the CG's if necessary before posting again and follow them to avoid putting your posting privileges in jeopardy.
Smitty
[email protected]
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merrie
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posted on August 24, 2001 01:07:05 PM
Hurrah, BJGrolle!!
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BJGrolle
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posted on August 24, 2001 01:18:15 PM
Thanks merrie (I like that cheerful ID) and Smitty!
http://bjgrolle.freehomepage.com
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webrover
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posted on August 24, 2001 09:45:50 PM
Nothing like the team (or mob) mentality.
Speaks volumes.
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kiara
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posted on August 24, 2001 10:26:23 PM
But why on God's green earth do established bidders (who should know better) continue engaging in a bidding war? I have seen bidders pay waaaaay too much for an item after another bidder jacked the price up after a protracted back and forth bidding exchange. WHY do bidders run the price up on themselves??
One night I found an auction and it was for an item that I was used to paying about $30 to $45 for. It was a new seller with 0 feedback and their auction list hardly had any bids. I usually snipe but I decided to put a bid in to make the seller feel better.
Awhile later a newbie bid on the auction so for fun I upped the bid. We went back and forth until the end of the auction. I already decided what I was going to pay in the end. I did it for fun and I won the auction at about $42. Did I pay too much? Who cares, it was my fun for the night and I had the money to spend.
I guess the seller was happy and so was I and that is all that matters in the end.
Who is to judge what is waaaaay to much to pay? 
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webrover
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posted on August 24, 2001 10:31:27 PM
I just don't see spending money for the sake of spending money a sport. My goal when bidding on auctions is to pay less, not more. Why win the auction for $42 if it may have been won for $25?
It's not about being cheap, it's about not being needlessly wasteful. Few have so much money that they can waste it so readily.
Hell, why not just donate some money to charity if you're that well off?
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kiara
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posted on August 24, 2001 10:44:06 PM
needlessly wasteful
Who are you to judge how I spend my money? I do donate to charity.
Actually that seller was trying to make money to buy a digital camera so it went to a good cause.
Why do you get so upset when you ask a question and some of us try to answer it?
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webrover
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posted on August 24, 2001 11:00:44 PM
It's funny how often people confuse upsetment with debate.
Frankly, I couldn't care less how you waste money.
As a matter of fact, I wish you would bid on my auctions. I LOVE when people pay too much.
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belalug3
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posted on August 24, 2001 11:17:07 PM
Have you folks never heard of BLUFFING in a poker game?? When I make a large proxy bid early on, it's like the poker player sitting across from me with hundreds of chips in front of him--he makes a bet, and scares away two-thirds of the table, who immediately fold. Think about it before you make assumptions about early (high) bidders.
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kiara
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posted on August 24, 2001 11:19:38 PM
Sorry, webrover. Glad to hear you're not upset.
I don't bid like that all the time but on occasion I do find it a bit of fun. I don't consider it a waste of money at all. Some people "waste" money doing things much worse than what I do. We all have our own view of what a "sport" is.
Also it is okay to help out new sellers, don't you think?
BTW, I also sell but I don't call those bidders "ninnies". They all have their reasons for doing what they do.
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belalug3
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posted on August 25, 2001 02:25:14 AM
Another reason why people bid early is that many people are busy and just don't have time to look up the auction at a later time. By bidding early-on, they are, in a sense, "bookmarking" the auction. I think this makes a lot of sense. Are you trying to imply that EVERYBODY should become snipers? What a dull place Ebay would be (frustrating as hell too).
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azeclixpt
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posted on August 25, 2001 04:35:31 AM
Hi Webrover and BJGrolle,
I think you are falling in love of each other
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icyu
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posted on August 25, 2001 05:45:24 AM
belalug3:
How do your rivals know how large your intimidating proxy bid actually is? I thought all they could see would be the current "early high bid"--which might be $3.52 even though your proxy bid limit might be $1000.00?
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merrie
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posted on August 25, 2001 06:35:52 AM
I am not sure why any seller would start a thread that criticizes bidding of any kind, early, middle or late. Buyers read these threads, also, and some of the comments made here would make me rethink bidding at all since so many sellers think my abilities as a buyer/bidder are very inept.
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webrover
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posted on August 25, 2001 08:49:26 AM
WHY?
Because I am a buyer just as much as I am a seller, and AS a buyer, it is irritating to see prices foolishly run up on things.
Also, all because I sell, does not mean I cannot and will not comment on issues that bother me.
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kiara
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posted on August 25, 2001 10:05:56 AM
Hi again, webrover
I am feeling your pain now that I understand you better. Sometimes I find auctions and I want them all to myself. I bookmark them and come back later and I notice also that some bidders who should know way better have foolishly driven the price way up.
But this has happened to me on almost all the things I want. 
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merrie
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posted on August 25, 2001 10:30:00 AM
Me too, Kiara, I am always hoping to get a real deal, those foolish, foolish bidders that are willing to pay more. They really are ninnies!! 
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gs4
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posted on August 25, 2001 11:15:14 AM
One time this happened to me and I cried three tears. 
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webrover
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posted on August 25, 2001 11:34:06 AM
I have NO PROBLEM with people outbidding me on an item, HOWEVER, to watch bidders play "bid war" days before an auction ends is very interesting.
Me? As a buyer, I wouldn't want to entice other bidders into getting used to the idea of paying MORE for something. I don't want them to have time to mull it over and over in their head. I prefer to have them stagnate at a lower bid---which they would do, if others didn't prod them further up.
If a bidder really wants something and wants it at the lowest possible price, then I suggest they not reveal their hand, so to speak, by letting others know days in advance that they are interested.
Common sense, really.
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amy
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posted on August 25, 2001 11:45:22 AM
I just don't see spending money for the sake of spending money a sport
If everyone had that attitude Vegas would still be a sleepy, dusty little hamlet in the Nevada desert.
I am beginning to understand the position of the original poster though...he/she doesn't like other bidders to bid up the price, making him pay more.
I have a relative like that...she gets visibly angry when someone bids against her at a real life auction. I think she thinks that once she has decided she wants an item all other buyers are supposed to say "oh, she wants it so I can't bid"
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Eventer
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posted on August 25, 2001 12:01:43 PM
"mental ownership"
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kiara
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posted on August 25, 2001 12:20:52 PM
Now if we can only figure out how to get the ninnies to bid on our auctions and keep them away from the auctions that we are bidding on we can all be happy.
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merrie
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posted on August 25, 2001 12:36:21 PM
kiara, you read my mind. Ignore things I am bidding on, but bid high on things I am selling. Sounds like a plan.
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Microbes
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posted on August 25, 2001 12:57:15 PM
@Eventer
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webrover
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posted on August 25, 2001 01:38:09 PM
Amy:
WRONG.
I don't mind PAYING for what I want, I just don't understand why people bid up the prices early on THEMSELVES!
Also, in VEGAS, there is a chance you can WIN by betting, whereas bidding up an auction only creates a situation where you end up with LESS MONEY. Guaranteed.
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belalug3
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posted on August 26, 2001 06:23:03 AM
Well, maybe I'm a ninny, but I just bid four or five times on an auction with a reserve, until the reserve was finally revealed to me. Would the non-ninnies please thank me for this public service?
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belalug3
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posted on August 26, 2001 06:26:16 AM
If ALL BIDDERS turned into "non-ninnies" by sniping or waiting until the last 10 minutes of an auction to bid, this would take a lot of fun out of online auctions, not give sellers extra time to prepare their item, cause a LOT of frustration among non-winning bidders, and just, plain be NO FUN. Non-ninnies--UNITE! BE PROUD!
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amy
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posted on August 26, 2001 06:36:16 AM
At some point in an auction there will be bidding. Doesn't matter if the bidding occurs at the beginning or at the end.
I think it is a fallacy to think that one will spend less if one waits to the end of an auction. There is no way to prove this is true as each auction is unique and cannot be replicated.
Each time an item is listed the circumstances are different..different buyers, different degree of desire even if it is the same set of bidders.
It is the bidding between two or more bidders that causes the price to go up, not WHEN they bid.
The complaint voiced in the opening post STILL sounds like sour grapes to me!!
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merrie
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posted on August 26, 2001 07:38:30 AM
Here, here, Amy
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Thank you belalug3
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captainkirk
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posted on August 26, 2001 08:06:17 PM
"It is the bidding between two or more bidders that causes the price to go up, not WHEN they bid"
Most people seem to find that these two factors are, in fact, related to each other. The earlier you bid ("when" ) the more likely you are to attract attention, entice earlier bidders to counter, etc. Hence the attraction of sniping - it *seems* to work well, on average (as you say, on any given auction, it might not...but over a number of auctions buyers continuously claim here that they will pay less by bidding later).
So, of course on the surface, mechanically a bid price can't go up without at least two bidders, but this thread is (at least partially) about the underlying psychology and tactics behind bidders and bidding, and most posters here seem to find a relationship between when you bid and the final price paid...
[ edited by captainkirk on Aug 26, 2001 08:08 PM ]
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