posted on February 6, 2006 09:22:43 PM
Sam's Club Auctions - New Popcorn Bidding!!
What does the Popcorn Bag mean?
The "or later" or [Popcorn Bag image], next to the close time of an auction, indicates the listing is set to Popcorn. Popcorn bidding allows all bidder's a fair chance to bid before an auction closes.
How Does it work?
If a bid is entered within the final 10 minutes of the original closing time, the auction will be extended by 10 minutes. If a bid is then placed before the extended 10 minutes elapses, the auction will be extended again for 10 minutes and so on....
Can you give me an example?
An auction is scheduled to close at 10:00 PM ET and a member enters a bid at 9:58 PM ET. The auction will be automatically extended by 10 minutes. The auction will now have a close time of 10:10 PM ET. Another member then places a bid at 10:03 PM ET. The auction will now have a close time of 10:20 PM ET. The listing will continue to be extended until there are no new bids placed within the final 10 minutes of the auction.
*Please note - all Sam's Club auctions will have popcorn bidding, including Lunchtime Auctions.
posted on February 6, 2006 11:39:51 PM
That could get interesting. Would be fun to have a few auctions that were extended by 2 or 3 hours as the bids popped in, one every 9 minutes.
posted on February 7, 2006 01:04:07 AM
Auto-extending the auction closing time is used by many non-eBay sites and certainly maximizes the amount the seller (and commission the site) receives. Also works in the real world too with a track record going back hundreds of years. If I was an eBay shareholder*, I'd be asking why management hadn't introduced it to maximize eBay's potential revenue.
posted on February 7, 2006 04:24:23 AM
I don't think 10 minutes are necessary. Extending by one minute or perhaps less would give bidders an opportunity to counter, and would still retain the sense of urgency at the end of an auction.
posted on February 8, 2006 01:44:58 PM
10 minutes sounds great to me. Nowadays, most bids come at the last second of the auction. Maybe people would start to bid earlier, like the old days.
