[meteorite-list] Meteorite eBay Bidding Comment

From: Sharkkb8_at_aol.com <Sharkkb8_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri Jun 11 15:24:05 2004
Message-ID: <163.309e043c.2dfb60cd_at_aol.com>

 

Mike Groetz:

  << nothing more disappointing than someone that lays
out for the last few seconds and then outbids you >>
 

Having participated in an off-list, knock-down drag-out fight with another
listee about this particular subject ;-), here's what I would offer:

I think bidders who complain about being outbid at the last second are
virtually always guilty of one mistake: they never placed a bid of the MAXIMUM
amount they would be freely willing to pay for the item. As Mike G. put it "It
does not give the previous bidder any chance to reconsider their offer". If,
on the other hand, you always place a bid of the MAX amount you're willing to
pay, you take any "reconsideration of your offer" out of the picture. You will
often end up getting the item for substantially less, but more to the point,
you can't complain about sniping: the sniper wins only if his maximum amount
is more than your maximum amount. He's SUPPOSED to win if his his max amount
is higher than yours. Additionally, the sniper can live or die by his own
sword, i.e. if an auction is about to close with $100 showing as the "going" bid,
but you have previously placed a hidden $200 bid as your maximum amount, the
sniper will be shut out if he snipes a last-second bid of $175 - then HE
doesn't "have a chance to reconsider the offer", either.

I agree that the popular rule for other auction operations, i.e. letting time
elapse until five minutes has gone by without a higher bid, would solve the
sniper "problem", but it really only addresses the non-sniper-bidder's
frustration, it wouldn't change which bidder wins the item. With either system, the
highest bidder STILL gets the item, whether one second or five minutes before
the final bell.

Gregory

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://six.pairlist.net/pipermail/meteorite-list/attachments/20040611/4b029222/attachment.htm
Received on Fri 11 Jun 2004 03:23:57 PM PDT