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View Full Version : O/T: Why do people bid so early on ebay?



treant985
04-22-2009, 03:57 PM
Maybe this is a little off-topic, but this is something that I've never been able to figure out: in auctions where there's no buy-it-now (where bidding soon can remove the BIN option), why do people start bidding when there are days left in the auction?

It drives up the price, it gives other bidders a longer period of time in which to outbid you, and it alerts other bidders that this item must be something special. When you bid wouldn't make any difference if people actually put a set ceiling on how much they were going to bid--and then just bid that amount; but everybody changes their ceiling as they go, so early bidding pushes up other bidders' ceilings and thus increases the price.

The only valid reasons I can think of is that someone is going to be away from their computer for days and thus must bid now--or never; the other is that, if bidders don't show some interest, they're afraid the seller might just pull the item, but how often does an item get pulled just because it didn't get any bids for the first few days? The other reason, which I don't consider valid, is that the bidders just want to feel 'on-top' and thus they must outbid this other guy--RIGHT NOW. Besides that, I think it's just one of those things that's completely illogical, but many bidders never stop to think.

An excellent example is the Pedroia bat that Chris put up; I congratulate him on getting so much movement so quickly. I just don't understand why bidders do this: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=270378441696 . It's a 7-day auction and the price went from $9.99 to $460 in the first 15 hrs it was up for sale.

Maybe this has come up before on GUU, but I haven't seen it...

otismalibu
04-22-2009, 04:09 PM
We left too much time...

http://cincinnatibengals.contentquake.com/files/2007/09/samwyche.jpg

Jags Fan Dan
04-22-2009, 04:16 PM
Sometimes I bid early if it is not a "gotta have it" type item. I will put my ceiling on it and if I get outbid, fine. If not, fine.

UGA-1
04-22-2009, 04:49 PM
Yeah, if the item is something not that important to me, i just place a bid(usually low) and leave it alone to worry about items i need to keep an eye on. That way i can forget about it. If I win, great, If not,someone wanted it more than me anyway. Congrats to them.


But on items I'm really after,I pull out the sniper rifle! 3..2..1..POW!:D

yanks12025
04-22-2009, 04:52 PM
People pay way to much for his bats. There just like Cano's when he started, prices were high and then they go down after one bad year.

kellsox
04-22-2009, 04:53 PM
I saw that bat in the pickups section. He called it "a definite keeper" and then listed it a few days later. I see this quite a bit where dealers- I mean "collectors" post their new pickups then immediately list them. Weren't the mods supposed to address this a while ago?
k

kellsox
04-22-2009, 04:56 PM
People pay way to much for his bats. There just like Cano's when he started, prices were high and then they go down after one bad year.


I must have missed when Cano won the ROY/was a key member of a world championship team, then won the MVP the following year-like Pedroia did. Cano's just not as good.
k

commando
04-22-2009, 05:02 PM
If an item worth several hundred dollars starts off with a $9.99 bid, I'll go ahead and place a LOW bid to follow the auction easier. I'll wind up placing my "real" bid near the end.

yanks12025
04-22-2009, 05:50 PM
kellsox,
I guarantee when both of there careers are over with, Cano will come out to be the better player out of the two. Dustin will be one of those players that have acouple good seasons and then fall off the face of the earth. Not just because im a yankee fan but i rather take Cano over Dustin any day of the week.

godwulf
04-22-2009, 05:57 PM
Yeah, if the item is something not that important to me, i just place a bid(usually low) and leave it alone to worry about items i need to keep an eye on. That way i can forget about it. If I win, great, If not,someone wanted it more than me anyway. Congrats to them.

Are you suggesting that somebody is bidding $460 for something that's "not that important" to them? :rolleyes:

It must be nice.

treant985
04-22-2009, 06:12 PM
It seems to me like it's just an example of how expensive it can be to not think things through. For smaller items, an early bid probably doesn't affect the price too much since there may only be one or two other bidders out there that are interested in it. But for these bigger items, I think bidders are just sucking money out of their own wallets by bidding early--and especially with the early, incremental bidding. It just seems like one-ups-manship to me...:rolleyes:

kellsox
04-22-2009, 06:56 PM
kellsox,
I guarantee when both of there careers are over with, Cano will come out to be the better player out of the two. Dustin will be one of those players that have acouple good seasons and then fall off the face of the earth. Not just because im a yankee fan but i rather take Cano over Dustin any day of the week.

Dont't know what you're basing your guarantee on. Right now Canos got some catching up to do. I don't really see him as a leader, also no rings/no Mvps- all things that Pedroia has.

yanks12025
04-22-2009, 07:02 PM
I know Cano has not won a MVP or a World series yet(2009), but Cano is over all the better player. He has better range at second,morepowerful arm, more power, can hit for a higher average, drives in more runs. Also Dustin should not have won the MVP last year. He did not led the league in home-runs, average, RBI's, runs. I think all he had was hits and maybe doubles. And cano should have won ROY in 2005.

treant985
04-22-2009, 07:20 PM
I swear, if there's one more post about Cano or Pedrioa...

kellsox
04-22-2009, 07:26 PM
I know Cano has not won a MVP or a World series yet(2009), but Cano is over all the better player. He has better range at second,morepowerful arm, more power, can hit for a higher average, drives in more runs. Also Dustin should not have won the MVP last year. He did not led the league in home-runs, average, RBI's, runs. I think all he had was hits and maybe doubles. And cano should have won ROY in 2005.
I'd love to have a good baseball argument with you but i don't think you're willing to see the other side- Pedroia led the league in runs, doubles and tied for the lead in hits- 5th in overall batting average. Based on voting Pedroia was the clear mvp(16 of the 28 1st place votes- no one else had more than 7). As for defense, he won the gold glove. Please tell me 1 thing that Cano has done better than Pedroia. Cano's a nice player but has done nothing to separate himself from his peers at his position.
k

kellsox
04-22-2009, 07:27 PM
treant-
I'm done-

Fnazxc0114
04-22-2009, 07:27 PM
yep and kinsler is better than all of them lol

yanks12025
04-22-2009, 07:28 PM
You'll see this year what Cano can do. And im also done for now.

treant985
04-22-2009, 07:30 PM
Maybe this whole Cano/Pedrioa thing is an example of another reason why people tend to bid early: they see something from their favorite (or one of their favorite) players, and it's kind of like an impulse to want to bid on it.

TriplexXxSports
04-22-2009, 07:53 PM
OK, back on topic here..............

The hell with bidding...........SNIPE IT!!!!

Vintagedeputy
04-22-2009, 07:55 PM
OK, back on topic here..............

The hell with bidding...........SNIPE IT!!!!


+1 Repeated bidding and raising the price is just stupid.

ndevlin
04-22-2009, 08:18 PM
Bottom line....

The earlier you bid, the higher the item will go. I get so mad when people bid with 8 days left on an item. Ebay gives you plenty of watches in your watchlist, over 100 now. Why not use it and save yourself some money?

I just dont get it. Makes no sense.

treant985
04-22-2009, 09:13 PM
I'm glad other people agree with me on this one...what really makes me mad is when you see bidders with hundreds of feedbacks doing it. You'd think they would've figured it out by now--like the rest of us. :confused:

Texans
04-22-2009, 11:13 PM
I use to bid only at the last second but I found this site called auctionshadow.com. They give you 2 percent back on your ebay purchase. So to make sure I get my money I place a low bid through the site and bid higher if I really want to go after the item.


Jojo

jonincleve
04-23-2009, 07:48 AM
anybody ever bid early just to get the buy it now option out of the equation. example starting bid $99.00 buy it now price $250.00 and you want to pay around $175. i might put in a bid to remove the buy it now option and then do my serious bidding later.

take care
john

bigtime59
04-23-2009, 07:59 AM
anybody ever bid early just to get the buy it now option out of the equation. example starting bid $99.00 buy it now price $250.00 and you want to pay around $175. i might put in a bid to remove the buy it now option and then do my serious bidding later.

take care
john

THAT's the only real reason to bid early...to kill a no-reserve "Buy-it-Now" option. (Although I have to say that when I have items for sale, watching them not draw flies for six and a half days can be a little unnerving!)

godwulf
04-23-2009, 09:01 AM
Yes, putting in a bid to kill the BIN option is a good reason. Funny thing, I did that the other day on a jersey that had a $150 BIN...then, with a few days left on the auction and the bidding up to a little over $40, I got to thinking about it and decided I should have bought the thing outright, as I really wanted it. I contacted the Seller, who was happy to cancel all bids, end the auction, and sell it to me for the original BIN price. That's the only time I've ever done something like that, and I might have gotten the jersey for less, but I didn't feel like gambling on it.

Back before bidder's IDs were protected, did you ever get a nastygram from somebody after you'd sniped an item? I did, and it wasn't even a case where I'd actually sniped - that's the stupid part. I was surfing around and came across an item that I wanted with something like two or three minutes left on the auction. I put in a bid, which won, and a few minutes later I get this outraged email from somebody with an "edu" address, telling me how it was "thoughtless, immoral people" like me who were "ruining eBay", etc, etc. It was hysterical. The usual snipe time I aim for is 3 to 6 seconds.

treant985
04-23-2009, 09:32 AM
Back before bidder's IDs were protected, did you ever get a nastygram from somebody after you'd sniped an item? I did, and it wasn't even a case where I'd actually sniped - that's the stupid part. I was surfing around and came across an item that I wanted with something like two or three minutes left on the auction. I put in a bid, which won, and a few minutes later I get this outraged email from somebody with an "edu" address, telling me how it was "thoughtless, immoral people" like me who were "ruining eBay", etc, etc. It was hysterical. The usual snipe time I aim for is 3 to 6 seconds.

I used to get mad when somebody sniped me, but I eventually realized it was really my own fault--the sniper out-thought me and had come up with a better strategy.

I don't bid on enough stuff to have a game plan...I usually bid around 15 seconds since it'll take me 7-8 seconds just to enter the number and click submit twice...

otismalibu
04-23-2009, 09:37 AM
anybody ever bid early just to get the buy it now option out of the equation.

I thought I saw some auctions where, even with bids, the BIN price was still showing. Can the seller set up auctions both ways?

I once killed a BIN with a bid, to give myself some time to consider the BIN price. Then, later, I canceled my bid (only one) and the BIN was back and I bought it.

BULBUS
04-23-2009, 10:26 AM
I don't bid on enough stuff to have a game plan...I usually bid around 15 seconds since it'll take me 7-8 seconds just to enter the number and click submit twice...

You sit around waiting for the auction to end? There are a few websites for sniping. I use auctionsniper.com. You just set you max bid, go about your business, and check to see if you won.


I thought I saw some auctions where, even with bids, the BIN price was still showing. Can the seller set up auctions both ways?

If the seller sets a reserve and a BIN price, there will be bids and the BIN will remain until the reserve is met.

treant985
04-23-2009, 11:03 AM
You sit around waiting for the auction to end? There are a few websites for sniping. I use auctionsniper.com. You just set you max bid, go about your business, and check to see if you won.

Maybe I get a personal thrill out of watching the last minute or so...it's like sudokus--I can do the method where you solve it everytime by filling in possible numbers and it's faster than the regular method...but it's not any fun.

otismalibu
04-23-2009, 11:06 AM
If the seller sets a reserve and a BIN price, there will be bids and the BIN will remain until the reserve is met.

Ah...that would explain it. :)

OaklandAsFan
04-23-2009, 11:30 AM
I hate when people do this during the weekend charity auctions up in Oakland. The items are on display and you can make bids on them as soon as the gates open, whatever you bid at that time is the top bid. in the top of the 5th they no longer take bids and it goes to silent auction. in the bottom half of the 5th they take the silent bids and the top bidder wins at that point but you have these idiots who walk up as soon as the gates open and bid $600 for something that if they had waited until the 5th inning they could have had for less than $300.

trsent
04-23-2009, 11:35 AM
We have discussed this before - There are rare cases where a Buy-It-Now remains, without a reserve, when the bid is a low percentage of the BIN.

Here is a live example:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&item=160329983092

When I posted this link, the bid is $177.50 and the BIN is still there for $495.00 with 23.5 hours left in the listing. There is no reserve. Odd.

Anyway, though I use BidNapper for sniping, if an item doesn't have an opening bid I may open it due to the fact that then the seller cannot edit the listing and the item could change before my snipe hits.

Also, sometimes I just don't care so I'll bid my final bid early and if I get the item, great, if I don't, at least it went for more than I was willing to pay.

Some people are macho, they think raising the price early will scare off others.

godwulf
04-23-2009, 12:06 PM
I hate when people do this during the weekend charity auctions up in Oakland. The items are on display and you can make bids on them as soon as the gates open, whatever you bid at that time is the top bid. in the top of the 5th they no longer take bids and it goes to silent auction. in the bottom half of the 5th they take the silent bids and the top bidder wins at that point but you have these idiots who walk up as soon as the gates open and bid $600 for something that if they had waited until the 5th inning they could have had for less than $300.

When it's a charity auction, all bets are off, and nothing really makes sense. Some folks will bid far more than an item is worth, just because it is a charity auction, and it's their way of contributing to whatever the cause is. A couple of years ago, at the Tillman Foundation charity auction, Eric Byrnes ended up being the winning bidder on one of his own jerseys, 'cause he didn't think the bidding had gone high enough, so he just said, "Okay, a thousand dollars" or whatever it was, and he won it.

treant985
04-23-2009, 12:34 PM
When it's a charity auction, all bets are off, and nothing really makes sense. Some folks will bid far more than an item is worth, just because it is a charity auction, and it's their way of contributing to whatever the cause is. A couple of years ago, at the Tillman Foundation charity auction, Eric Byrnes ended up being the winning bidder on one of his own jerseys, 'cause he didn't think the bidding had gone high enough, so he just said, "Okay, a thousand dollars" or whatever it was, and he won it.

You can get some good deals if the charity auctions aren't well-attended. I bought a bunch of gift cards at a local charity auction and actually paid considerably less than the cards' face value.

OaklandAsFan
04-23-2009, 12:43 PM
When it's a charity auction, all bets are off, and nothing really makes sense. Some folks will bid far more than an item is worth, just because it is a charity auction, and it's their way of contributing to whatever the cause is. A couple of years ago, at the Tillman Foundation charity auction, Eric Byrnes ended up being the winning bidder on one of his own jerseys, 'cause he didn't think the bidding had gone high enough, so he just said, "Okay, a thousand dollars" or whatever it was, and he won it.

Only person stupid enough to bid $1000 on an Eric Byrnes jersey would be Eric Byrnes, why does that not surprise me ;)

ndevlin
04-23-2009, 07:19 PM
I use to bid only at the last second but I found this site called auctionshadow.com. They give you 2 percent back on your ebay purchase. So to make sure I get my money I place a low bid through the site and bid higher if I really want to go after the item.


Jojo


Jojo, what is your email? I have a question. Or you can email me at Nathanieldevlin@yahoo.com

Thanks

ndevlin
04-24-2009, 10:10 AM
Jojo, what is your email? I have a question. Or you can email me at Nathanieldevlin@yahoo.com

Thanks


Orrrr.....turn your pm's on.

gingi79
04-24-2009, 11:13 AM
I am selling a bunch of stuff on eBay now and seeing all red numbers is depressing. Most of the items have opening bids much lower than I would ever be happy selling at but I am forced to do so to get some attention.

I personally never bid on auctions with a reserve unless it is a grail type piece therefore I refuse to use them.

Because people have learned that a bid cancels the BIN and simply bid on it to do so, I stopped ofering BIN on my auctions as well. I put in the description that I will accept an offer on items that don't have a bid and add the BIN if it is acceptable. I sold my Chris Hammonds Throwback jersey this week that way.

I will say not putting in a higher bid has cost he as a buyer and a seller as well. I sold a jersey this week for about $200 less than I ever thought I would let it go for. A bidder emailed that he would pay $200 more for the shirt than the winning bidder but forgot to snipe it. SO he lost the shirt and I was out $200. In these times believe me I thought about cancelling the winning bidder and refunding his money but my conscience got the better of me. Stupid Jimminy Cricket!