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

[treant985]

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...m=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]

Re: O/T: Why do people bid so early on ebay?

We left too much time...

[Jags Fan Dan]

Re: O/T: Why do people bid so early on ebay?

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]

Re: O/T: Why do people bid so early on ebay?

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!

[yanks12025]

Re: O/T: Why do people bid so early on ebay?

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]

Re: O/T: Why do people bid so early on ebay?

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?
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[kellsox]

Re: O/T: Why do people bid so early on ebay?

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.
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[commando]

Re: O/T: Why do people bid so early on ebay?

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]

Re: O/T: Why do people bid so early on ebay?

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]

Re: O/T: Why do people bid so early on ebay?

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?

It must be nice.

[treant985]

Re: O/T: Why do people bid so early on ebay?

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...

[kellsox]

Re: O/T: Why do people bid so early on ebay?

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]

Re: O/T: Why do people bid so early on ebay?

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]

Re: O/T: Why do people bid so early on ebay?

I swear, if there's one more post about Cano or Pedrioa...

[kellsox]

Re: O/T: Why do people bid so early on ebay?

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