[Leica] Bidding on eBay (was: something else totally unrelated)

["Frank Dernie" <Frank.Dernie@btinternet.com>]

- ----------
>From: owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us (Leica Users digest)
>To: leica-users-digest@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
>Subject: Leica Users digest V18 #274
>Date: Fri, Dec 22, 2000, 2:04 am
>

> From: Martin Howard <howard.390@osu.edu>
> Subject: [Leica] Bidding on eBay (was: something else totally unrelated)
> Message-ID: <B6680FE7.3697%howard.390@osu.edu>
> References:
>
> Jem Kime jotted down the following:
>
>> the second auction ended with me watching the screen and seeing his last
>> bid appear just one second before the end. Perfectly legitimate I'm sure,
>> but leaving no time (as he'd have rightly anticipated) for me to return a
>> better bid!
>
> eBay automatically bids for you, up to the maximum amount you are willing to
> bid for an item.  It's really simple: you find item A for sale on eBay, you
> figure out that you're not willing to pay more than $137.50 for item A in
> that condition, and you enter $137.50 as your maximum bid, even though the
> current bid may only be $52.00.  Then, as time goes by, if no-one else bids
> more than you, you get it for either your maximum bid (if someone bids the
> same amount and you were first), or for the second-highest bid plus the bid
> increment (i.e., less than your maximum bid amount).  In either case, you
> get it for the lowest possible price, up to the maximum you are willing to
> pay.
>
> If someone does outbid you, well, you've already decided that you didn't
> want to pay more than $137.50 for it in the first case, so what's the
> problem?  Why should it make a difference if you're outbid by $1 or $1,000,
> one second after you bid or one second before the auction closes?  You've
> already stated that $137.50 is the *maximum* you are willing to pay for it.
>
> If you, in reality, are willing to pay just a little more, than bid just a
> little more when you enter your maximum bid.  If you want the damn thing at
> any price, simply enter $2,000 as your maximum bid and you'll be sure to get
> it.
>
> Come on, guys, it really isn't *that* difficult.


Sorry Martin you haven't got it. Yes what you say above is of course the
case as all e-bayers hopefully know.

When I am prepared to pay "market value" for an item I do exactly as you
say, bid the maximum I am willing to pay and accept getting it or not.
The problem  I have observed is when a bargain is available. The outbid is
not immediate as it would be if you bid less than someone else already has
(in this case you never come up as high bidder) it is at the last moment and
usually $1 or $.50 more than my existing highest bid - even if my existing
highest bid is way higher than that currently showing on the site (see your
explanation above)
This only happens for items where I bid low to get a bargain on the basis of
I only want it if its cheap.
The outbidder seems to know:-
a) how much is my maximum bid, which on one occasion had been over $1000
more than shown as the current high bid,
b) Outbids this value by a minimal amount ( less than the normal increment).
c) Does so in the last seconds of the auction.

clearly b) and c) are reasonable objectives for a successful online auction
junkie but the knowledge of a) and the precision of c) lead me to the belief
that some sort of legal or otherwise automatic bidding software must be
being used. The internet delays make reliable manual bids in the last
seconds of an auction too risky, knowledge of a) implies a hack into e-bay.
Lets face it the outside world, despite policing, is addled with crime and
legal ways of being dishonest, it is naive to believe that the internet is
not at least the same.
Each time it has happened to me the outbidder was a dealer with 100s or
1000s of transactions. It has happend to me far too often. I believe that
some merchants have either a hack or other homemade e-bay bidding software.
cheers Frank