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

[Martin Howard <howard.390@osu.edu>]

Frank Dernie jotted down the following:

> 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.

(b) leads to concern.  I would urge you to write to eBay and ask them to
offer an explanation as to how someone managed to outbid you with less than
the minimum bid increment.

I presume that (c) implies that your bid has been the high bid for some
time: i.e., it is not a case of you bidding close to the end of an auction
and then you are outbid immediately (by a previously entered higher bid).
In other words, someone is entering a new bid after yours which is higher
than yours?

Again, I would urge you to write to eBay with your experience and ask them
to provide an explanation to what is going on.  It would appear to be
contrary to the rules which eBay has posted and which they (supposedly)
adhere to.

One solution that I can think of -- which may or may not work -- makes use
of the automatic email service is that eBay started providing some time ago,
which notifies you if you are outbid.  It supposed it would be possible to
write a program that enters bids on your behalf (up to some maximum level)
and which monitors any email sent to a particular email address.  This
program would then start bidding in, say, the final minute of the auction by
the minimum bid increment, and if it gets an email stating it has been
outbid, place another bid with a minumum increment, etc., etc.  Speculation,
but this would allow the program to always win the auction with a minimum
bid increment.  However, I'm assuming that something like this would show up
in the bid history for the item in question.

M. 

- -- 
Martin Howard                     |
Visiting Scholar, CSEL, OSU       | "University diplomas, like today!"
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