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

[Hans-Peter.Lammerich@t-online.de]

The idea behind bidding as late as possible is that lower bidders have
no chance to change mind. I believe there is indeed software that places
multiple, incremental bids during the last seconds of an auction. But I
haven't the slightest clue what you could achived by this. Instead of
sending your maximum bid directly to ebay, you tell your own software to
make incremental bids up to a defined limit. In any case, you have to
determine your maximum limit.

At the end the second highest bidder determines the final auction price.
He will never know whether the winner offered only $0.01 or $1000 more.
On the other hand the winner may get the auction way below his maximum
bid. 
If you are the leading bidder, say at $100, any a later, higher bidder
has to offer at least $5 more. However, during the last minutes of a
very "hot" auction, ebay's web site might have trouble to keep pace with
incoming bids. If a higher bidder placed his $100.01 bid seconds before
your $100 bid, he gets the auction for just $0.01 more. But in
comparison to a "slow" and "manual" auction, the high bidder has gained
only $4.99, at the cost of the seller, not the of the second bidder. If
something like this has happened to you, check the bid history and
whether the $0.01 higher bid was placed before yours. To minimise
frustration, I determine my conservative limit, add a marginal extra
amount and generally avoid "rounded" amounts (no $99 bid from me).

After all, some bidders are in the process of completing collections,
finding complementary bodies, lenses parts etc.. Some bidders purchase
equipment for a specific assignement or holiday trip and thus can't wair
for later, better chances. 

Hans-Peter