Why do people bid at the last moment?

rbulph

rchlbentley wrote: »

yes you can retract your bids but you usually have to give a reason.

It says somewhere in your feedback profile- bids retracted (2) or whatever,

so if you see someone who has had a lot of bids retracted - stay clear.

You can't really stay clear because it's a fellow bidder that you may have problems with, not the seller.

I've now read what it says on eBay about this and it seems that a bid can be cancelled if the seller changes the item description during the auction. So there is a lot of scope for a seller to abuse this by having two user names on eBay. But bid retractions are displayed, so the buyer does have the opportunity to complain to eBay if this has happened. I'm pleased to note that Rover has no bid retractions showing.

luvvlyjubbly

I also think items with bids on generate more interest.
As people think, well if other people want it, it must be good.Also a good reason why to do 99p starts as a seller.

But you really must bid in the very last few seconds with your maximum as you'd be suprised how easy it is to get into a bidding war when you bid in the closing minutes.....or if not yourself then somebody else will keep bidding to match your maximum, even though they have gone over what they thought was their maximum. End result is you pay more than you would have but if you are happy with that then that is ok.

Tirian

Of course, there is another reason to leave your bid to the last minute. If you bid early in the auction, then others can take a look at what you're bidding on via the ebay 'search by bidder' function. If you're trying to snap up bargains, you're not going to do very well if someone takes a quick peek at all those mis-spelt/badly listed bargains you've found and promptly outbids you on all of them, taking advantage of all your hard work!

Of course, I have no scruples about using this tactic to nab other peoples bargain finds though - got a great buy last week using this method!

dotchas

gazzak wrote: »

OK, let's give a real life example. You've got to remember that very few people actually stick to their maximum bid, and that's the key point.

So, I want a Wii game, Super Mario Galaxys, (great game BTW). John from Aberdeen is looking at the same auction. We're both prepared to pay £25 for the game.

Scenario 1.
I bid early to my £25 maximum. John bids £10 and is immediately outbid by me automatically. John bids £15, then £20 but again I'm there in his face. John goes to his maximum of £25, lo and behold I'm still winning. John sits back and thinks, "well another pound isn't going to hurt". He bids £26 and is the current bid leader. I get an email saying I've been outbid, go take a look and think "wel £27 would still be a bargain" so bid £28 to be sure. ETC ETC. We're in a bidding war.

Scenario 2.
I bid late. I see John has bid and the auction is currenty at £16. At the last minute I go in with my maximum, (£25), and find that John had actually gone in with a £20 first offer so I win the game for £21. No bidding war.

So you see going in last minute prevents a bidding war and prevents me changing my maximum bid. I know the above example isn't always the case, but it usually is.

I think there is a flaw in this example John is from Aberdeen ,Aberdonians would never pay that much for a Wii game:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

pepsi_max2k

i do it a lot, and it's very simple why:

if people *did* always bid their maximum bid on their first bid, it wouldn't matter one bit. if one person enters their max bid a second after opening, and another their max bid a second before closing, whoever has the max bid will still get the item, so it wouldn't matter when you bid.

but, hardly anyone does that. in my experience most people put in a temporary bid and just wait to see if anyone else bids them up; if they do they put in a new bid, if not they get something cheap. why they do it i dunno, maybe something to do with people paying a fixed price on the high street, and by bidding the lowest amount possible you have some kinda control over what you're paying... whatever, anyway, basically if you leave it til 1 or 2 seconds left, anyone in that position doesn't have time to outbid you. and of course, if you time it wrong, and they do have time to outbid you, you don't have time to outbid them. which is either great if you're trying to save money, or the worst feeling ever

smileitconfusespeople_2

The secret weapon is (one any way ) Goofbay...try G0ogleing it ...HTH

Ms-Money-Penny

I always leave bidding to the last few seconds got it down to a fine art with the stopwatch on my mobile phone. Last auction i won was with 4 seconds to go i put max bid of £7.57 and outbid someone by 7p because i put an odd amount in.

Soubrette

JoeyG wrote: »

Thats assuming John's max bid isnt actually his max bid... AND he doesnt have time in that last second to put a higher max bid

Basically if hes at at his computer at the end of the auction hes probably willing to engage in a bidding war and will use the same tactics so its more about luck... if hes not at his computer then he probably just set his max bid to the maximum he was willing to pay, so you still end up paying just a little more than him (same as your example)

The assumption that he doesn't have time to put in a further bid is totally reasonable when we are talking about bidding at the last second.

Many people do not put their max bid in, even at the end - see my further real life example.

Not everyone is as logical as you and so you will lose out sometimes.

Sou

merch

Hey all you savvy last second bidders - just remember the more people learn this bidding technique, the more people may bid against you in the dying seconds of an auction.
If other buyers want to bid their perceived 'max' bid with four days to go - that's fine by me!

rbulph

I suppose I'm slightly persuaded to bid at the last moment from now on, but only so long as I expect to be at home and awake at the relevant time. And I don't really feel it worthwhile to pay for one of the programs that will place your bid automatically for you - I don't spend enough on eBay for this to be worthwhile.