Re-Opening the "Last Minute Bidding" argument

[Happy Jack]

Brief history:

I listed my Guild Ashbory here a while back, drew a bit of interest but no buyer. I stuck it on eBay 10 days ago timed to finish on Sunday, 99p start but a sensible reserve.

By last Friday it had attracted the usual dozen watchers, and the usual handful of bids mostly from silly-bargain hunters to reach £41.

At this point a BassChatter with whom I'm doing another larger deal notices the Ashbory and asks if he can buy it, naming a price that's marginally above my reserve. No worries, deal done, eBay listing cancelled.

So what?

Well since then I have had FOUR separate messages from eBay Members, all of them genuine with decent feedback ratings, and all offering variants of "I've been after one of those for ages" and "If the deal falls through, please contact me first" and "Why did you pull it? I'm desperate to get one of those" and "Do you know where else I could find one?".

None of these people were bidders at the point where I pulled the auction.

WTF?

I've taken to replying "If you'd bothered to bid then I probably would have let the auction run."

I should stress that I'm not complaining about the money I've "lost" (erm ... that would be £0.00 then) or about the time I've wasted (less than I've spent typing this). I'm just astonished that so many people would/could be desperate to find a particular item and then, when it finally turns up, adopt a bargain hunter's strategy of only bidding at the last minute.

If you want it that badly, then BID!

I suppose that what surprises me most is that I'm still surprised ... surprised at the way so many people seem to think. Or rather, don't think.

[neepheid]

[quote name='Happy Jack' post='445689' date='Mar 26 2009, 09:04 AM']I've taken to replying "If you'd bothered to bid then I probably would have let the auction run."

I should stress that I'm not complaining about the money I've "lost" (erm ... that would be £0.00 then) or about the time I've wasted (less than I've spent typing this). I'm just astonished that so many people would/could be desperate to find a particular item and then, when it finally turns up, adopt a bargain hunter's strategy of only bidding at the last minute.

If you want it that badly, then BID![/quote]

I always bid at the last minute. The less time you spend at the top, the less time people have to take potshots at you.

On the flip side of the argument, I don't harass people if auctions get pulled, c'est la vie.

[Sean.Robinson]

[quote name='neepheid' post='445698' date='Mar 26 2009, 09:14 AM']I always bid at the last minute. The less time you spend at the top, the less time people have to take potshots at you.

On the flip side of the argument, I don't harass people if auctions get pulled, c'est la vie.[/quote]

I never fully understand the last minute bid thing, unless its a phone as your bound to be bid up, the main thing what puts me off though is i always forget

[waynepunkdude]

I was going to buy a Squier Jazz off of someone on here that was on eBay and not moving up from £35, I offered him £65 for it he accepted but just before he pulled it it went up to £50 so he asked if we could put the deal on hold for a bit I agreed, it ended up going for £115 because of last minute bidding.

[neepheid]

[quote name='Sean.Robinson' post='445701' date='Mar 26 2009, 09:20 AM']I never fully understand the last minute bid thing, unless its a phone as your bound to be bid up, the main thing what puts me off though is i always forget [/quote]

If you put your max bid down early, it gives your rivals thinking time. Time to make annoying little incremental bids which if they really want it (or are stupid and don't get the concept of maximum bid/budgeting in general) will end up with them getting it, for more than anyone ought to pay for it.

Last minute bidding with your max bid eliminates this risk. They don't have time to think, one shot at it. If I'm outgunned at this point then I wasn't going to win anyway.

[Adrenochrome]

I usually bid in the last minute. I've picked up 2 CDs I wanted this week for 65p and 99p respectively.

Many people don't fully understand about the maximum bid thing and often start putting lots of separate bids on, or bid more than they really wanted to pay. I'm not going to bid early and encourage those people.

[obbm]

[quote name='neepheid' post='445707' date='Mar 26 2009, 09:30 AM']Last minute bidding with your max bid eliminates this risk. They don't have time to think, one shot at it. If I'm outgunned at this point then I wasn't going to win anyway.[/quote]

+1

After all it's an auction, not a classified sale. He who bids most wins regardless of when he bids. Anyone who's been to a live auction knows that. I usually put in an early low bid just to register an interest and then bid my max very late.

[Chelios]

[quote name='obbm' post='445761' date='Mar 26 2009, 10:31 AM']+1

After all it's an auction, not a classified sale. He who bids most wins regardless of when he bids. Anyone who's been to a live auction knows that. I usually put in an early low bid just to register an interest and then bid my max very late.[/quote]

+1 also mate, I find there is only a chance of you loosing if you bid early on your highest bid, where last min, if you loose, you didnt pay more than you budgeted

[Bassassin]

Last 10 seconds for me, unless I'm either going to be out, or am not too bothered if I win the item.

The psychology is to get the item as cheaply as possible, with the assumption that other bidders will have the same mindset & keep bidding small increments. I am a cheapskate pikey and most things I bid on - or intend to bid on - I do not win because I always set myself an absolute limit which I will not go above. If I bid up to this limit early, this will have a tendency to make other people revise their own top bids and increase the likelihood of being outbid.

I don't mind losing an item at all - on Ebay another will always come along sooner or later. As a seller I have witnessed lots of last-moment Ebay Madness - and been on the receiving end of the vitriol & anger a victim of it experiences when the item they paid wildly over the odds for turns out to be a disappointment & not worth what they chose to pay.

Jon.

[Deep Thought]

I've been beat by a quid more than once, which is most annoying. The only time I bid before the last minute is if I'm going to be out when the auction ends and can't get to a computer, in which case I bid my max amount and hope for the best. Otherwise it's the last minute snipe for me every time-it's the nature of the beast. If you have a price you don't want to go below, put a reserve on.

[bremen]

[quote name='Deep Thought' post='445845' date='Mar 26 2009, 11:53 AM']The only time I bid before the last minute is if I'm going to be out when the auction ends and can't get to a computer, in which case I bid my max amount and hope for the best. Otherwise it's the last minute snipe for me every time-it's the nature of the beast.[/quote]

There are various sites that'll automagically snipe for you at the last minute; I've 'won' a few times using them.

Google 'ebay snipe'.

[tombboy]

Last week I was waiting on a MOTU 2408 I/O interwossit for my studio. As the item had sat at £52 for three days I lined up a bid for £75 which I thought was reasonable (the last one I bought was £72 S/H). Just before I placed my bid with 15 seconds to go the price shot up to £142!!. The last bidder's top range was shoved right up by someone equally eager to get their hands on it. I did have a snigger and could imagine the fella's language!!!

[beerdragon]

[quote name='tombboy' post='446049' date='Mar 26 2009, 02:49 PM']Last week I was waiting on a MOTU 2408 I/O interwossit for my studio. As the item had sat at £52 for three days I lined up a bid for £75 which I thought was reasonable (the last one I bought was £72 S/H). Just before I placed my bid with 15 seconds to go the price shot up to £142!!. The last bidder's top range was shoved right up by someone equally eager to get their hands on it. I did have a snigger and could imagine the fella's language!!![/quote]

The same thing more or less happened to me. nothing was happening untill the last few minutes. being cynical i wondered if the seller got someone to bid on it for him. probably not.

[josh3184]

I last minute bid. Its the best way to bid to be honest, but equally I wouldn't whine if it got pulled before I bid, that's my loss

[josh3184]

you know, I'd be terrified to use those auction snipe sites for the sheer fact I don't trust them:
a) to actually do it
b) because they need my ebay account and password O.o

Edited March 26, 2009 by josh3184

[Macko1968]

There is no eBay rule requiring bidders to bid early. There is an eBay rule preventing sellers ending auctions early to sell outside of eBay.

Edited March 27, 2009 by Macko1968

[Deep Thought]

[quote name='bremen' post='445847' date='Mar 26 2009, 11:58 AM']There are various sites that'll automagically snipe for you at the last minute; I've 'won' a few times using them.

Google 'ebay snipe'.[/quote]

Yeah, I have used them in the past, but it's rare that I bid on anything these days that I'm that desperate to have. It's more of a case of 'Oh that's quite nice/handy etc., I'll bung in a bid and see if I get it.' It's been a while since there's been anything that I'm so keen to have that I'd use a sniping programme. I also tend to go for a lot more Buy It Now's nowadays.

[Trace_n_bass]

There are the ebay bidders who keep bidding and bidding until they win. I sold an amp to a guy in Ireland for £185, and he later admitted that he could have bought it new from his local music shop for £149, but 'got carried away'.

Last minute bidding stops the ebay bid-addicts going mad!

[Happy Jack]

Finally getting back to the thread I started, I wasn't complaining about bargain hunting (I do that), last minute bidding (I do that), or auction sniping (I used to do that).

I wasn't even complaining about eBayers hassling me after the auction was pulled - not that any of them were actually hassling me, just asking the same questions as each other.

I was just trying to get my head around someone allegedly waiting for ages for a particular item to come up ... and then adopting bargain-hunting tactics like it was just another impulse buy.

I fully understand the logic behind the last-minute bid, but there's also a lot to be said (if you REALLY want something) for coming in with a big bid to start. As a selection of other eBayers come in with their bids, there you are - always at the top of the pile, clearly perfectly prepared to outbid everyone else.

Sometimes everyone else loses heart and just drops out.

[steve]

[quote name='Trace_n_bass' post='447167' date='Mar 27 2009, 12:54 PM']There are the ebay bidders who keep bidding and bidding until they win. I sold an amp to a guy in Ireland for £185, and he later admitted that he could have bought it new from his local music shop for £149, but 'got carried away'.[/quote]

my wife is always buying perfume and similar stuff on ebay <cough>cheapskate<cough>! and often remarks that some of the stuff goes for more on ebay than the price in the shops.

[beerdragon]

Slightly off topic but i have a shed load of rubbish which i'm going to offload at a carboot soon, i only go to sell once a year because i know if i have something for sale at say, £2, which i think is reasonable, they turn there nose up and offer fifty pence. i don't know why they don't straight out and say can i have it for nothing.

[Happy Jack]

Round our way, the generally-accepted method is to put things you don't want on the pavement outside your front door. Sooner or later, they disappear.

It's a kind of magic.

[Hamster]

I always bid in the last 3 seconds of the auction with my max bid. If you bid well before the end with the intention of bidding again if you get beat you're just driving the price up against yourself?

[Macko1968]

[quote name='Happy Jack' post='447471' date='Mar 27 2009, 04:26 PM']Round our way, the generally-accepted method is to put things you don't want on the pavement outside your front door. Sooner or later, they disappear.

It's a kind of magic.[/quote]

LOL. A few years back I bought a new washing machine. Perplexed as to how to ditch the old one & had the genius idea of placng it in the new ones box & leaving on my driveway during the week of the local fair. It lasted less than 2 hours.

[obbm]

[quote name='Macko1968' post='447550' date='Mar 27 2009, 05:45 PM']LOL. A few years back I bought a new washing machine. Perplexed as to how to ditch the old one & had the genius idea of placng it in the new ones box & leaving on my driveway during the week of the local fair. It lasted less than 2 hours.[/quote]

Sheer brilliance. I shall remember that trick.