EBAY

[Bob Miller]

Hi mate,
    It's bad enough I have to wade through this Ebay crap on the regular
newsgroups, but to have to be dig though this dung on my listserver mail is
too damn much.  Please stop it.
    tnx es 73
    Bob, KE6F

Don Buska wrote:

> Rod,
>
> I did a few bids there also.  When you place a bid you put a maximum
> amount that your willing to bid.  However, the system will essentially
> make the bids for you.  For example, if an item indicates the current bid
> level is $15, you could come in and say I'll give $30.  The system will
> raise the bid, by you, to only $16.  The system is trying to save you
> money and will only try and keep your bid above the current high bid by a
> set step level.  If someone comes along they see your bid at $16, but
> when they try to bid $17 it will immediately say the bid is at $18
> because it automatically raised the bid based on you telling the system
> you'd go to a maximum of $30.  Thus, your in the bidding until someone
> bids more than your $30.
>
> It sound complicated, but it really does save you from continually going
> in and raising the bid by whatever the minimum amounts are.  It's
> basically like you having an agent at the auction, in this case the
> computer system, that knows how much you'll go up to.
>
> So it wasn't trying to take you, it was just protecting the person who
> set a maximum bid, which they may have set to go on up to $25 or $30
> dollars.  You really don't know where it may go to until you place your
> maximum bid out there.
>
> I think it's a neat system, but I don't do much bidding there.  I've
> found some great deals that sat there for a week and then at the last
> hour I'd get out bid.  Lots of people just wait until the end period (why
> not! it makes sence, why drive up the price early) and then most great
> deals don't sound that great anymore.  Consider it an auction with
> probably 10,000 other people there.  It's a great sellers market if you
> are trying to get the most money for something, but not a great market
> for the bargin hunter or cheapskate like me, hi.
>
> Hope this helps es 73
>
> Don N9OO
>
> On Mon, 16 Mar 1998 13:03:09 -0600, Roderick M. Fitz-Randolph wrote:
>
> >I am puzzled (perhaps just very naive) about the bidding on EBAY.
> >There were several items that I thought I would bid on and did so,
> >but with puzzling results.
> >
> >As an instance: An opening bid for an item was $10.  I bid $15 for
> >the item (as well as my memory serves me) and as soon as my finger
> >was lifted from the ENTER key, a message came back that I had been
> >outbid by another and his bid was $16.  I then bid (immediately)
> >$17 and, again, as soon as I lifted my finger from the ENTER key,
> >the message came back that another had made a bid of $18 and the
> >new bid level was $19.  Once more, somewhat skeptical and chagrined,
> >I bid $19 only to experience the exact same situation: no sooner had
> >I lifted my finger from the keyboard than the message that I had been
> >outbid by someone that had bid $20.
> >
> >Now that may be a regular and understandable phenomena but I don't
> >understand it if it was!  It looked to me as though it was somehow
> >programmed into the server to simply raise the bid by $1 every time
> >I bid (in an effort to juggle up the price???).  I became skeptical
> >enough to withdraw any further bids.
> >
> >Can anyone please explain to me (1) How in the world someone could,
> >with the speed of light, outbid me three times in a row? (2) How
> >this could be done without an automatic programmed response from a
> >computer? (3) How anyone would be caught continuing to bid up a
> >price when they were confronted with the same situation I was?
> >(4) Is this a truly legitimate operational practice and I have
> >somehow missed the bidding protocol? (5) Etc., etc., etc.
> >
> >If, and only if, someone can satisfactorily explain this phenomena
> >to me will I go back and make any further bids.  What did I miss
> >or not understand?
> >
> >Rod, N5HV
> >w5hvv at aeneas.net
> >
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