OT: Ebay bidding wars with 7 hours left in the auction

Submitted by patol8 on

Seriously, why do people get into bidding wars with 7 hours or a day left before the auction ends? Shit would be so much cheaper if half of the the people who buy crap on ebay weren't complete retards.

Rant completed.

Tauro

January 21st, 2010 at 11:14 AM ^

My wife sells on eBay, and we are always amazed at the bidding that goes on with 2 or 3 days left.

Not that we mind - help paid for a recent trip to Disneyworld - but still makes one shake their head.

Wolverine318

January 22nd, 2010 at 8:35 AM ^

I would go to a borders and buy this blue-ray. Borders has many of their blue-rays on sale right for $15.

Last week, I picked both the half-blood prince and iron man on blue for $15 each at Borders.

Besides, you would be supporting an Ann Arbor business, if you buy at Borders.

bronxblue

January 21st, 2010 at 11:35 AM ^

This is a major reason I don't like using eBay - sure, you might get a great deal sometimes, but other times you waste days bidding on something just to see it skyrocket out of reasonable value because two guys with auto-bids enabled aren't paying attention. Give me a Amazon, newegg, woot, or techbargains any day.

ZooWolverine

January 21st, 2010 at 12:08 PM ^

It may be annoying that it happens, but there's really no point to start increasing the bid until there's not much time left. An early lead means nothing if you're going to come back before the auction ends and the only thing it's going to do is invite someone to bid higher and raise the final price.

Blazefire

January 21st, 2010 at 12:25 PM ^

Bidding wars are almost ALWAYS started by the item seller, in an attempt to jack up the price.

Check the seller's other items and see if the same thing is happening. If it is, steer clear.

marvel99

January 21st, 2010 at 12:37 PM ^

1. Bid on an item at the lowest possible price, just to lock in the auction item. I have seen many auctions where the seller would end the auction because there were not any bids on it, this sucks big time!

2. DO NOTHING!!!

3. Wait til about 30 seconds to go on the auction, then bid the highest amount that you would possibly pay for the item. Don't try to just outbid the highest bid price, bid your maximum price.

Don't worry, Ebay's bidding structure will only count your bid up to the highest current bid plus a small incremental amount. This strategy works every time and you will never end up spending more than you want to.

TheBigAC

January 21st, 2010 at 1:54 PM ^

I got a major in Economics and did a research project on something called the Winner's curse which attempts to explain why people overpay almost everytime in open auctions like on Ebay (although the theory initially pertained more to underground oil and mineral rights Ebay provides a new use). Basically it all comes down to there being to many stupid people in the world who screw up in an auction setting by consistently overbidding. I found it interesting anyways.