Ebay auction price increases?

donmeister

Hey all, im looking to purchase a replacement screen for my friends phone, and I've just noticed that on most auctions from certain buyers always get bidded up

for example: http://offer.ebay.ie/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewBids&item=350310434079&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:BIDN

Within a number of seconds the same buyer has increased the auction price x5?

Now, what I'm asking is this deliberate in order to make a big profit on a item? Or does buyer 1 not have a clue how auction work?The seller might have a circle of friends that he gets to bid up? Because this is pissing me off no end.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

jor el

It only displays actual bids. The bidder you see has a high top limit set, and when someone else puts in a bid they are automatically out bid by him. His bid then shows as the current high bid. If the 2nd bidder puts in another bid that is again below the first bidders limit, he'll be auto out-bid again, and the first bidder's bid shows as the current high.

This has the effect of showing only one live bidder, who looks like they're bidding against them self. This is not what's happening though.

rubadub

donmeister wrote: »

Or does buyer 1 not have a clue how auction work?

The current highest bidder there might not have a clue how it works. Many people will see an item with a low current bid and put in a low bid themselves only to be outbid. Now they slowly increase their bids over and over again and stop at their max. When really you are meant to put in your max at the start. People treat ebay like its a normal auction, but its a proxy bidding system.

Don't limit yourself to ebay.ie either, not all listings show on that.

ttm

rubadub wrote: »

The current highest bidder there might not have a clue how it works. Many people will see an item with a low current bid and put in a low bid themselves only to be outbid. Now they slowly increase their bids over and over again and stop at their max. When really you are meant to put in your max at the start. People treat ebay like its a normal auction, but its a proxy bidding system.

Don't limit yourself to ebay.ie either, not all listings show on that.

Not exactly what you should be doing if you really want the item at the best price.

In practice many people wait to put in a bid in the last few seconds of an auction and any bid that is not more than generous is unlikely to win as it just get topped. If you put in a resonable bid early then often enough you'll find you've been beaten by one bid.

rubadub

ttm wrote: »

In practice many people wait to put in a bid in the last few seconds of an auction

Yep, its called sniping, and I never bid any other way, other than putting a small token bet in to stop it getting pulled early to easily. I highly recommend sniping but was just explaining why you see bids like this. These guys can have a week to go and do this bidding in a matter of minutes, they do not know now the system works at all -let alone know the joys of sniping! (which ebay frown upon, putting your single max in is what you are "meant" to do, doing what they do is a waste of effort).

This is a post I made ages ago, which might explain it further to people unaware of the benefits

rubadub wrote: »

I simply avoid bidding wars, I bid in the closing moments so nobody has time to enter a counter bid when they are outbid. There is no real way to know how much I have truely saved on an individual auction, but if you know how to read auction histories you can see what typically happens. People get caught up in bidding wars.

How I figure I have saved is by checking out completed listings- another little known ebay tool.

If you do a search you can go to advanced and select "completed listings" this shows all the auctions for the item you want that were sold in the last month. Now you can see "the going rate", especially for high volume items, such as memory cards. You might see that the going average is €50, while many may go for €40, some €60. So if you win your auction for €40 you know you got a better than average deal.

Many people will not use ebay properly at all, they do not realise it is proxy bidding, they think the bid they put in will appear right away and must pay it. Some do realise it is proxy but STILL do not use it right, they do not put in their TRUE maximum.

Say you start a auction for a new bike, starting bid must be €50, the bikes shop value is €500. The ONLY reason I would bid at this stage is to stop you cancelling the auction. If there are no bids you can cancel at any time.

So I do not bid my max, but I do it with good reason. I bid €100 and you now cannot (easily) cancel the auction. My true max is say approx €400. Instead of bidding €50 I might go €100, for a good reason too.

I bid €100, but the current price is €50. Now another bidder comes along and typically will bid €55, not his true max, you can see this in many histories, though harder these days. Now he is instantly outbid as I am €100. He goes up in increments, loves the buzz of not knowing. Then he hits €100, I still outbid him. Now he might go €105 and be the highest bidder, and is delighted.

If I left it at an opening bid of €50, and he scored at €55, I figure he is now more likely to put his TRUE max in, as the bid is very low and he has not gotten any fun out of the auction, and sees he is likely to be outbid. But going to €105 he thinks he is really in a good bidding war, and is winning.

If I go €110, he will likely go €115, or higher. So I leave it. Most will go check on the auction to see what is happening. It may be days from finishing.

Now I go in and bid in the last few seconds, I bid €405 (not €400) in the last few seconds. Now he has NO TIME to react with a counter bid.

Many people put round figures in too, that is why I would pick €405, not €400. It is more likely somebodys max is €400, and if they had time they would say, "ah, 400 was my max, but I will go the extra tenner", but they have no time.

This bidding is called sniping, and ebay are against it since they lose out on profits, because the buyer ends up getting it cheaper.

Some do not think it is fair, but only those people who have used ebay incorrectly! it is stated in ebays rules/guidelines, enter your max, YOUR TRUE MAX.

If you get pissed off because you got sniped on an item at 405, when your bid was 400, then you cannot complain about anything, if you really were willing to "go the extra tenner", then why not do it from the start.

I have seen powersellers selling 10 identical items, most starting at €40, they also had 5 of the exact same items as buyitnow for €50. Yet I have seen people get caught up in bidding wars and ended up paying €60!

I get sniped all the time myself too, you will be outbid by a small increment, say €5, but that does not mean if you went €10 more that you would have got it for that, you do not know the other guys true maximum, it could be €100 more. If I did have time I might throw the extra tenner on and lose, this forces the other sniper to pay more. Ebay & the seller win, the bidder loses out.

ttm

rubadub wrote: »

Yep, its called sniping, and I never bid any other way, other than putting a small token bet in to stop it getting pulled early to easily. I highly recommend sniping but was just explaining why you see bids like this. These guys can have a week to go and do this bidding in a matter of minutes, they do not know now the system works at all -let alone know the joys of sniping! (which ebay frown upon, putting your single max in is what you are "meant" to do, doing what they do is a waste of effort).

This is a post I made ages ago, which might explain it further to people unaware of the benefits

So I'm not the only one to stick in an early one euro bid to try and stop auctions being pulled or worse still reserves added , we should start a rota :pac:

The single max bid is the eBay prefered method as the bids nearly always get topped and increase their bottom line.

Edit> sorry hadn't spotted the "explain all" post when I replied, nice one, well explained and worth reading for a second time.