Ebay etiquette?

[Randallw]

I looked at Ebay for practically the first time ever to see if they had an old book. It just happens that someone in the next state here put a good copy up only 1 1/2 hours before I saw it. The auction Lasts a week and I was going to wait the week to see what the highest price was (no point registering to place a bid if the price goes too high in the end). Its been a few days and only 1 bidder so far, so the book is $5. I'd like to know whats the poilte thing to do?. It would be cruel for no one else to bid all week and then I come in and grab it at the Last minute while the only guy is asleep.

[tesco samoa]

lots of people do that... hence why you have the proxy bid system. Go in bid and then set your highest price you will pay. IF the bidding goes higher then you lose.

[Gandalf Parker]

You should understand that the bidding is automatic. The machine will go back and forth doing .25 bid raises up to each persons high limit. So if you set your high bid at $25 and the other guy sets his at $12, all you will bid is $12.25 but if his is $25 and yours is $12 then even if you jump your bid to $13 at the Last minute then "he" will still outbid you until his $25 dollar limit.

(hint: never set your limit to a flat dollar amount. Most people do that. Always go with X.25 or X.75 as your high limit)

[Baron Munchausen]

Ettiquette???

This is commerce dude, not a tea party! There is no ettiquette in war or commerce.

Of course you snipe* if you want to get the best deal. If you bid immediately you give any and all competitors time to work up their nerve to pay more for the item. It's simple psychology. If someone else is willing to pay that much for it, you are more likely to feel justified in paying that much for it also. And of course anyone doesn't like to 'lose' in any sort of competition. So the competing bidder keeps bidding higher, getting annoyed at 'losing' the auction when it isn't enough, and bidding higher again. If the original bidder is outbid, then he gets annoyed and will probably be willing to pay more just because someone else is willing to, and because he doesn't like to lose. This results in competition between egos as well as checkbooks, and so causes people to spend much more than they would otherwise. You're letting the seller play the buyers off against each other if you go along with this.

On the other hand, if you wait until just before the auction closes to bid, you get instant results without the constant back & forth of people competing with each other. Either it wasn't enough, and if you bid what you were really willing to pay for it that's fine -- someone else was willing and able to pay more. Or it was enough and you got it for what you were really willing to pay -- not more than you could really afford or more than it was actually worth to you (because you could have gotten it at a retail shop for less) because you got into an ego competition with someone else.

* Note: 'sniping' is the eBay term for jumping in at the Last minute and bidding just before the auction closes.

The economics of scarcity should only come into play with things that really are scarce, and not many of the things offered on eBay really are scarce.

[ July 30, 2004, 20:27: Message edited by: Baron Munchausen ]

[Gryphin]

What is to stop someone from creating a second profile and placing pseudo bids on his own item?

[Loser]

Originally posted by Gryphin:
What is to stop someone from creating a second profile and placing pseudo bids on his own item?

Nothing, except that if you get caught, it's some kind of fraud.