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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To not get why people put huge bids on eBay when...

27 replies

GoingVerySlowlyMad · 03/02/2013 12:42

An item still has seven days left to run?? I just don't get it at all. Watching a premium brand pushchair at the moment and the bidding is already heading for what you would pay new. Or is there shill bidding going on?

Sorry first world problem but its got me very irritated.

OP posts:

cindersinsuburbia · 03/02/2013 12:57

Sometimes its the seller themselves from another account, or just Newbies who think high bids will secure it

I like many others just use Snipers like Gixen

NotADragonOfSoup · 03/02/2013 13:00

Why would it irritate you? Either you are prepared to pay that price or you're not - whether the bid is put in now or much later is irrelevant IMO. I'd prefer to have an idea early on that it's going to sell more more than I am prepared to pay.

Original poster

GoingVerySlowlyMad · 03/02/2013 13:11

It irritates me because its not consistent. You have several other of the same item going for much less and one or two which have been bid up to the hilt. Definately dodgy bidding going on. Nothing appears to be honest these days. Sigh, just me having a Victor Meldrew style rant. As I said, first work problem.

OP posts:

Indith · 03/02/2013 13:17

Yeah it is annoying as it just pushes the price up. Daft people don't realise that if they wait until the last minute and stick their highest bid in then they could secure it at a far lower price.

I was watching something the other week that should have gone for a very reasonable price but there were 2 idiots who kept outbidding each other by 50p so every day it went up by a few quid.

readyforno2 · 03/02/2013 13:18

I generally watch similar items for a couple of days then I will put my maximum bid amount on an item.
That way I can try to forget about it and if I lose it, I lose it.

MrsMushroom · 03/02/2013 13:20

Drives me MAD OP. People are so thick.

HDee · 03/02/2013 13:21

If I see something I want, I put my maximum bid in and leave it. S if I see something on day 1 of auction and bid £400 I can see how bidding would appear to go up quickly.

McNewPants2013 · 03/02/2013 13:25

I dislike snippers

Indith · 03/02/2013 13:25

The thing I was watchign wasn't automatic bids as you can see what is automatic and what isn't so there were these 2 sad cases watching like hawks and bidding constantly and me teh even sadder sad case watching it happen.

Original poster

GoingVerySlowlyMad · 03/02/2013 13:31

Indith Yes that's what was happening on the one I was watching and then another person seemed to be bidding up their bids iyswim?

I am of the nip in at the last few seconds camp. Doesn't always work but have got a few bargains that way, especially things ending at quiet times.

OP posts:

tiggytape · 03/02/2013 13:44

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

VisualiseAHorse · 03/02/2013 13:46

I bid my highest price, then ignore it until it's sold.

ShellyBoobs · 03/02/2013 13:49

Do you not think it might just be slightly naive people bidding?

Someone puts a first bid in at say, £1 but with an automatic max bid of £50 and then someone else comes along and does similar so the item immediately gets bumped up?

I don't understand your consternation at other people bidding, though.

If an item is on for 7 days, why shouldn't someone bid whenever they want to?

MrsMushroom · 03/02/2013 13:56

Shelly if people left things till later, then the prices would stay lower.

If people bid over 7 days consistently trying to outbid one another, then the prices get driven up.

OkayHazel · 03/02/2013 16:03

As a seller, it is great. No complaints here!

LittleEdie · 03/02/2013 16:07

Because sometimes if you plan on nipping in at the last minute, you forget and loose something you really wanted. There's a Margaret Howell denim skirt out there that should have been mine...

EndoplasmicReticulum · 03/02/2013 16:10

I don't wait until the last minute, because if I try to do that I always forget to go back.

I decide what I'm prepared to pay, sling a bid in, then ignore it.

I wouldn't pay a different amount if I bid later.

Indith · 03/02/2013 16:12

Oh I get why people put in their max bid and then leave it. What I don't understand is those who sit there watching the bloody thing and bidding multiple times a day!

If some stupid people want to go and bid lots on the stuff I have for sale though then that'd be great .

Saski · 03/02/2013 16:17

Early bidding is silly, but new people are joining Ebay all the time and they might get carried away.

Something that is expensive to ship might go for close to retail, because you can sort by distance and find one only a few miles from your house & collect for free. Also, don't pushchairs these days come in many colors & permutations? It might be a hard to find one.

loofet · 03/02/2013 16:21

I had a sniping app which did well at winning me a few things and meant I didn't have to sit there watching it til it got to 10 seconds and then place my bid. It was ok til one day it decided not to put a bid in for some unknown reason and I didn't win something I really wanted. So I never trusted it again.

Sniping does mean you generally get stuff for lower than you would have done putting in a high bid. BUT snipers are also fucking annoying. Sometimes I'm impatient and so put in my to

ShellyBoobs · 03/02/2013 16:22

Yes, MrsMushroom, I get that it drives the price up.

The thing is, some people don't seem to understand it's a bloody auction site!

If it was a proper auction, snipers wouldn't have the chance to try to get something for next to nothing (which what the OP is moaning about).

It would be a simple case of everyone who was interested bidding whatever they wanted to bid, in turn, until the highest price anyone was willing to pay was reached. In an auction it's not meant to be the case that the craftiest most sly person wins the item.

I just don't get the consternation at all. If the price ends up too high you can walk away from it and buy something else.

loofet · 03/02/2013 16:24

*top bid early then leave it though, I generally lose out on those ones though or end up paying too much so yes sniping does win most of the time but is annoying when a bastard outsnipes you.

I don't see why its annoying though when people put a high bid in.. Its great for the seller and if you're not willing to go that high then just find another. It could have gone that high with snipers anyway..

MrsHoarder · 03/02/2013 16:32

I don't see the problem. The whole idea us that the person who is happy to pay the most pays just a but more than the second person. The same would be true if everyone sniped their maximum, except more stressful.

The maths of Ebay game theory is fascinating though.

sarahtigh · 03/02/2013 16:41

sniping is perfectly legal so why does it annoy you it is just a way of bidding at last minute without having to personally sit at computer no more immoral than leaving your heating to come on when you are out; it is not cheating or anything

there is only one reason to bid early and that is on very large items like cars, travel systems as if no-one bids will often sell offline or get worried and cancel auction or take a BIN, I know you can cancel all bids to add a BIN but if you are on ball you just bid again which immediately cancels BIN anyhow, so sometimes on an item worth £400 with 99p start it is worth putting £50 bid in early then leaving your true max until the end it is about tactics

tactics are not wrong

if it were a real auction it does not last 7 days it last about 40 seconds, and you still have the choice of bidding early ( leaving commission bid with auctioneer) an absentee bid ( auctioneer lets you bid on phone) some auctions are also live so you can bid on line in real time you can also go to auction house and bid live so at least 3 if not 4 ways to bid on real auction though generally commission bids and bidders in the room get first dibs

sometimes at auction you get bargains no-one else interested in the lot fo you get it for £5 sometimes there are 5 telephone biders and 3 in the room and a commission bid it is just the luck of draw either way

but getting annoyed about sniping is like getting annoyed that someone left higher commission bid or bid by phone

sarahtigh · 03/02/2013 16:45

and you can use tactics at real auctions too, you can tell the newbies they sit at front frantically waving number the minute auctioneer suggests price while if they kept quiet the auctioneer would drop starting price and they may have got same item for half the price

the dealers often chat before hand to make sure they are not bidding each other up so they agree tactics they stand at back and watch the room

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