Auctions not fair

[Anonymous]

Hi Community,

I do not know why I'm posting this message, maybe because I very dissapointed.

eBay's auctions are not fair because a bid could be changed in last seconds and there is no way to react on that change, which is not happeinig on normal auctions.

From my side I wil not use ebay's auctions at all and I will spread this info to all my friends to motivate themto  do the same.

[ebooksdiva]

When you place a bid you should bid the highest you are willing to pay for that item. There is always someone who is willing to pay more than you and will place their bid during the last seconds of the auction. 
Define normal auction. 

[alcoforever]

Everyone bidding on an ebay auction has exactly the same amount of time in which to place their bids.   What's not fair about that?

You might also remember that in auctions here it is not the last bid that wins, it is the highest bid that wins, no matter when placed.

[12345jamesstamps]

Newer computers will be able to send bids in the last second. And older computers will be slower.

Also there are slow or fast wi-fi signals out there.

[janet9988]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hi Community,

I do not know why I'm posting this message, maybe because I very dissapointed.

eBay's auctions are not fair because a bid could be changed in last seconds and there is no way to react on that change, which is not happeinig on normal auctions.

From my side I wil not use ebay's auctions at all and I will spread this info to all my friends to motivate themto  do the same.

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Highest bid wins. NOT the last bid. Perfectly fair.

[marnotom!]

Are you familiar with how proxy bidding works?  When you bid, you're entering the maximum you're willing to pay for the item.  It's not necessarily going to be the amount of your current bid.  Your bid will automatically increase as others bid if they bid lower than your maximum bid.

As @alcoforever says, auctions are won by the highest bidder, not necessarily the last bidder.  I've thwarted a number of "sniper" bidders because my proxy bid amount was higher than the amount they tried to enter in the last few seconds of the auction.

If you bid your true maximum and get outbid at the last few seconds, the high bidder was just willing to pay more for the item than you were.

eBay auctions are more like "silent auctions" than the live "hammer" auctions you seem to be thinking of.

[soh.maryl]

You may not like my reply, but here goes:  Reactionary bidding, which seems to be what you are doing, is rarely a winning strategy.

When you see an item you want to bid on, decide on the figure that is the very most you want to pay for  that  item, and make that bid as late in the game as you feel comfortable.

You may win, you may not.  But, if not, then you know you gave it your best shot, but that someone else valued it more than you did. 

[simba6]

You have to bid eBay as a sealed bid auction.  Your bidding as in an outcry type of auction.  An outcry is often depicted in TV and movies as it's an action seen.   In a sealed bid auction, you place your best bid and that's it.  Best to place it near the end of the listing.  That way if you change your mind your not stuck with it and other bidders can't "nibble" at it.

Most buyers go the the buy it now listings anyway.  They don't want to wait for an auction to end.

[tev4all]

Bid Once

Bid Your True Max

Bid as late as you are comfortable with.

Good Luck.

[tinsoldierunderground]

I understand how you feel - I think most everyone new to ebay has had a similar experience.

Then we learned how to bid.  There's nothing unfair or immoral about bidding in the last seconds of an online auction.

There are many instances where the item is a rare collector's piece or part, and a scorched earth bid in the last few seconds is the only chance you have of winning, and it all but eliminates the nibble/sport bidders.  I've done this many times, and I don't always win, as ebooksdiva states "someone is always willing to pay more than you".   There is often of flurry of last second bids, but only one winning bid.   As janet9988 put it, "Highest bid wins.  NOT the last bid.".   

[powell-memorabilia]

Please don’t spread the word to your friends - you’ll come off like the “friend” that would love to unload his Amway product.

[tobaccocardyahoo]

Although Ebay made its reputation as an auction site, a small minority of items are for sale on the site as auctions.

Many of those who bid on auctions are "looking for a bargain" because the auction starting price is lower than fixed price Buy It Now listings.

If there is only one person who is interested, that one person get a bargain. But that also affects the likelihood of the fixed price listings selling, so if the fixed price sellers are brighter than the auction creator, the auction will tend to have multiple bidders.

As others have stated, bidding the highest you are willing to pay is an effective way to deal with auctions.

For decades, the auction sniper has been an alternative strategy. Buyers, including myself, have used paid services to bid for us in the last seconds of the auction. Sometimes we won, sometimes we lost. But in those days there were multiple bidders for most auctions, there are not today.

Tastes have changed. People have different priorities for their use of time.

It is amazing how many of the bidders who win on a one bid auction never pay for the item. Ebay has recently given sellers the ability to require buyers to prepay in order to bid. The negative reactions, posted on this forum by buyers, has been strong. It is removing some of the entertainment that some people have gotten from the auctions on Ebay.

Ebay will not stop allowing sellers to sell by auction, but the number of auctions will continue to drop.

I made a few bargain purchases on Ebay auctions in the past year. Items the fixed price sellers overestimated the demand for. I bid the maximum I would pay early in the auction and paid less than my maximum. I saved about 40% compared to fixed price listings.

[bennotbill]

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@Anonymous wrote:

which is not happeinig on normal auctions

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Of course eBay auctions are not your usual real auction.

eBay themselves describe it as "Auction Style".

So you either work with it, or not.

[reallynicestamps]

Bid once.

Bid your maximum.

Bid late.

You don't know what the maximum bid of the highest bidder is.

Neither does the seller, actually.

And many bidders will "snipe" at the last nano-second, even placing their maximum bid days earlier with an electronic bidding service.

Those services are similar to "auction agents" who bid at live auctions for clients who cannot attend. Our family has had an online auction since before eBay existed. We have floor bidders, telephone bidders, agents, online bidding, even mail and fax bids to juggle on the day of the auction.  Just so you know I have some experience with auctions and auctioneering.
https://sparks-auctions.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Sparks49Complete.pdf

[woodland_gnome]

There is nothing "unfair" about you not being able to react to other bids.  There are many auction formats and eBay does not use an English Outcry auction format (bid and counterbid, going going gone to the last bidder at the full amount of the last bid) and you put yourself at a big disadvantage if you try to bid like it was such a format. eBay's auctions use a fixed-time semi-sealed-bid modified second-price (Vickery) format. This is what makes them fair to all potential bidders no matter their timezone or schedule. What you need to know to understand how eBay auctions work:

The highest bidder (as of the end of the auction) wins, regardless of when his bid is placed (even if it was received in the last second and didn't show on your screen when your countdown got to 0), but the price is set by the SECOND highest bidder (generally that underbidder's highest bid plus 1 bid increment; less if the winner's bid is not a full increment higher than the underbid, including an earlier tie; more if needed to meet the reserve in a reserve listing; the starting bid amount set by the seller if there is only 1 bidder and no reserve).

During the auction eBay calculates and posts a "current bid", which is simply what the price will be if there is no further bid activity before the auction ends, and uses that "current bid" to set a minimum amount for new bids (1 increment over the "current bid" except for the very first bid, which need only be at least the "starting bid" amount set by the seller).

During and after the auction, eBay hides the full amount of the leader's/winner's bid to the extent that it exceeds that calculated price. (If the winner/leader has made multiple bids, only those that exceed the price have their full amount hidden.) For any such hidden bid amount, eBay substitutes the calculated price amount for the full amount of the bid.

When you bid less than what the current leader has bid before you (or the same amount--ties go to the earlier bid), you are immediately outbid and become the new underbidder and the "current bid" is recalculated at 1 increment higher than your bid (or the full amount of the previously hidden maximum if less than an increment over your new bid, including an earlier-placed tie). When you bid more than what current leader has bid before you, you take the lead at 1 bid increment over his/her (previously hidden) maximum (or the full amount of your bid if it is less than a full increment over his previously hidden maximum; but if it was "Reserve not met" before you bid and your bid was at least as high as the previously unmet reserve price you take the lead at the exact amount of the reserve price unless the general rule would dictate a higher price because the previously hidden maximum was less than an increment below the reserve).

Some people, including eBay, try to simplify this by drawing an analogy to an outcry auction, but one where eBay "automatically places bids on your behalf" up to your maximum bid (hence the phrase "automatic bidding"). This is an imperfect analogy, and in many cases people trying to apply it to a particular situation end up either oversimplifying or overcomplicating the process leading to many misconceptions. If you want to understand how the eBay bidding process happens you need to get away from that analogy. (It is not necessary to understand it if you know and use the following winning strategy below and are willing to accept the results as accurate even though you don't understand how they were arrived at.)

The only winning strategy on an eBay auction is to bid your real honest wouldn't-bid-an-increment-more TRUE maximum that you would pay for this particular item WITHOUT REGARD to what anyone else appears or doesn't appear to have bid. Since what anyone else has or will have bid by the time the auction ends is already figured into the price if you win, there is no need to try to figure it into your bid (other than to assume that someone else is likely to bid about the same amount as you, so it is a good tactic to bid a bit over the round number you likely have in mind as your true maximum to increase your odds of being on the winning side of what might have been a tie or a loss to someone who knows this tactic); all you need to figure is at what price point you would rather someone else get the item than you having to pay more. When you bid, early or late, or whether you put in a lesser bid(s) before your true maximum, those are tactical matters that may or may not influence the behavior of others (other bidders, potential bidders, and the seller) to your advantage or disadvantage.