Bidding anomaly

[ellenpjr]

I recently tried to bid for an item and realised there appeared to be a way of somebody blocking others from making a successful bid. It seems to me that if a bidder puts in a 'highest bid' of a ridiculous amount e.g. £1,000 (for an item worth circa £20) this blocks everybody else from placing a winning bid unless they bid over £1,000. This is a serious problem if true.

[eburtonlab]

A single high bid won't prevent anyone from bidding, as long as new bidders are willing to bid at least one increment over the current bid showing (not the hidden maximum, which is unknown). It may prevent others from winning, though, since the highest bid will ultimately win.

Bidding much more than an item is worth is a dangerous strategy, particularly when more than one bidder in an auction employs it. It is sometimes referred to as "the nuclear option".

[ellenpjr]

It's the winning part of the process that bugs me.  I believe it needs a review by eBay as, as it stands, it is not a fair process.

[7606dennis · Accepted solution]

The practice is known as Nuclear Bidding and has been around for a very long time.  The problem with it is that if you have two or more nuke bidders the price of the item goes through the roof and the seller then has to deal with a non-paying bidder in the end.  Of course, the non-payer gets a strike if the seller goes through the UID process.

The practice is an extremely dangerous one since seller's can sue if the winning bidder fails to pay.  However, this is usually not economically feasible.  Of course, I suppose if the seller and the bidder happened to be located near each other and the seller had deep pockets they could be tempted to sue.  

[ellenpjr]

Maybe I am being naive but there surely must be a way to stop this nuclear bidding. I think there is a simple solution. Bidders should be asked for their minimum bid and then asked to place their maximum bid but the value they enter in this field should be restricted to (say) double their minimum bid. So if my bid is £5 I can only enter a maximum bid of up to £10. This would mean the bidder has to keep increasing their minimum and maximum bid as and when they are out bid. Surely this is a fairer process and gets rid of the clowns who create nuclear bids.

[nobody*s_perfect]

There is no need for a "solution" to "nuclear bidding."  If a member is willing to pay a full bid increment above everyone else, then what's the problem?

[mudshark61369]

@ellenpjr,

 With an item number perhaps we could tell you more.  Have you looked at the bid history with See Automatic bids enabled?  If not look at it, and pay close attention to the time stamps of the bids.  You may find the other bidder increased their automatic bid in response to your incremental bids.  It will show up as a later time than their first bid when your bids came close to their maximum of the time. If they have increased their bid, you were the cause of that.

If you find that they did bid again, it could be for the maximum amount the item has sold for recently, so it is not a nuclear bid.  Have you done an advanced search of completed listings to see how much the item is trending at?  Maybe it is selling for more than you suppose.  If it is then you ave to decide if you are willing to bid the trending price or a bit more.  If you are, wait until the auction is very close to ending before placing any more bids.  Then place your maximum bid price, but add a few odd pence to the bid.  If the new trending price is 25 pounds, bid 25.09.  At the very end that 9pence coud be the difference between winning or losing.

Getting into a bidding war early in an auction signals other that there is an interested buyer. By waiting until the end to bid the most you are willing to pay could mean winning for less than that amount as others would not have time to react to the bid.

[the*dog*ate*my*tablecloth]

The way he bidding process works now is fine. Nobody’s qualified bid is blocked if it meets the bid increment rule. Your bid will go in just fine and you will lose because someone is willing to pay more than you. That’s how EBay and life works

[nobody*s_perfect]

Basicaly it's impossble to tell whether  single "nuclear' bid has been placed on an auction.  They're only revealed if there are two such bids, AKA a "nucear collision."

[etacarina11]

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@eburtonlab wrote:

A single high bid won't prevent anyone from bidding, as long as new bidders are willing to bid at least one increment over the current bid showing (not the hidden maximum, which is unknown). It may prevent others from winning, though, since the highest bid will ultimately win.

Bidding much more than an item is worth is a dangerous strategy, particularly when more than one bidder in an auction employs it. It is sometimes referred to as "the nuclear option".

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yes....remember  tablet was bidding on some years ago retail price $700.00 was bid up to over $1500.00 learned then you got some crazy folks on E-Bay

[ellenpjr]

It was obvious to me that the 'cheating' bidder had set their max bid at a ridiculous amount to ensure they won the auction. It was a second hand average ladies top worth probably around £20 and I set my final max bid as £100. My bids were rejected each time due to another bidder entering a max bid way in excess of the products worth. I personally will never use the auction process again as it is detrimental to both buyers and sellers.

[woodland_gnome]

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@ellenpjr wrote:

It was obvious to me that the 'cheating' bidder had set their max bid at a ridiculous amount to ensure they won the auction. It was a second hand average ladies top worth probably around £20 and I set my final max bid as £100. My bids were rejected each time due to another bidder entering a max bid way in excess of the products worth. I personally will never use the auction process again as it is detrimental to both buyers and sellers.

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Wait a minute, you are calling another bidder a "cheater" because you suspect that s/he is doing the EXACT SAME THING that you are admitting to doing?  You are bidding 100 pounds for something YOU value at 20 pounds!  Maybe the other bidder values it more than you do.

If your bids were "rejected each time" it was NOT "due to" the HIDDEN maximum bid of another bidder.  There are many possible reasons a bid will be rejected, and the ONLY reason that is related to what anyone else has bid is if it is not at least one increment more than the SHOWING "current bid" at the time the bid is received.  A HIDDEN maximum higher than your bid will NOT cause your bid to be "rejected", it will cause it to be OUTBID which is NOT the same thing.  Someone who has expressed his/her willingness to pay more for the item than YOU are willing to pay is not "cheating", s/he simply wants it more than you or has deeper pockets than you.  While s/he might be lying about how much s/he is willing to pay, it is not very likely as there is absolutely no need to do so:  s/he can simply bid the most s/he is willing to pay and it will have the same effect as bidding more unless someone else bids more than the most s/he is willing to pay.

[sly_kitten2018]

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@ellenpjr wrote:

It was obvious to me that the 'cheating' bidder had set their max bid at a ridiculous amount to ensure they won the auction. It was a second hand average ladies top worth probably around £20 and I set my final max bid as £100. My bids were rejected each time due to another bidder entering a max bid way in excess of the products worth. I personally will never use the auction process again as it is detrimental to both buyers and sellers.

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If they paid for the blouse, why is this a problem? they valued it more than you did if they were willing to pay that amount.  you did the exact same thing he did. his maximum bid could have been £101. yours was £100. but he's the cheat and you are not? that logic makes no sense. 

[ellenpjr]

No offence meant but you don't understand my concerns

[7606dennis]

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@ellenpjr wrote:

Maybe I am being naive but there surely must be a way to stop this nuclear bidding. I think there is a simple solution. Bidders should be asked for their minimum bid and then asked to place their maximum bid but the value they enter in this field should be restricted to (say) double their minimum bid. So if my bid is £5 I can only enter a maximum bid of up to £10. This would mean the bidder has to keep increasing their minimum and maximum bid as and when they are out bid. Surely this is a fairer process and gets rid of the clowns who create nuclear bids.

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There is no reason to stop nuke bidding.  The only problem that needs solving is that of non-paying bidders after the auction ends and this is not limited to auctions involving nuke bidding.  As long as the bidder is willing to pay for the item he has won, there is no problem.