Nibble bidding

[*madison]

what is the point?

So, last night before I went to bed, I placed a bid on an auction, I don't like auctions, but I want the item, it's unique.

When I looked at the listing today, a bidder has nibble bid 33 times and then finally outbid me.

33 TIMES?

Why not just place one big fat max bid?  

Oh, I know I've been outbid, but my nuke bid will be fired in the last few seconds.

[divwido]

Would Some people are stupid suffice?

[readabouthorses]

It is the thrill of the hunt ... hoping to beat you and get it for just one teeny bit more and get that winning feeling of success. LOL

[divwido]

That feeling of sucess?   "I"ve wasted three hours trying to figure out this person's bid and I FINALLY GOT IT"    I wonder if they bid in even increments.

[bsarafian]

Is it possible they had a proxy bid?  Ex. Item has a current bid of $20.00, I' really like that item so I go to bid and enter a max bid of $40.00.  Ebay won't immediately jump the bidding to $40, they'll increase my bids in increments enough to beat whoever else may be bidding against me until I hit my max bid.  Depending how much activity is going on it might appear that I'm nibbling away a few small bids at a time when I did in fact place a good max bid right at the beginning.

[lintbrush*]

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@bsarafian wrote:

Is it possible they had a proxy bid?  Ex. Item has a current bid of $20.00, I' really like that item so I go to bid and enter a max bid of $40.00.  Ebay won't immediately jump the bidding to $40, they'll increase my bids in increments enough to beat whoever else may be bidding against me until I hit my max bid.  Depending how much activity is going on it might appear that I'm nibbling away a few small bids at a time when I did in fact place a good max bid right at the beginning.

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Nope.  If madison placed a higher proxy bid and then the other bidder came along with a higher maximum bid, it would be a one jump.   

[jennzet-0]

I am guilty of nibble bidding but no where close to making 33 bids.

I do this when I am not sure exactly how much I want to spend on the item or if I really want it.  So I do not want to bid too high all at once.

[southern*sweet*tea]

Some people have too much time on their hands I guess.

I'm lazy, I just bid my max once lol

[etacarina11]

When I first came to Ebay didn't know much about online auctions and would bet multiple times in one bet increments till I was the leader and then another 2 & 3 times once I had the lead and hope that would scare others from bidding....it didn't and I would lose ....now i'm a sniper these days and program a snipe 7 seconds before the end of a auction one bet at the maximum of what the item is worth to me and win my share auctions at prices the are acceptable to me.

[mikeystoyz]

Ha, I beat you, I have a 5 Second lead 🙂

[etacarina11]

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@mikeystoyz wrote:

Ha, I beat you, I have a 5 Second lead 🙂

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Only if you bid more.

[dustythings]

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@etacarina11 wrote:
now i'm a sniper these days and program a snipe 7 seconds before the end of a auction one bet at the maximum of what the item is worth to me and win my share auctions at prices the are acceptable to me.

7 seconds. HA HA HA Be a man, I used to set my sniper program to bid 4 seconds, 5 seconds if I really wanted an item. And I set the program to check the time every minute with the atomic clock, and to NOT check the time when in the final minute of an auction. 

All that aside, that's back when I used to bid on auctions. But with the popularity of Buy It Now, my understanding from when I read about 12 years ago, BIN is used by 97% of seller listings. Auctions are that unpopular. I hear that. 

For the last 15 years or so if I see an item is listed in an auction format I don't bother with it, I move on. I don't have the time to waste with auctions, and truth be told, IMO if someone is listing stuff in an auction format I consider them either an inexperienced or problem seller, because any experienced seller knows better than to list items in an auction format. 

P.S. Is this post accurate, that someone was complaining about an item where the value was about $20? I thought they were talking about something for $500, like a replica of King Tut's golden mask 🙂

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[mudshark61369]

@dustythings,

   "Is this post accurate, that someone was complaining about an item where the value was about $20? I thought they were talking about something for $500, like a replica of King Tut's golden mask".

The person who started this topic never mentioned a price, The 4th person to respond gave an example using a $20 figure.  Even then, if the bidding started at .99cents, Yes 33 single increments bids could be used. At that level of bidding it would take 16 - .25c bids to get the price to $4.99 where the bid increment increases to .50c. from there it would take 30 more bids to raise the price to $20.  That is what is so ridiculous about nibble bidders.  They'll spend an inordinate amount of time bidding, and more often than not , they lose any way.

Current Price Bid Increment

$0.01–$0.99 =  $0.05

$1.00–$4.99 =  $0.25

$5.00–$24.99 =   $0.50

$25.00–$99.99 = $1.00

@*madison,

What would be even more ridiculous at this point would be, if the bidder retracted their bids later to day.  I've got an auction running for 4 more days that has 26 watchers and 3 nibblers who have only raised the price by $8 since day 2. 

[etacarina11]

one of the best most experienced seller I know runs mostly auctions over 500 on a given day and they do quiet well for themselves. Biding within 7 seconds left is adequate if you want to snipe in the last couple seconds your still going to have to outbid me too win.....and if you do win it means you payed to much for it in my mind. Ill move on to the next auction and will win the item i want sooner or later at a price thats good for me. I don't snipe just to win but to win and get value for my money.

[*madison]

P.S. Is this post accurate, that someone was complaining about an item where the value was about $20? I thought they were talking about something for $500, like a replica of King Tut's golden mask 🙂

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So, it appears you haven't read my post?