The best way to run a REAL live auction!!!

[sunstreaker]

So I was thinking about this and when your in a live auction against another person and your getting down to the last few bids it gets quiet and the auctioneer slows down the whole process really slows down and in those precious few last bids things really get crazy right!  So the key here is a live auctioneer in the last 5 seconds of the item ending an auctioneer will actually slow down the bidding and with all these esnipe programs there is simply not enough time to really get the auction going properly in those precious last seconds, and I always receive emails from people asking me to sell them the item for a bit more.  So i was thinking if there were a special auctioneers auction where say within the last 5 seconds if 2 or more people bid the auction would automatically run for an additional 5 seconds or something, wouldn't that be cool!

[ymeagainlord]

Goodness me.

You really think no-one has EVER suggested this before?

[takikawa4]

Except eBay isn' a live auction. It's an auction with a start and end time. And hiring a real, live auctioneer for every single auction eBay has up is not only unrealistic but undoable.

[ymeagainlord]

Added to which eBay already has auctioneers running their own Live Auctions section on eBay

[sunstreaker]

No your missing the point I'm saying keep it automated just if two or more people bid with in the last 5 seconds, the clock would reset for and aditional 5 seconds everytime and so on theoretically the auction could take hours to end. 

[ymeagainlord]

No, I'm NOT missing the point. I know exactly what you're saying (lord knows it's been said here so many times before - you're not the first)

Yahoo auctions tried extended auctions and they are no longer in the auction game.

As a seller I don't want my auction times extended. I want to know when an auction will end.

[luckythewinner]

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@retrorewindtoysandthreads wrote:

So the key here is a live auctioneer in the last 5 seconds of the item ending an auctioneer will actually slow down the bidding 

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OP, 

A live auction ends when no one else bids. The auctioneer doesn't control when people raise their paddles, so he has no idea when the last 5 seconds of an auction happen until after they have already passed.  

What you are really saying is that a live auction with an auctioneer is fundamentally different than an online auction with an ending time set by a clock. I think everyone will agree on that. 

Other auction sites have implemented what you suggest, and I'm sure eBay is well aware of the idea. But eBay has never shown any interest in trying to make their site behave like a live auction. 

Unlucky

[hawgryders]

Many other sites use a extended end time system --- they are terrible if you are interested in multiple items that close near the same time

Easy solution: put in your maximum proxy bid & go to the beach --- when you return look to see the results

If you did not "win" then someone else valued it more ...

[fuzzface50]

"wouldn't that be cool!"

No, it wouldn't be. i would leave as a seller if they did this.   even as a buyer, i try to avoid sites that use them.

[the*dog*ate*my*tablecloth]

If you get emails from people asking you to sell for more, I can guarantee you would get emails telling you they missed the end of YOUR auction because they were stuck bidding on someone elses.

People aren't here as some kind of game, they're here to win stuff. I don't want to have to be around at the end of every auction I want to bid on. What if I have to go to the bathroom in the 9 hours the auction is extended?

Auction extensions encourage people to bid less because they can always bid again at the end. Unless they forget or are in the bathroom. Hard ending times encourage people to bid their max.

An important consideration that you seem to have missed. Many snipers would quit buying on Ebay altogether and THAT would drop auction ending prices. I guarantee it.

[fern*wood]

I know who would really get a kick out of this feature -- bored teenagers.  They could "play" this game all night and laugh when one finally wins, and of course, doesn't pay.

[rednarlenes]

Gunbroker does that and they are a huge successful auction site with very low fees compared to ebay.

[redbud_farm]

Op, I've been going to "life's auctions for around 50 years. No auctioneer lasts long by "slowing down" or begging for bids.

Most good auctioneersbkniw time is money and drop the hammer at the first sign of a lag in bidding. If you drag out things , people leave.

At a local estate auction a few years ago a new auctioneer milked every single item.. by half way through the auction 2/3 of bidders had left. By the end as he continued to milk the bidders for bids there were just a couple bidders and me.

He lost that estate lots of $$$ and lots of com.isions.


On eBay you have a set time frame. You bid your max inside that time frame, if you get the item fine , if not then you find another.

[virtualwhimsy]

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@ymeagainlord wrote:
Goodness me.

You really think no-one has EVER suggested this before?

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As there are new threads about this every week - I'm betting there are tons of people who don't know that this has EVER been suggested before.

[blackbird*singing]

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@redbud_farm wrote:

On eBay you have a set time frame. You bid your max inside that time frame, if you get the item fine , if not then you find another.

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^^ This. eBay is structured to have a set ending time and people who use the site are aware of that. If people are sending you coulda shoulda wouldas after an auction ends, then that is how they learn they need to put in the max they are willing to pay before the clock runs out.

P.S. Can you imagine the server issues if auction ending times were continuously dragged out? eBay has too high a volume of listings for that and enough site issues they haven't fixed yet.