[78-L] Auctions vs. "Make offer"

[Steven C. Barr]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Taylor Bowie" <bowiebks at isomedia.com>
> I think we've discussed this before,  but one of the advantages of eBay is
> that they are real auctions,  in that your bid is automatically increased 
> in
> fixed amounts as others bid against you,  and you don't always end up 
> paying
> your full "bid" as you do on some of the lists mentioned below (Nauck is a
> major and most welcome exception to that).
>
> Most of the paper lists are not really auctions,  but are "make offer"
> lists.  If Cecil  says he'll pay $15 and Jerry says he'll pay $35,  Jerry
> ends up paying $35.  On a real auction,  if these were the  two highest
> bids,   Jerry would only pay approx. $16.
>
Here I beg to differ! I grew up in central Illinois, and during the early 
70's
I attended a "farm auction" virtually every week-end. These are/were "real
auctions," and the winning high bidder paid whatever his winning bid was!
At one in particular, there was a 1938 State Farm road atlas which I really
wanted...so when it came up I bid ten bucks right off the top! Nobody
wanted to beat that (or they figured there was no point in trying to out-bid
me?!)...so I bought it for my $10!

In fact, that was one of my "strategies"...if I REALLY wanted something,
I'd start my bidding off with a higher-than-expected figure! In a very few
cases, there would be someone else with the same "want" and we would
go back and forth at this level.However,I was also known by area
auctioneers as "that guy who will ALWAYS bid a quarter on ANY box
of junk"...to the point that they would say, "Okeh, a quarter!" and look
right at me expectantly! These boxes were usually stuff from the kitchen-
cabinet drawers, dumped into a pasteboard box...I bought a lot of useful
old-style kitchen odds & ends that way...!

...stevenc