[78-L] Little bitty bids and bidders

[Taylor Bowie]

As a frequent bidder on eBay,  I am often amazed at seeing what I call step 
bidding.  Say for example that I see a record I really want which starts at 
$4.99 and I bid $102.  So for the time being I "have" it at the starting 
amount of $4.99  A second bidder comes along and wants it...and many times 
I'll watch these people first bid $8 and then $10 and then $11 and then 
$13.50...on and on and on,  many times within an hour...finally they get up 
to $35 and give up,  but they've made a dozen or more separate bids!!

I mean...do they really want the record?  And if so,  don't they start out 
with some concept of what they want to pay for it?

Yesterday I was able to score the Earl Burtnett Blue Wax Columbia I was 
missing.  Early in the day I put a fat bid on it...and a couple hours later 
I put one more extra-fat bid on it.

During the last two minutes a couple of bidders drove my bid up about eight 
times in these short amounts.

Why not just decide what you want to pay,  bid,  and leave it at that?

If any of you use that step bidding technique,  I'd just like to know why, 
as it rarely works.

Taylor


----- Original Message ----- 
From: <neechevoneeznayou at gmail.com>
To: "78-L Mail List" <78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
Sent: Monday, January 18, 2010 11:45 AM
Subject: Re: [78-L] Buffalo Bill Berliner sells for $6200


> yes I did look, but thanks for your analysis, some things I had not
> realized brought to my attention
>
> So you would not bid at something even if you really really wanted it
> badly? just because you would have to pay what you were willing to pay,
> even tho someone else would have paid much less?
>
> Not me. I bid what I am willing to pay if I want something bad enough,
> then I pay that amount
>
> I don't bid what I am not willing to pay, altho I see that I could lose
> something by not taking a chance and bidding way above a current bid
>
> joe salerno
>
>
> Michael Biel wrote:
>
>>  I am no longer willing to bid on auctions where I am charged my maximum
>> bid even though the next highest bidder (if any) was willing to pay much
>> less.  So Nauck and eBay are about all I do.
>
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