[78-L] Bitty bids, big bids, and batty bids

[David Lennick]

Snipe or be sniped. Eat or be eaten.

dl

Taylor Bowie wrote:
> Mike B asks some good questions,  and I think this is an enjoyable topic to 
> chat about,  so here are my replies to some of his thoughts:
> 
> 1.  I'm not always around at the last minute to place a bid.  And for some 
> reason,  I'm just not comfortable with setting up snipes...not sure why, 
> that's just me!
> 2.  On occasion,  I change my mind and raise my bid...esp. if I get a chance 
> to hear the record after I placed my first bid and I decide I want it more 
> than I'd thought before.  ON Sunday,  I had the chance to play the other 
> Burtnett Blue Wax,  and the more I listened,  the more I figured I wanted 
> the one being auctioned on Sunday.
> 3.  When I raise my bid,  I don't do so in teeny-weenie amounts,  but 
> usually by a pretty good whack.
> 4.  The people I'm curious about are the ones who site at the computer and, 
> in ten steps,  raise their bid from $4.99 to $15.99.
> 5.  As far as paying "too much" that doesn't happen to me.  If I say I'm 
> willing to pay a hundred bucks for something,  I'm happy to do so.  If I 
> don't win the record,  I don't really care.  I'd say I'm either the winning 
> bidder or the first underbidder on most of the auctions I bid on...that fact 
> has helped me develop very good relations with several auctioneers from whom 
> I also buy wonderful bargains off-list.  So if I pay "too much" on one day 
> for something,  the next week I may very well get something very nice at a 
> give-away price...which evens things out nicely.
> 
> So,  by my measure,  my technique pays off in spades!
> 
> 
> Taylor
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Michael Biel" <mbiel at mbiel.com>
> To: "78-L Mail List" <78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
> Sent: Monday, January 18, 2010 3:23 PM
> Subject: Re: [78-L] Little bitty bids and bidders
> 
> 
>> From: neechevoneeznayou at gmail.com
>>> I typically bid at the last minnit so that I don't
>>> drive something up.
>> I ALWAYS bid in the last seconds.  Always.  Never in any other fashion.
>> I have done it hundreds and hundreds of times and win 90% of the time.
>>
>>> ..and if someone wants an item for many more times than I am willing
>>> to pay, they can have it. Or I adjust my expectation.  joe salerno
>> I only lose if someone puts in a higher bid, but in my successful
>> technique they never go back to put in a second higher bid if I top
>> them.  In Taylor's technique, they do because you have forced them to
>> step bid because you topped them early.
>>
>>> Taylor Bowie wrote:
>>>> 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!!
>>
>> Which means that now you have paid $36 for a record you could have
>> gotten for $8.50. You have established that you are willing to pay $102
>> for it, but have put your bid in early.  Along comes a step-bidder who
>> puts in a bid of $8 but your early bid tops him and he keeps going.  If
>> you had waited, his $8.00 bid would not have been topped and he would
>> have been satisfied and not bid again.  Then you sweep in at the last
>> second and put in your $102 bid and get it for $8.50.  Sure, if he had
>> bid $35 the first time you would get it at $36 like before, but he
>> didn't and YOU FORCED him to make YOU PAY MORE!  That's dumb!!!  If he
>> had bid $100 it would have cost you $101, but you were willing to chance
>> it.
>>
>> I agree that step bidding is dumb.  I agree that two other bidders
>> stepping each other up is dumber.  Which is why I don't do it.  But what
>> is the dumbest technique of all is putting in a high bid early and
>> forcing the step bidding!!!!!!!!!  If there is only one step bidder, you
>> get it for the increment above his first bid.  If there are two or more
>> step bidders you still get it when they give up.  But they might give up
>> sooner.
>>
>>>> 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?
>> Which brings up another point, Taylor.  Do you ever go back and up your
>> early bid when you are outbid?  If so, YOU are a step bidder!!!
>>
>>>> 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.
>> Ah ha!!!
>>
>>>> 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?
>> DID YOU?????  After all, YOU put in "one more extra-fat bid on it"!!!
>> (Actually, I see two you did.)  Maybe they would have kept going anyway,
>> but your high bid added an extra amount every time they bid.  That made
>> the steps bigger and bigger and bigger.  Surely you ended up paying more
>> this way than you had to.  Click on "Show Automatic Bids" and you will
>> see every extra amount that you added to the total that YOU paid!  If it
>> is the record I am seeing (Columbia 2922-D) the winner caused eleven
>> automatic bids of $2.50 which potentially added $27.50 to the steps!
>> The number two bidder started out at $19.99.  Of course there were two
>> other bidders, but if it were just the two of you, wouldn't it have been
>> nice to have gotten that record at $20.49 instead of $214.50?
>>
>>>> If any of you use that step bidding technique, I'd just like
>>>> to know why,  as it rarely works.   Taylor
>> Gee, Taylor, if you look at the automatic bids, YOU are the step
>> bidder!!!  Automatic topping bids are step bids.
>>
>> Mike (successful sniper and proud of it) Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com
>>
>>