a question about illogical ebay bids (1 Viewer)

[andrew markworthy]

A few times I've put in bids on ebay on items where I know that I can buy them from another etailer for a particular set price. I thus, sensibly enough, I think, have fixed my maximum bid at around that particular price (why bid more when you know you can buy it for less?). I've then watched, slack-jawed with amazement, as idiots have bidded way over that set price, and have ended up paying twice or more what the item is worth.

I'm new to ebay, but I guess this happens all the time. Why do people do it? Don't they check the market value of items before bidding? I should stress that I'm talking here about items which are readily available (books, CDs, etc) where a few seconds search on a search engine would tell you how much etailers are charging for the same items.

 

[BrianB]

They don't check the market value. They believe listings of it being RARE! They get caught up in the frenzy of bidding, forgetting to place limits on what they spend to ensure they get a fair deal.

Kids sometimes pay over the odds for items on ebay because they can easily pay by money order etc instead of having to pay by credit card with online retailers.

There's also the overriding reason for a lot of things: there's a lot of dumb people in the world.

 

[Ashley Seymour]

Perhaps that is why the comment you often read "serious bidders only." or This is relisted because previous bidder bailed, etc.

 

[andrew markworthy]

Of course what these jackasses are doing is pushing up prices for all of us. In their rush to buy without checking the correct values they're guaranteeing that *everybody* (including themselves, of course)pays more than they should because the total effect is to inflate costs.

 

[Marvin]

I don't know why people do this other than stupidity and it annoys me sometimes...except when it occurs on one of my auctions.

 

[Jeff Kleist]

Haha, tell it like it is Martin
And many people on Ebay ARE stupid. And it's great when they're stupid in your favor

 

[Jim_F]

Then there's the fraudulent practice where one bidder puts in a "lowball" bid, quickly followed by a partner with an excessive bid which is subsequently cancelled.

I'm glad I learned of that scam before trying to sell some worthwhile items without setting a minimum.

 

[KirkA]

ebay is definitely a sellers market. There's always some moron with 0 or 1 transaction that has to jack up the price days before the auction is over.

 

[Travis Olson]

That has always pissed me off as well. It's hard to believe some people are really that retarded.

 

[JasenP]

People have overpaid 75% of the time when I have sold DVDs on eBay. It's usually three to four dollars above and beyond what I paid for it new!!! Who pays the "suggested retail price"?

 

[Malcolm R]

Who pays the "suggested retail price"?

The same people who shop at stores like Suncoast, FYE, Sam Goody, Media Play, etc., and keep them in business. :rolleyes
When "Lord of the Rings" was released, I witnessed an actual line of people at FYE just waiting to fork over their $22.99 for the DVD, while right next door at Wal-Mart it was selling for $18.49. NEXT DOOR! Nearly $5 less! Some people have money to burn, apparently.

 

[John Thomas]

If there were some sort of way to reach out to everyone and tell them NOT to offer more than $X for a particular item...but then, that still takes a bit of effort on the part of the consumer.

I've noticed this issue in regards to CPU components, in particular. Motherboards, ram, processors...it doesn't matter what it is, most people end up bidding on average of 15-20% more than what they would normally have to.

 

[Matt Gordon]

I think the competition aspect of the auction has a lot to do with it as well... some people just don't like to "lose" an auction!

 

[Michael*K]

Man, I love when people pay way over market value on eBay for my auctions. In fact, I go out of my way to embellish my listings by using descriptive words like "RARE!" or "One of a Kind!" Hardly true, but there's always some sucker willing to believe it, get caught up the the excitement of the moment and pay me top dollar. Hell, I just sold a broken DVD player a few weeks ago that I mentioned was "Unique" and "Cutting Edge" in 1998. Some guy actually paid $50 for it. Beats throwing it in the trash pile.

 

[John Berggren]

Then there's the fraudulent practice where one bidder puts in a "lowball" bid, quickly followed by a partner with an excessive bid which is subsequently cancelled.

How does this work? Since someone else would have to bid in the meantime to get the excessive bid to activate, then shouldn't that person be next in line and not the lowball?

I guess you could stop offering it to "the next person in line" at a dollar value. There is, afterall, only one winner, one contract.

What I hate are the dogs that sit on an auction until it's 20 seconds from closing. Since Ebay doesn't extend auctions when bidding continues up until the moment of closing, you can't get a rebid in time before you get pooched out of what you've been the winner on for 5 days.

 

[Brian Bunn]

Well, the dude that bought the DVD player will probably fix it for nothing and resell it on ebay for $150! He may be a Mr. Fix It type and searches ebay for "broken" equipment, fixes them for practically nothing then resells them. Most consumer electronic equipment can be fixed rather easily if you know what you are doing. You can probably bring in a good bit of spending $$$ doing that sort of thing on ebay.

But I agree...many do overbid on ebay.

 

[Dave Sabo]

I think the competition aspect of the auction has a lot to do with it as well... some people just don't like to "lose" an auction!

I'll second that... I've been known to get caught up in a "bidding war"

 

[andrew markworthy]

I think the competition aspect of the auction has a lot to do with it as well... some people just don't like to "lose" an auction!

I agree, I guess. You see that sort of thing in 'normal' auctions, where it's a 'heat of the moment' kind of thing. I can also understand this emotion overwhelming rational thought in the last couple of minutes of an ebay auction. However, I've seen people put in dumbass bids *days* before an ebay auction was due to end (and just to re-iterate from my original post, for something which could be easily found at another etailer for sale at a fixed price for considerably less).
The only way I've found to cope with this is to decide on my maximum price (typically 80 per cent of the market value), put in my bid and not look again until the auction's over. If I get it, great, if I don't then I have the satisfaction of knowing that some jackass has overpaid.
Yesterday I got lucky and got something at my first asking price (about 50 per cent under its market value ).

 

[EugeneR]

Having just concluded an auction today, I wholeheartedly agree that people do overbid, God bless 'em! That being said, on rare occasion you do find a bargain, but it is a rare occasion indeed.

 

[Seth Paxton]

The point of the lowball/highball bid tag-team is that the highball will cancel his bid at the end, handing the product back to his lowball partner.

By highballing until the end the guy has basically shielded his lowball partner's price from bidding competition.

So you have something worth $100. I bid $5, then my partner would bid $1000. Everyone else sees that price and moves on to other auctions. At the last minute he retracts and I get it for $5.

This is why you have to set a minimum price...and why Ebay needs to closely monitor the retraction practice. Even with a minimum price 2 guys could do this to ensure that they ONLY paid the min price.


You have to be very suspicious of some of those auctions you see since you don't really know just what cash really finally exchanged hands.


But then there are buyers who overbuy the market for real. I think the explanations given above say it all, like that FYE/KMart example.