eBay testing extended bidding for auctions

[Blazed]

Originally Posted by rwperu34

One more thing to add to the "con" side of the ledger here. One of the tradeoffs here will be less sniping, but more shilling. That is a bad tradeoff, IMO. A snipe is an honest bid with intent to pay. A shill is a dishonest bid with no intent to pay.

I'd also expect more buyers remorse from this system, as the reason for adding the two minutes is so people will bid with emotion and go over the max they are comfortable with.

Now you're concerned about shilling

Everyone bids with emotion, 2 min extension or not

Just say the 2 min extension inconveniences you and cuts into your potential profit

Don't hide behind "oh but shilling"

[rwperu34]

Originally Posted by prospectorgems

I still think sniping will work but it's more so going to work out on the max bid side of things. I don't think we ever got any feedback if the auction is going to continue to extend to 2 minutes each time a bid is placed. In theory it should because just extending it once doesn't make much sense. As long as the auction is live, if you are using a snipe service it should fire off each time the auction is nearing its end and will continue to fire off until you are the high bidder and auction ends.

As a buyer, this could potentially suck, but as a seller I am all for it if it means that auction prices will end higher. I am however skeptical if the auction prices will in fact end in a higher sale as you still need people's eyes on it.

I know as a buyer myself and when I am researching I see super low sales and I kick myself for not seeing that auction at that time but with so many cards listed and at various times it's nearly impossible to find everything especially if your range is very wide.

There are a few ways I think the auction prices will end higher.

1. You have a couple of snipers battling it out and if it does extend the auction two minutes at a time, those snipes should keep firing until one of the snipers highest price maxes out and the other one wins.

2. As several else had mentioned; shillers. The seller may see their auctions are being extended and keep bidding on their own item to keep driving up the price. With how bad ebay's AI system is, it has become nearly impossible to report the shillers anymore.

3. Some rando pops on or comes home from work to see a card is ending and places a bid and keeps driving up the price. A lot of the bad sellers end auctions during the "9-5" work day or ending late at night when most people are in bed since they need to work the next day. These are typically the times when the auctions get the lowest sales.

As a seller, I hope it does in fact drive prices up and then when potential buyers refer to "comps" (which drives me nuts) maybe the sale prices will be more accurate, but this could also result in a lot more non-pays too as if the prices are higher than someone really wanted, they may just decide not to pay because extending the bidding may have been more of a game to them.

re: 1-In theory the two snipes should already be at max bid, so they should not keep firing.

I'd also expect more buyer's remorse returns.

[rwperu34]

Originally Posted by Blazed

Now you're concerned about shilling

Everyone bids with emotion, 2 min extension or not

Just say the 2 min extension inconveniences you and cuts into your potential profit

Don't hide behind "oh but shilling"

So we're going to ignore tradeoffs now? Trading honest bids for dishonest bids is not a good deal, IMO.

No, not everyone bids with emotion. For example, me. I would expect prospectorgems and premium1981 are similar in their bidding strategy. We know the price we want to pay, we put in the bid, and forget about it. That is the same whether we put in the bid on the first day or at the last second. There is zero emotion whatsoever. I am literally working from a spreadsheet.

[prospectorgems]

Originally Posted by rwperu34

re: 1-In theory the two snipes should already be at max bid, so they should not keep firing.

I'd also expect more buyer's remorse returns.

With snipes you are at max but it will still bid to the next increment. If you are dueling with another sniper I would think that each just keeps getting a bid increment placed (depending on auction amount could be $1 to $5 each time) till one finally hits the highest max amount that is higher than the other sniper. That is of course if the auction keeps extending a minute or two each time a new bid is placed.

[rwperu34]

Originally Posted by prospectorgems

With snipes you are at max but it will still bid to the next increment. If you are dueling with another sniper I would think that each just keeps getting a bid increment placed (depending on auction amount could be $1 to $5 each time) till one finally hits the highest max amount that is higher than the other sniper. That is of course if the auction keeps extending a minute or two each time a new bid is placed.

Right now the way it works is it goes one bid above the 2nd bidder's max. For example, if an auction is at $50 and my max is $100, it places my bid at $100 even though the price only rises to $51. Then if another sniper has a max bid of $150, it will go from $51 to $102.50. So that would only be a 4 minute extenstion. For someone to push it up from there they would need to be physically watching the auction and place a manual bid.

[prospectorgems]

Originally Posted by rwperu34

Right now the way it works is it goes one bid above the 2nd bidder's max. For example, if an auction is at $50 and my max is $100, it places my bid at $100 even though the price only rises to $51. Then if another sniper has a max bid of $150, it will go from $51 to $102.50. So that would only be a 4 minute extenstion. For someone to push it up from there they would need to be physically watching the auction and place a manual bid.

Oh yes, I stand corrected, you are right. In theory should still work as long as like you said, it would be up to someone to physically be watching to place that manual bid and then snipes would no longer be in play.

It will be interesting to see once ebay puts this in place if auctions do in fact increase in price or if this has an adverse effect.

[Blazed]

Originally Posted by rwperu34

So we're going to ignore tradeoffs now? Trading honest bids for dishonest bids is not a good deal, IMO.

No, not everyone bids with emotion. For example, me. I would expect prospectorgems and premium1981 are similar in their bidding strategy. We know the price we want to pay, we put in the bid, and forget about it. That is the same whether we put in the bid on the first day or at the last second. There is zero emotion whatsoever. I am literally working from a spreadsheet.

If that's the case then extended bidding is a moot point

[RustyGreerFan]

I just experienced it for the first time...

There was a Teoscar 1/1 with a bad grade ending at auction with no bids and a $25 starting bid. I typed in my bid and was going to wait until the last ten seconds to submit it. I got distracted and just as the clock hit zero I sent my bid. Too late, or so I thought. I believe it was one minute, and not two, that was added. I'm not completely sure on that, though.

Someone had placed an opening bid very late, and I don't know if it was their bid or mine that triggered it. My bid was $35. With under ten seconds to go someone bid three more times in small increments as the price kept rising. But when it hit zero that was it and I was still the high bid. No more time added even with the flurry of activity at the end, although technically it was the second end. I wonder if things would have gone differently had they OUTBID my bid. Or if it simply can only get extended once.

This was harder to explain that I was expecting, so if anyone wants clarification, LMK.

[Chris P]

I just dealt with my first auction on ebay with extended bidding and honestly think I got a nice deal on a 1992-93 Total D Jordan PSA 7. I won it for $64. Seen comps over $100 for it in that grade

[Showtime430]

So question. How would one know what items are being tested for this 2 minute extension feature as I just placed a bid with 3 minutes left and i was high bidder, counter goes down to the final seconds and someone bids higher than me and auction ends.

So how would one tell which items are in this program, is there a notation on the listing itself? An Icon of some sorts, or are we just blind to what items are being included in this pilot program?

[3124508 on COMC]

Originally Posted by Showtime430

So question. How would one know what items are being tested for this 2 minute extension feature as I just placed a bid with 3 minutes left and i was high bidder, counter goes down to the final seconds and someone bids higher than me and auction ends.

So how would one tell which items are in this program, is there a notation on the listing itself? An Icon of some sorts, or are we just blind to what items are being included in this pilot program?

I haven’t seen any extended auction but it’s possible that it’s because I’m a poor and don’t bid on 4 figure actions.

[Chris P]

Originally Posted by 3124508 on COMC

I haven’t seen any extended auction but it’s possible that it’s because I’m a poor and don’t bid on 4 figure actions.

I only experieced it the one time and it waa on the MJ I talked about above which was a sub $100 card. Haven't seen any since

[Showtime430]

Originally Posted by Chris P

I only experieced it the one time and it waa on the MJ I talked about above which was a sub $100 card. Haven't seen any since

Did you notice any indicators that acknowledged that this was an auction that had the extended 2 minutes? Just curious as their algorithm seems all over the place and doesn't seem to be applied to a large base that one would see in a normalized testing phase being that it has been in place for a few months now.