Why do people bid so EARLY on Ebay?

[Simon Lloyd]

I'm curious on this one -

 

Why do people bid so early on Ebay?

 

I've spotted some great items lately - only to have a multitude of people bid from the onset.

 

What advantage does it give them? Do they have an unlimited pocket & not care?

 

 

[krissyfromswindon]

i supose it stops the seller from ending early if he thinks it aint going to reach a fair price

[Simon Lloyd]

Nope ... i'm with Richard on this one - it makes no sense! (& it makes my blood boil! )

 

An early bid because you are away etc. makes sense,

but when people start to have a bidding war ...

  ... when it's still got 6 days to run ,,

         ... its in no-ones best interest

                (apart from the seller)

 

 

[Simon Lloyd]

I'm not crying! ( Just discussing ... )

  & although it is every ebay bidders prerogative to bid when and how often they like ...

     ... it is NEVER in their best interest, if they truly want to buy an item,

        to enter a bidding war so far away from the and of the auction.

[Pete]

I place starting bids early to prevent the possibility of other buyers persuading sellers to end their auctions early and sell off ebay.....I then place stealth bids at 3 seconds before the auction ends.  More & more buyers are now in the habbit of bidding this way thinking they will snatch a bargain.....sometimes it works, sometimes not.  At the end of the day strength of competition wins irrespective of the pattern of bidding.....

[WeeboTech]

This is how I usually do it too.

Pete said:

I place starting bids early to prevent the possibility of other buyers persuading sellers to end their auctions early and sell off ebay.....I then place stealth bids at 3 seconds before the auction ends.  More & more buyers are now in the habbit of bidding this way thinking they will snatch a bargain.....sometimes it works, sometimes not.  At the end of the day strength of competition wins irrespective of the pattern of bidding.....

[WeeboTech]

>Thing is though, why put in your max bid days before the auction ends for some tool to just bid it up making it more expensive for yourself ?

 

In the end, the only thing that matters is who had the highest bid at auction end.

 

> I have seen on many occasions auctions bid up then mysteriously the bids have been retracted !

The price then drops. Unfortunately. it reveals what your maximim bid is/was.

 

> And if a seller gets a good offer for whatever it is they are selling they will end the auction regardless of bids !

This depends on the seller's desire for quick cash, vs gamble for high auction end vs their perceived fair price.

It's almost always been the sellers disadvantage to end auctions early unless the people involved provided close to or higher the fair market value.

Many times sellers have seen a flurry of bids or flurry of private offers only to realize they had something of significant value. They then choose for quick cash/perceived fair price or end of auction value. But allot of bidding activty usually alerts the seller of high interest and a good end of auction value.

 

[Arne]

I dont understand what all the fuss is about. I also bid early sometimes. Sometimes I do it, as already said, to prevent the seller from selling it off ebay (main reason for me), sometimes because I want my mobile to remind me 5 mins before it ends, so I dont have to watch all the time and sometimes the item is so desirable for me that I just dont give a ******* how much it costs in the end as long as I get it. Of course I never put my max bid at first...just enough to keep it interesting for the seller to leave the auction till it ends...and if I decide I really want it, I'll snipe it at the last seconds....just like I did with the red comet, richard. But if you complain about early bids why not about sniping....uhhh its sooo unfair, you think you're in the lead and 5 secs before ending BANG some ass snipes it....its all the same, if you cant live with it, stay off ebay. And btw, why are all politicians corrupt? isnt that way more interesting?

@richard: Most sellers do have a shred of honor left and leave auctions with bids. Had it often enough...first I made a deal off ebay then a bid came in and the deal was off...had this many times and never complained about it.

[EXPLETIVE DELETED BY WEEBOTECH]

[Pete]

Arnie....you don't wanna go there on this one....trust me.....lol !

kal el said:

And btw, why are all politicians corrupt? isnt that way more interesting?

[Pete]

Pee is a form of communication between dogs and may also be a form of comfort, providing familiarity, for dogs as well. Dogs do not mark territory so much as mark frequently those areas they frequent. If they spend time in an area or pass along a road or path frequently, they will mark those areas heavily.

Pee can communicate the age (young puppies versus adolescents versus adults for example especially in males) of a dog, sex, health, etc. It may be able to, in males, tell how tall a dog is. It should be able to tell how recently a dog passed this way.

Neutering a male dog can reduce the amount of marking, so maybe all early bidders should be neutered.....lol !!

George said:

why does a dog piss to mark its territory?

 

 

[krissyfromswindon]

you could if you wanted play a game of russian roulette and bid on something you dont really want to win to see how far you can push it until you bottle it, good news if your a seller lol

[WeeboTech]

That's pretty funny comparing eBay to gambling. It kinda hits home for me because it used to give me this heart pounding rush as I was bidding in the last few seconds. After a while I started to see this behavior and overbidding so I just used a service that would submit my highest bid at the last few moments. If I won I won, if I didn't I didn't. No more adrenaline rush and overbidding.  Only thing is, I was so good at estimating the value that I won about 98% of bids. It used to upset allot of people. 

After a while I learned to ignore the complaints about people's bidding habits.  It's an open market and it's fair to bid any value at any time.  There is no right way or wrong way. One man's garbage is another's gold. 

If every seller sold at a low value eventually people would stop listing things as the return on investment may not be worth the effort. 

[Jim]

I bid early to screw the BIN option, no other reason.  When I truly go for the win, I wait until the last 5 seconds.