What are the benefits of bidding early in an auction?

gosteelers

Other than possibly blocking the seller from pulling the auction/turning away bidders to ask the seller to end an auction early, does anyone see any possible benefit of bidding early and often in an auction? I realize everyone doesn't snipe, but, it seems silly to me to bid heavy before the last few hours/minutes of an auction. Feedback?

Mark

tennesseebanker

I agree steelers if you are bidding on highly sought after cards. But a lot of the time I bid on commons from sets that I am building that no-one else or hardly anyone else would want, Most of these auctions start out around 9.99 or so, not much more than anyone is going to give for the card. So if I am the first to put in a bid for such a card I feel it drives off other bidders who know the price of these cards is about what I am bidding so they move on.

Knuckles

I never use to bid early at all but I now do since two people have told me that they won't even bother bidding if they see me bidding on an autograph or whatever... not because I'll win no matter what but just because they're nice. I do the same for some friends, I won't bid if I see that they've already placed a bid.

duner

I bid early on items i don't think there's a demand for. the benefit for items like that is people pass on bidding and just wait for another one to pop up....also that way i don't forget to bid before the auction ends.

As for desireable items....only a fool bids early and often. But sometimes the heavy hitters put in early teaser bids to try and scare off competitors who know they don't have the cheese win a bidding war. But I'd say that backfires more often than it helps. I know I've put a couple of frustration bids on items because I was sick of being outbid by an individual....subsequently it cost that individual several hundred dollars more than if it wasn't known he was interested.

detroitfan2

I've noticed this rearreverendsporttrindleberg always bids early on high ticket 1955 Topps items. Not sure if he has the "friends won't outbid me" thing going on, but he doesn't seem to subscribe to the "snipe" theory.

NBAFan

I bid for the following reasons

1. So the seller doesn't raise starting price or cancel the auction due to no action.

2. If it is something I really want that has no "dollar" value I will place a decent size bid, but well below my max. IE: Willing to pay $500, will throw out a bid like $150-$200. I feel this helps weed out non serious bidders, those ones that always only place the minimum bid on an auction. IE: Certified Michael Jordan auto starting bid .99, and they will only bid .99

3. Finally, I hate it when there is no bids on one of my auctions until the last few minutes, so that is another reason why I bid early. I mean I really would have no reason to get upset when that happens to one of my auctions if I was doing the same thing to auctions I was going to bid on.

I really wish Ebay would use the same option yahoo auctions offer by extending your auction when a bid happens within the last 5 or 10 minutes, I can't remember which it is and exactly how long it is extended 5 or 10 more minutes. I think sellers would make a lot of more money due to people sniping at the last minute and having time to rebid due to the extended time and people would rethink how they would bid on auctions.

jmbkb4

<< <i>I never use to bid early at all but I now do since two people have told me that they won't even bother bidding if they see me bidding on an autograph or whatever... not because I'll win no matter what but just because they're nice. I do the same for some friends, I won't bid if I see that they've already placed a bid. >>


Mark, you've been nice to do this for me some, and I appreciate that!

Josh

detroitfan2

<<I really wish Ebay would use the same option yahoo auctions offer by extending your auction when a bid happens within the last 5 or 10 minutes, I can't remember which it is and exactly how long it is extended 5 or 10 more minutes. I think sellers would make a lot of more money due to people sniping at the last minute and having time to rebid due to the extended time and people would rethink how they would bid on auctions. >>

AMEN! For the life of me, I cannot figure out why ebay hasn't done this. More $ for the seller means more $ for ebay. I can't believe it would be that difficult to implement.

poppie

<< <i><<I really wish Ebay would use the same option yahoo auctions offer by extending your auction when a bid happens within the last 5 or 10 minutes, I can't remember which it is and exactly how long it is extended 5 or 10 more minutes. I think sellers would make a lot of more money due to people sniping at the last minute and having time to rebid due to the extended time and people would rethink how they would bid on auctions. >> >>

I Also agree that the auctions should continue until there are no bids for ie 5 minutes. Sure would get the Snippers out of the closet!

gosteelers

Josh,
No problem, buddy!

DetroitFan,
I just think that sways everything in the seller's favor so much, it's almost unfair.

Mark