Question - why would anyone bid xx.99??

gregm13

I've seen this before, but why would anyone bid xx.99? My high bid on an auction is $6 and a few cents and someone bid 5.99. To me that seems suspicious, that someone is trying to bid up the item without winning it. Any thoughts?

Regards,

Greg M.

tennesseebanker

Your max bid is $6 ? How would they know that ? They cant see your max bid.

scooter729

I bet a lot of the xx.99 bids could be shills - not wanting to become the top bidder, but hoping to jack up the price as much as possible. Esp. if you see multiple bids by one new bidder, all ending in .99.

Or it could just be bidding by new bidders who don't know what they're doing....

Griffins

I've seen that before, someone is try to push the bids up to a logical level, without having to win the item. It's like when you see a bid of 99.99
Would you bid that if you were trying to really win the card? Even 100. is suspect. If you want the item, you'll bid 103.54, or you'll go over 105.
It's either shilling or keeping the value up on something they already own. That is pretty common, especially on rarer cards. Can you say Toleteros Gibson?

earlycalguy

sounds okay to me. maybe the person looking at your bid of $6 and some cents is thinking your's looks funny because it's not $6.25. when i put in a bid i randomly enter how many cents.

Onlypsahockey

I agree with Cal.

I bid random. If I want to get something for $75.00 I may bid $77.78.

$125.00 I may bid $131.31 etc.

I bid whatever I feel like typing when I set my snipes.

I've bid $xxx.99 on many occasions and have won.

Sorry but I don't think there's a conspiracy here.

JMO, Bob C.

onlyanumber

Yeah, I'll admit bidding xx.97 or xx.98 or xx.99 many times. I typically do it early on to gauge what the bidding is like on said item. If it looks like the high bidder is stagnant at an even price (like a 6.00) then I know If I might have a bidding war on my hands or not. I will say, I don't believe in doing that practice as a sniping tactic however. If I'm going to do it, I intend on winning the item or at least putting up a fight for it.

athleticsfan

Sometimes I do that. For example if there is a card that I know I can get for under $40 I will be bid $39.99. I figure if someone bids $40 or even $40.01 they just wanted the card a little bit more than me and I'll wait for the next one.

GDM67

Glad to see I'm not the only one who uses whimsical, off the cuff amounts of cents over the dollar figure.

HoofHearted

Greg,

I'm partial (superstitious?) towards using the four numbers of my birthyear as bid amounts -- and none of them is "0", so I put all kinds of odd-numbered bids in.

Quirky, but it works for me!

iamthegreatcornholio

I went through a phase where I only bid in palidrones... i.e. 13.31, 256.52

LWMM

I'll often bid like that to try and figure out what the top bid is, and then decide if I want to win it or not. Not a great idea, perhaps, but it works for me.

Stone193

<< <i>I went through a phase where I only bid in palidrones... i.e. 13.31, 256.52 >>


Brian

I like to do things like that also.

Furthermore, serial numbered dollars that are palindromes are marketable - so keep an eye out!

Also, did anyone ever realize that the only palindrome for the 20th century was 1991 - WE were there.

The only palindrome for the 21st century is 2002 - We were there!

On whether there is potential shill bidding?

Sure - why not.

It's much more sexy to talk about conspiracies - collusion - shill bidding than mere coincidence.

mike

iamthegreatcornholio

I agree Mike!

Speaking of conspiracy, it appears as if poor elvis has stopped bidding on cards after the night he lost every high-dollar auction

XanaduNow

The only thing I can figure is that people come up with a dollar amount in their head as far as what they're willing to pay for an item. Some people assume a similar competitive bid and others assume ... well, something else. For me, I take the dollar amount I'm willing to pay and then add some arbitrary number of cents after it. There's no strategy to it but it gives me that warm fuzzy feeling when I go to sleep at night. If I bid $10.29 and you bid $10.64 ... hey, what can I do, you beat me at my own game.

I tend to believe that this is the way Patton would bid if he were still kicking around. Insane? You bet.

2dueces

I usually snipe on the plus side of a dollar. 15.02,,,25.05.
I figure if someones snipe is 25.00 than my nickle more might take it.

Downtown1974

<< <i>I usually snipe on the plus side of a dollar. 15.02,,,25.05.
I figure if someones snipe is 25.00 than my nickle more might take it. >>



Thats how I bid too. If I want to spend 50.00 for a card from a seller who charges 2.50 to ship the card, I'll bid something like 47.75.
I have good luck doing that.

stevek

<< <i>I've seen this before, but why would anyone bid xx.99? My high bid on an auction is $6 and a few cents and someone bid 5.99. To me that seems suspicious, that someone is trying to bid up the item without winning it. Any thoughts?

Regards,

Greg M. >>



There could be a number of reasons, but I think for the most part the particular bidder just wants to see where the high bidder might be.

Southerncards

I've often bid in odd amounts just to make others think that my bid may actually be higher. $ 1.21, 5.86, 8.72

sometimes it deters others, sometimes not.