Ebay strategies (was Re: Ebay Altair)

From: John Wilson <wilson_at_dbit.dbit.com>
Date: Wed May 10 11:26:16 2000

On Wed, May 10, 2000 at 09:04:28AM -0400, CLASSICCMP_at_trailing-edge.com wrote:
> Of course, whenever I mention this strategy I get flamed horribly by
> "E-bay experts" at how awful it is. How they tried it once and got outbid
> by $1 and lost. Or how it drives up prices for all buyers.

I know that logically it makes sense that the proxy bidding should totally
avoid the ugly live auction stuff, but it does seem like all the action
always seems to happen in the last 1/2 hour of the auction anyway. Which is
exactly what proxy bidding is supposed to avoid... So I really get better
results by waiting until the last second and jumping in then. I don't want
to give other people time to talk themselves into raising their max.

I really hate it when I make my max bid early, and it turns out that the
existing high bidder's bid already covers it. So all I did was cost this
poor guy money. And of course, bidding against someone who's familiar from
the mailing lists is bad mojo!!!

John Wilson
D Bit
Received on Wed May 10 2000 - 11:26:16 BST