to everyone looking at the auctions i’m looking at, i hereby remind you that ebay is not a game. some of you seem to feel the need to “win” by beating my bid for whatever’s up for auction, even if you’re entering your SEVENTH bid on the same auction.
ebay certainly encourages this behavior, which makes sense because if ebay gets a percentage of the amount an auction closes at, they make the most money if the auction ends up as high as possible.
so if you’ve put in a bid on an auction, and somebody else puts in a higher bid, ebay e-mails you to try to get you to bid again: “holy crap the world is going to end if you don’t come bid again right away! joe_user_52 has outbid you on item #127612439 rooster toaster cover and there are only 3 days, 5 hours, and 57 minutes left! joe_user_52 may have the auction now, but you can still bid higher to defeat joe_user_52 and WIN if you hurry!” i made up the specifics of that one, but it’s essentially a paraphrased version of the outbid notice e-mail.
another factor that makes people bid again is the idea that “if joe_user_52 thinks the rooster toaster cover is worth $20 then maybe it might just be worth $25 to me,” despite that with ignoring joe_user_52’s bid it only seemed worth $10. maybe it’s some sort of validation — “i was right to want this item. joe_user_52’s bid proves it! now it’s fine for me to want it more, so i’ll bid higher.”
and one other thing that probably contributes more than i’d like to admit is that people don’t understand the concept of entering your highest bid. if you see something you want, and it’s worth as much as $10 to you, then you put in $10 as your maximum bid. if only one other person wanted it, and they bid before you with $5 as their maximum, your bid will go just above $5 so you win by as little as possible. bidding $10 on an item does not mean you will have to pay that much if you win — it just means you won’t have to pay more than that.
if all bidders were smart and knew what they were doing, no one person would bid more than once. the bid you put in would be the most you’d be willing to pay for that item, so if somebody outbid you then you’re done — you’re not willing to pay as much as they are. unfortunately for bidders who realize this (i.e. me), there are plenty of bidders who don’t.
ideally i should throw in my maximum bid as soon as i find something i like, then just leave it alone to see if i end up wanting it most. in reality if i do that i’m going to end up paying more or even having the auction go higher than my maximum than if i were to hold out and bid just before auction close. i often find if someone else has bid (and it wasn’t some really low bid right away), they will bid again as many as 5 times in a row after they see i’ve outbid them because they don’t want to lose. if you ever bid a second time on an ebay auction (even moreso if it’s the sixth time), chances are you just lost right then.
