Bidding Tactic??

[Lemmi]

Has this guy lost it? or have you guys seen bidding like this before?

 

Check the bid history

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...item=1363072405

[Fretwobbler]

I reckon the mans insane, presuming it is a man, looking at that its more likely a woman who thinks she has to keep bidding until she hears a hammer or something

 

Adam

[Lemmi]

LOL i bid 2 times and im the top bidder now LOL

[tiggerthehun]

I'm confused by several things... This is what I'm guessing happened. Lemmi - when you bid on it, was there the 57 bids already? I'm trying to figure out how you could have had a low bid on the 4th - when she/he had higher bids than you on the 2nd... Was she bidding against herself on the 2nd? But then I took a look at the times of the bids... They are like 10 seconds apart. I don't think you can bid that quickly - getting that "you have been outbid" page - then clicking back, typing in a new number - bidding again. I'm guessing she/he has a bidding program? Dunno - this is a weird one, that's for sure.

[bjybjy]

I'm guessing the person just did it so that the auction became a "HOT ITEM" auction. I've seen items at like $12 with like 100 bids.

 

Tad

[Rick Weis]

how can this person only increase the bid by .01??????

 

even on a 5.00 auction the next bid must be .25!!!

 

is this something a seller can change??

 

Take care,

 

Rick

[Lemmi]

I have no clue Rick, but i was really surprised when i first bid $20 and then i bid $30 and it only went to $21

 

 

It might be something only a bidder can do after his bid is the top bid to increase his bid by 1 cent

 

He bid $15 then next he bid $20 (and he was the top bidder) then he went to his 1 cent increases

[Rick Weis]

OK!!! i see how this happened!!! whew!! thought something weird was going on for a minute!!

 

this guy bid 15.00 then a couple days later bid 20.00 then a little later he kept increasing his bid by .01 (you can do this as long as it's higher then his highest bid!) then you bid 20.00 and it went to 20.50 when you bid again and WON!

 

case solved!

 

Take Care,

 

Rick

[Pitfall Harry]

Maybe the thrill of seeing "Congratulations! You are the highest bidder" forty or fifty times was worth the extra pennies? Come to think of it, he got all those congratulations for FREE!

 

Ben

[Philflound]

Yes, if you own the high bid, you don't need to increase the next bid by the increment indicated, you can increase it by whatever amount you want. As for getting this to be a hot item, I don't see what the point of a bidder wanting it to be a hot item would be. The seller would like to be happy, unless it's a friend and the seller asked him to make some activity on it. Pretty stupid and a waste of time for $20.00 if you ask me. But I guess people have nothing better to do than bid 1 cent increments.

 

Phil

[Room 34]

how can this person only increase the bid by .01??????

 

even on a 5.00 auction the next bid must be .25!!!

 

is this something a seller can change??      

You can bid any amount you want. But the only way to become the high bidder is to bid at least one cent above the maximum bid of the current high bidder, and your bid has to be at least one bid increment above the current winning bid.

 

This may sound confusing, but here's an example:

 

Buyer A has the current high bid at $10.45. Buyer A's maximum bid is $11.75. The bid increment is 50 cents. eBay says the minimum new bid is $10.95. Buyer B can then bid $10.95, $10.96, $10.97, whatever, but will not become the leading bidder until he bids at least $11.76, which is one cent above the maximum bid placed by Buyer A.

 

Any reasonable person who is trying to inch up to Buyer A's maximum bid would do so in some arbitrary increments, maybe bidding $11, getting the outbid notice, going back and bidding $11.50, getting the outbid notice again, and going back a third time to bid $12.00 and getting the high bid.

 

Then again, you could be crazy (or stupid) and do this repeatedly in 1-cent increments if you really want to, until you get to a bid that is 1 cent above Buyer A's maximum.