[LargeFormat] OT EBay

[Robert G. Hall]

Ah, true, my dear fellow, but one may also artificially inflate the
price by entering the maximum bid early on. 

It seems to me that most bidders just throw out a bid with little
thought behind it. If they don't become the high bidder they may enter
another bid slightly higher, which may continue for some time, thus
causing the price to inch up and up. 

If there are no bids on the item, or only a couple, bidding early to
raise the price may only cause the human urge from your fellow bidders
to want to win the auction, instead of waiting for the next item to come
along.

Bidding at the last moment gains you two more benefits that you wouldn't
have by bidding early: 1. Not giving the other bidders a chance to think
about out bidding you, and 2. not giving yourself a chance to raise the
price beyond what you were originally willing to bid.

Please forward all requests for eBay consultations to my secretary. ;-)

Robert

Robert G. Hall
Robert Hall Photography
www.RobertHallPhotography.com
801-673-4510

> This only works against an undisciplined bidder. Before I bid on
> something,
> I research to find out what the retail price is, what similar items
have
> sold for previously, etc., then I enter the maximum amount I'm willing
to
> pay. eBay automatically bids for me up to that amount. When you come
in at
> the last second with a snipe bid, one of two things happens: either
your
> bid is less than my maximum, in which case I win the item; or your
item is
> more than my maximum, in which case you win the item with a bid larger
> than
> I was willing to pay. If you bid more than I am willing to pay, it
doesn't
> matter to me whether you enter that bid 7 seconds or 7 hours before
the
> auction ends.
> 
> Stan