Online auctions with a 15 min. rule?

There is an auction site I'm a member of that has a 15 min. rule at the end of their auctions. If ebay ever goes to this, there will be some people crying around here!

Anyway, in the last 15 min. of every auction the clock continues to count down the time. If there's 5 minutes left and a bid comes in, then it resets to 15 minutes to give all buyers a chance. Then if it ticks down to one second left and another bid comes in, it resets back to 15 minutes. So the auctions don't end until the bids stop coming. Essentially takes the countdown clock out of the equation. This is great for sellers but would spell the end of sniping for buyers. I'm surprised ebay doesn't do something like this. They would probably increase revenue by 100s of millions a year.

Out of curiosity are there any coin auctions that do this?

 

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O man I barked up this tree one time. There were a few differences in opinion to say the least. I personally wish they did somehow put a bit more time back on the clock after a last second bid.

 

This would make it an actual auction, versus whatever Ebay is. A true auction goes till there are no more bids and no time restraints.
Guy

 

I think I know what site you're talking about. Can't remember the name of the site right now though.

But to tell you the truth I didn't like it much. I found the system confusing and lots of auctions that never seemed to end.

 

They wouldn't even need to add much time to increase the bids substantially... an additional minute for each bid with a minute left would probably work great.

 

The Ebay method simplifies the process, there is no good reason for going back and forth. Enter the highest price that you are willing to pay when you bid. Whoever is willing to pay the most gets the item, just like a traditional auction. If you get "outsniped", then that just means that someone was willing to pay more than your bid. If you later wish that you had the opportunity to bid again, then you should have entered a higher value to begin with.

 

What is wrong with sniping? Basically, it is the same as bidding your maximum, but waiting till the last minute to do so--any regular auction has the "going, going,gone situation, " so one may bid at the last minute before "gone."

 

i wont buy on ebay anymore if they go to this style. i only snipe i think its fair simply because if they wanted the product bad enough they would snipe on it too. just my .02

cody

 

Isn't this how they do comics or baseball cards? I know Heritage or Stacks has some type of auction down like this. Things go forever.

 

The ebay method works for some things. Others, people get screwed. Ebays method is to try to get people to bid things up beyond what they're worth before the auction ends which works for some things but not all. Most of the time, people rely on sniping which buyers have every right to do on there. I have done it. But the person that was sitting with the high bid for 24 hrs and assumed nobody was going to bid, simply loses out. They don't have a chance to respond, which in many cases they would.

How many times have people posted complaints here about somebody sniping at the end of an auction and they lose a coin they really wanted? Coleguy has it correct that the way this other site does it is a true auction style format. Where luck and timing is removed and the final bid price is from whoever had the most desire to have the item and pay the most.

If you put your highest bid in on ebay and walk away, inevitably people will bid you up when there's time left to try to win it themselves. If you leave somebody else's high bid in and wait until the last second to snipe them, that is a more economical way to do it. Most seasoned ebay users know this and will hang back until the end. It's a strategy to pay the least as possible. Which is great for buyers but hurts the sellers.

With the other format, it removes all strategy and the seller has a chance to receive full market value. I just found it interesting. I'm not saying I'm in favor of one or the other. I wouldn't be surprised to see ebay go to something like this in the future. Then people would really decide what they were willing to pay for something because they have no choice.

 

Geez am I that old?

I remember that myself, back in the day.

 

Which is why I do BINs on eBay rather than bid. They're at least a bit more on the up and up than auctions that can be manipulated by shill bidding just to up the price. :thumb:

 

I'm sure most people understand the difference already but here's an example of what happens with a $100 item, given the two formats.

$100 item listed on ebay starting at 0.99. Everybody wants a deal. There's 20 incremental bids. It's bid up to $70 and stops. In the last seconds, somebody bids $75, somebody bids $80, and I come along and bid the full $100 to clear everything out. Because I know it's worth $100. Well, the last high bid was $80, so I probably win it for $85.

If I bid $100 on it with 15 min. left, the people will simply keep bidding it up until they are the high bidder. It'll go to $105. Then I have to bid $110 to get back in front. Now I'd have to over pay to get it so it makes no sense to put my high bid in early.

With the other format, the timer would not control the price at any point. It would only serve as a reference for when the end of the auction BEGINS. The price is going to whatever people are willing to pay. When the bids stop coming in, the time runs out and the auction ends. Every ebay seller would love to see this policy implemented. Given the shear volume of sales, Ebay revenues would skyrocket. There is no doubt.

 

Scenario 1 (bid early, bid your max):

"I've got a pretty good idea what this lot is worth, but there are a few things I'm uncertain about. I'll bid $X."

Some time later:

"Wow, three other people outbid me already. Maybe I underestimated the value of a couple of those pieces -- yeah, now that I look more closely, I'll bet that's exactly what happened. I'd better raise my bid."

Some time later:

"Well, here's that lot I won. Hmm -- I was afraid of that; these two pieces look like they were cleaned. But they're still pretty nice. I guess $X + 100 wasn't that bad a price."

Scenario 2 (sniping):

"I've got a pretty good idea what this lot is worth, but there are a few things I'm uncertain about. I'll snipe it at $X."

Some time later:

"Well, a couple of other folks sniped too, and it went for $X + 10; guess I'll whine a bit in the forums, and then move on to the next auction."

or:

"Hah! The next highest snipe was $X - 50, so I got it for $X - 40. What a rip!"


With completely rational bidders, and perfect knowledge of the lot, it doesn't matter whether you bid your max upfront, snipe, or run an auction with extensions.

But bidders aren't completely rational, and you never have perfect knowledge of the lot. As such, seeing higher bids can exert psychological pressure, and it can provide additional information about the lot. (Example: "This seller has ten lots of Liberty nickels listed. Why is this one bid up to $250, when all the others are around $100? Oh -- now I see that "85" peeking out on one of the partly-covered coins. I missed that the first time.")

Under those constraints, sniping tends to minimize the closing price, which is good for buyers, bad for sellers. Extending auctions for late bids would tend to maximize the closing price; that's good for sellers (and the auction house), bad for buyers, except that it could reduce overall revenues if buyers get disgusted and go elsewhere.

 

I don't know. I'd have to think about what your position is before I could agree. I gave a prime example in my previous post why prices would likely go up. It may not make much of a difference on a worn, common date coin, but anything one of a kind, that is highly desirable, toned coins for example, would sell for more. It would make a difference for anything that was really nice and highly desirable.

 

Ebay seller will love it...:yes:

Ebay buyer will hate it...:dead-horse:

 

I don't think split-second timing is the issue with sniping. Like I said before (in far too many words), the issue is what you reveal to other bidders. If you reveal your maximum bid with hours or minutes to go, you give others a chance to analyze it, and react either rationally or irrationally. If you snipe, whether with five seconds or five milliseconds to spare, you deny them that opportunity.

If sniping prevails, it short-circuits the "price discovery" function of a market. This gives some bidders a chance to get items well below their true market value. (Not always, of course; there are lots of other sources for pricing information, and lots of irrational bidders who'll snipe at inflated prices.)