Is anyone here chasing the Crabb?

[david_boveri]

One thing I'm convinced of is that this last minute bidding allows for the item to be sold at a cheaper price than if the 3000+ purchase offers would have been entered earlier. Someone who doesn't want to spend more than, let's say, 2500 on the time... can easily change is/her mind in the last few hours and push the price a bit. Something like "wow, I can't afford to pay more than 6000 pounds for that Dipper, but there's a chance I could get it for 6500... Maybe I can sell my TV or my car... I want to push that button.........".

 

Here in NZ we have a local product called Trade Me. It's sort of Ebay but completely different in that it's user friendly and manages to give a family feel to all it's doings. It rules the roost in NZ, and I love Trade Me and loathe Ebay, there's that much in it. Anyway, they have something called 'autoextend' If someone bids in the last two minutes the auction extends for 2 minutes; and this goes on until there is a more than 2 minute period of inactivity. So you CAN'T snipe because when your snipe goes in the auction extends. It works really well but can be deeply frustrating when you are trying to buy something and get your bid in, and the other bidder is one of those muppets who doesn't know his own mind; you watch your lead whittled in increments; I had it go on for the best part of half an hour once. But the seller got a much better price than he would have under the Ebay system, and everyone knows where they stand; there's no jiggery-pokery involved.

 

Sadly for the rest of you, you need a NZ location to take part. At least I think so, although they may let the Australians play these days.

 

we had something like that in the states, but ebay bought it in the 90's.

Edited February 3, 2011 by david_boveri

[Dirge]

 

we had something like that in the states, but ebay bought it in the 90's.

 

Someone comes up with a better formula; you wait until it seems to be gathering steam then buy it and suppress it, so that you can continue the old system without tiresome competition. Very traditional big business technique! The NZ market isn't large enough to be worth Ebay's notice, thankfully; we have no dedicated 'Ebay NZ' page.

[Chris Drinkwater]

One good reason for placing a bid in the closing seconds of an Ebay auction - I like to enter my confirmation bid with 5 secs to go - is that it takes the suspense out of knowing whether your bid has been successful or not, most of the time. Usually with just 4 or 5 seconds left, if my bid then makes me the highest bidder, I am more likely to have won the item, because very few people usually manage to get a bid in later than that, though I have seen winning bids that have scraped in with just 1 sec, left. The downside, perhaps, is that there is no time left to re-bid, but I take that into account by bidding the maximum I can afford based on what I think the item is worth to me, when I place my one and only bid. It usually works, because at that late stage, you can get a sense of other bidders bidding patterns and seriousness in really wanting the item, themselves, and I take that into account when determining the amount I am prepared to bid.

 

Chris

[Geoffrey Crabb]

I often wonder whether Geoff Crabb is ever tempted to buy one of his family heirlooms back, when they come up for sale, like this beauty.

 

Chris

 

 

Tempted yes but finances don't allow and besides the instruments should be in the hands of those that will use them.

 

Geoff