The Perils Of Automatic Bidding On The Bay

29 July 2014; 18:51. I decide to dip an early place marking toe in the water with a max bid of £3.77 on this ebay listing for a Davo GB Vol1 hingeless stamp album for my Granddaughter.

Item number: 191266355653

It turned out this made me the top bidder. For a nanosecond. Almost immediately there was a two bidder bidding frenzy that would have seriously impressed any Great White. By 20:42 these two nuggets had wound the bid up from £3.77 to £93.00. On day 2 of an auction with 8 days left to run. This is for a used album that sells new for around £146.00, and can be picked up VG/Fine used as a BIN on the bay for £45.00 to £50.00.

I really can't wait to see what price it ends up at after their frenetic last minute bidding.

Terry
Edited for typo. TC.

Hi,
I've been pretty active on ebay for the last 13 years, both buying and selling. My strategy (and apparently those of many others) is to find the item I want and put it on "watch". At about 1 minute before closing, I'll enter my highest bid on screen, hitting enter just once. This saves a step later, but does not get your bid in the system. At 5 or 6 seconds before closing, I'll hit "confirm", which does enter the bid. Often others are doing the same, so I have to be sure that my bid is the highest I want to pay for the item.

In my opinion, bidding well before closing only serves to drive up the price. That is great for the seller, but not for the buyer.