Blitz (and related) bits on Ebay Australia

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally Posted by Tony Wheeler

Yes, the seller only gets what the SECOND HIGHEST bidder is willing to pay (plus an insignificant increment). As opposed to a normal auction (house auction, disposal auction, clearing sale, etc.) where the seller gets what the HIGHEST bidder is willing to pay. There's often a big difference on ebay - I'm sure we've all bought items for considerably less than our maximum bid.

Obviously when someone makes an phone offer he'll have to pay what he offers, but the fact remains he's at a huge advantage over ebay bidders, because he's the only one conveying his maximum bid to the seller. In practice the seller has no idea what ebay bidders are willing to pay until the final few minutes/seconds of the auction. The strong temptation therefore is to accept the phone offer - a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.

Tony,

I am not sure what your point is? Ebay's maximum bid is like setting a (mental) threshold for oneself. In a real live auction I think one sets his/her maximum and bids in the auctions increments, and not by bidding the maxumum amount one is willing to pay? If you are willing to pay say $1,000 for an item, and bidding starts at 250 going up 50 at each bid, you are not standing up and shout "$1,000!" when the bidding halts at $750?

As for phone bids: as you say, a seller on ebay is entitled to withdraw before the end of the sale. So it is not a phone bid during a real live auction, but simply a seller withdrawing his item from the auction. Because he has second thoughts, or because he has sold it via another channel.

Originally Posted by Tony Wheeler

In the interests of stamping out the practice of phone bidding I'm happy to name and shame the individual concerned

I don't think it is up to you to name and shame an individual because you think the practice is wrong - at least not on this forum. I have therefore edited your original posting deleting the name and price. E-mail me if you wish to discuss this further. Thank you.

Regards,
Hanno
MLU Administrator & Moderator

[Tony Wheeler]

Originally Posted by Hanno Spoelstra

I am not sure what your point is?

My point in all this is to defend sellers who withdraw from auction upon receiving an offer, in response to a few comments which were critical of the practice. I was pointing out the risk involved in allowing the auction to continue, owing to the unique bidding system employed on ebay. Namely as I said: "there's always the risk they would have fetched less, even if the phone caller had bid his offer." That's obviously NOT the case at a normal auction.

Note that I'm not being critical of ebay's bidding system - I'm merely pointing out the unique difficulty it presents for sellers when an offer is made. For the offer to be matched on ebay, he needs TWO bidders willing to pay that price.

The solution of course is to raise the reserve price, as Tony said, but in this particular case that wasn't possible, and even in the general case, such a strategy puts the sale in jeopardy, since there's no guarantee the offer will materialize as a bid.

[Tony Wheeler]

Originally Posted by Hanno Spoelstra

I don't think it is up to you to name and shame an individual because you think the practice is wrong - at least not on this forum. I have therefore edited your original posting deleting the name and price. E-mail me if you wish to discuss this further. Thank you.
Regards,
Hanno
MLU Administrator & Moderator

That's fine Hanno, I certainly don't want to misuse the forum. Presumably anyone interested can PM me....?

I'm interested to know if it's just me who thinks phone bidding for ebay items is wrong. If it's acceptable practice I shall definitely take advantage in future. There's nothing to lose and everything to gain.

[Private_collector]

To be honest, it quite shits me, the old "advertised elsewhere and may be withdrawn at any time" ploy. Once bids taken, I feel the seller should live up to the commitment of auction selling. If no bids, sure, remove it whenever you like.

If they effectively change their mind about honoring the auction, why can't I say "changed my mind, don't want it now"? That's not acceptable, but sellers cancelling bids & auctions is OK? Not with me it isn't!

[Tony Wheeler]

Originally Posted by Private_collector

To be honest, it quite shits me, the old "advertised elsewhere and may be withdrawn at any time" ploy.

Obviously in these cases there can be no objection to making phone offers, since the seller is actually informing bidders that he's open to offers. I agree of course that it's extremely annoying - life would be much easier if sellers confined themselves to one mode of selling at a time!

I guess it begs the question - does the absence of this caveat mean the seller is NOT open to offers? Obviously not, as we've just seen with the F60L and C8AX auctions. So perhaps my criticism of phone bidding is unreasonable - or at the very least naive. Perhaps I should operate on the assumption that ALL sellers are potentially open to offers, and adopt the view that if someone is prepared to make their maximum bid known to the seller, he's entitled to the advantage that affords him over ebay bidders.

I shall wrestle further with this pressing moral question!