Curious eBay bidding

[boardsNbikes]

I've been watching an eBay listing out of curiousity and saw an interesting pattern.

lemansfan1( 3 ) US $399.00 Sep-08-06 05:01:21 PDT

ZEMANfan1( 3 ) US $380.00 Sep-08-06 04:59:31 PDT

ZEMANfan1( 3 ) US $360.01 Sep-08-06 04:58:15 PDT

ZEMANfan1( 3 ) US $300.00 Sep-08-06 04:57:30 PDT

dd081101( 66 ) US $250.89 Sep-06-06 19:06:45 PDT

ZEMANfan1( 3 ) US $250.01 Sep-08-06 04:55:48 PDT

dd081101( 66 ) US $200.99 Sep-06-06 19:06:14 PDT

ZEMANfan1( 3 ) US $180.00 Sep-04-06 19:56:57 PDT

Why would anyone want to outbid oneself? It's stupid--you're just showing your hand by explicitly showing so much interest in the item. Does this guy think he's going to "intimidate" someone out of the bidding process? I just don't get it.

FWIW, I tend to be quiet until the very end and perform hand "sniping", using no automatic agents or software. I've also have gotten the famous hate mail from losing bidders.

 

[radman]

He's not. He entered a max bid of $380 earlier. Ebay automatically enters a bid just high enough to outbid any other entries, until the max is realised. What you see is other bidders hitting, and Ebay entering his higher amount until lemans found his max.

 

[Carnifex]

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What he said

 

[FJRocket]

I've done that without the automatic bidding. Kinda feeling out the price range up toward the reserve price. I started the bidding on a classic car once and tested the price up to my comfort zone. 9 grand. Then I watched the bid war. Car sold for 17K, reserve was 14K. WAY outside what I was willing to pay.

So they aren't always bidding against themselves... just testing the waters. Usually it's an automatic thing, though.

 

[Groo]

Rad's got it... I believe the term my wife uses for it is "nibbling".

 

[radman]

The .01 overbid used to be a wide open bidding secret, and still works to a degree, but you see it all the time now.

 

[boardsNbikes]

He's not. He entered a max bid of $380 earlier. Ebay automatically enters a bid just high enough to outbid any other entries, until the max is realised. What you see is other bidders hitting, and Ebay entering his higher amount until lemans found his max.

OK. I was under the impression that the intermediate bids would be visible since they would be explicit in an open pit style auction. Now I understand. Thanks for helping me out.