posted on June 2, 2003 01:01:39 PM new
I currently have 2 auctions up for the same thing. I had a lady email me when I first put them up and offered me $600 for both. I told her I wouldn't end the auctions early, but to go ahead and bid. SHe wrote me back telling me that she had put in a proxy of $300 on each of them. (She is new and I did warn her to keep that a secret from now on LOL)
Yesterday, on one of the items, someone came and outbid her, so today she tried to outbid the person but she stopped when it reached too high for her. She immediatly emailed me and said that she was sorry, but she really needed both, and couldn't use just the one. So she was going to retract her bid on the first one that she was currently the high bidder on.
OK, here is my question... The other auction was at $275. Which I assume this to mean that someone had tried to bid $270, but since her proxy was at $300, it automatically bumped it up $5. WHen she retracted her bid, the auction dropped to $147.50!!!!! HUH!!!! I figured it would be $270!!!!
I don't get it. I have had no other retractions. Can anyone explain to me why it dropped so far?? I just don't get it....
posted on June 2, 2003 01:15:26 PM new
I think she lied about the $300 proxy bid on each. I would have been tempted to take the $600 for both. Was she the only bid retraction? A reserve can play havoc with prices and bid retractions sometimes.
posted on June 2, 2003 01:18:25 PM new
I don't think she lied because the second one was actually at $305 when she was outbid, which means her proxy was $300.
The other auction was all the way up to $275 with her winning.
posted on June 2, 2003 01:29:41 PM new
The bidding was probably as follows.
$300 proxy
$270 2nd high bid
$145 3rd highest bid
That would put your lady bidder on top at $275. When she retracted her bid the $270 bidder became the high bidder at one increment over the next highest bid ($145 bid). So your high bid drops all the way down to $147.50.
posted on June 2, 2003 03:46:00 PM new
And that is why retractions hurt. When someone retracts, it is like they were never there, so it goes back to the highest point when #2 and #3 were involved. At least Ebay has a 12 hour rule now, before that I actually ran into a situation (I believe anyway) where someone did this, probably with a couple of accounts. It is called bid shielding. It can really hurt the seller, and it is a good idea to pay attention to an item like this. If you think it is well below value, you may want to consider pulling the auction and putting it up again when you get the whole period of time it was available. Because it was at $300, someone who might have bid $280 might have not bid, and would again...
posted on June 2, 2003 04:43:44 PM new
That's right, bid shielding can be very harmful. I hate to see a bunch of different zero rated bidders on one item. They can start retracting at the end and lower the price dramatically. By then many potential bidders have moved on as they were put off by the high bids.
