Trade Me bidding?

[numbersixteen16]

I dont quite understand why people on Trademe bid so early on an auction.
http://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/motorbikes/motorbikes/sports/auction-485734181.htm
Within a day some people have bid up to $2500?
WHY?
All you are doing is driving up the price and you will therefore be paying more for the bike.
Do people think it scares others off?
Or do they just want to have the "winning" bid all the time?

I just want to hear someone elses opinion on the matter, as I myself wait until the end of the auction before putting my money down.

As a side note, does the "mack891 (0)" user seem like hes just driving the auction higher? Scam maybe? Worth contacting trademe?

[HenryDorsetCase]

I dont quite understand why people on Trademe bid so early on an auction.
http://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/motorbikes/motorbikes/sports/auction-485734181.htm
Within a day some people have bid up to $2500?
WHY?
All you are doing is driving up the price and you will therefore be paying more for the bike.
Do people think it scares others off?
Or do they just want to have the "winning" bid all the time?

I just want to hear someone elses opinion on the matter, as I myself wait until the end of the auction before putting my money down.

As a side note, does the "mack891 (0)" user seem like hes just driving the auction higher? Scam maybe? Worth contacting trademe?

I bid $5k on that CBX last night only because I want to see if anyone ends up backdooring it and buying it privately. they notify you if its withdrawn.

plus if you put a silly bid in you might get lucky (usually not in my case) and you know it is on your watchlist and you will get an email if you are outbid.

I quite often bid stuff up to 15% of reserve if a numpty has put a stupid misleading low "start" price on something he thinks is worth its weight in platinum too.

[imdying]

Nigger is autobidding, myofb.

[Maha]

...the reason it is done is the same reason why people vote on forum polls, cos they can and it somehow makes them feel important.

[Road kill]

I usually watch things an then if I really want it I'll place an auto bid for the maximum I'm willing to pay during the last five minutes.
I enjoy watching people trying to match or beat my auto bid during those last minutes.
I don't go any higher than my original auto bid.

[Gremlin]

I place a bid in the last minutes... delightful if you beat someone by some small margin...

It also means I've missed out on a lot of auctions as I'm not checking my email and forgotten about the auction. Still, it means I spend less :clap:

[nodrog]

There is no such thing as bidding at the last minute to beat somebody, trademe has that fucken stupid auto extend thing if bids are placed in the last 2 minutes.

And why not jump in and put all you are prepared to pay in one bid? Its saves having to go back and check the computer every 5 mins. And it also stops some twat thinking that he is going to get a 2005 GSXR600 for $169.95.

[Asher]

I do it early to get rid if a buy now price or to stop them from putting a buy now on

[Ragingrob]

I usually bid just before the auto-extend period, in the hope that whoever was currently leading thinks they've already won and gets distracted by something else.

[jellywrestler]

There is no such thing as bidding at the last minute to beat somebody, trademe has that fucken stupid auto extend thing if bids are placed in the last 2 minutes.



clearly you haven't been to a REAL auction, that's how they work!

[nodrog]

clearly you haven't been to a REAL auction, that's how they work!

Considering I work at Turners I think I may have been to a couple.

[Jantar]

I generally put in a low, yet realistic auto bid quite early. Then if another bidder drives the price up I snipe at the end with my best auto bid, 2 minutes 30 seconds before closing.

This weekend I won an auction for a desk with glass over wood on top. I know this type of desk is worth $400 - $1000 when new depending on quality of construction, so I figured $100 to $200 second hand. http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=483311276

I started of with a low auto bid to test the water, and lead the auction for anumber of days at $0.50. Another bidder joined the fray and we chased each other up to $87. I left him with it untill less than 3 minutes to go when I placed an auto bid of $200, and won it for $98.

[G4L4XY]

Cool story :bleh:

[jellywrestler]

Considering I work at Turners I think I may have been to a couple.
so why is it odd to extend an auction for a brief period then, ebay is a cunt to deal with with a time cut off, trademe is way betterer in that respect

[nodrog]

so why is it odd to extend an auction for a brief period then, ebay is a cunt to deal with with a time cut off, trademe is way betterer in that respect

I was just addressing all the really smart people who think bidding at the last minute on trademe actually means anything. The best way to get something cheap is to stalk people through their feedback, find a phone number and do a deal.

And ebay is awesome, if you arent old and slow.

[SMOKEU]

I just place an autobid as soon as I've made my decision.

[carburator]

and another recent auction was a classic, the ringer ended up winning the auction
( yea was pretty obvious shill bidding ) for $1500.

The twat of a seller in minutes of the auction closing did a FPO for $1800
yet clearly in the feedback of both parties ( good sale bla bla )

Ive seen this tactic from two trademe companies that I have dealt with.
sure auctions in the last five minutes sometimes go off when you have two peaple
get into a bidding war..

put a autobid on for 3/4 the price your going to pay and sit back.. tends to weed out
the tire kickers..

[EJK]

Selling is more fun when it comes to bidding wars.

I once sold an air rifle on Trademe and these two stubborn mofos went on a bidding war... Oh boy, I really enjoyed watching my money "literally" grow... I expected my rifle to sell at around $200 but they both drove it sky high $300+

Just sit back and watch your profit grow.

[HenryDorsetCase]

I was just addressing all the really smart people who think bidding at the last minute on trademe actually means anything. The best way to get something cheap is to stalk people through their feedback, find a phone number and do a deal.

And ebay is awesome, if you arent old and slow.appalling.

And ebay would be fine ifwe had first world internet speed

[rastuscat]

I was just addressing all the really smart people who think bidding at the last minute on trademe actually means anything. The best way to get something cheap is to stalk people through their feedback, find a phone number and do a deal.

And ebay is awesome, if you arent old and slow.

Auctionsniper.com rules eBay.

[tigertim20]

it depends on the item for me.
sometimes I will put up an auto bid for $500, knowing that I would be prepared to go to $1000, because it gives me the chance to feel out what other autobids etc there are out there, my final bid is usually at the last minute, and usually $20+ more than the last bid, I hat pissing around with auto-extend $1 rises for ever and a day.

judging by that auction, I would say that or-mas has an auto bid going on, and the other bidder (starlet4) is placing bids one at a time to try and find out the other persons auto bid.

[mossy1200]

A good size bid early reduces the people that add it to watchlist and spend the next week thinking about how much they will pay to own YOUR next bike. This is more so when $1 reserve auctions pull alot of small bids that lock the bidder making it impossible to drop the item from their watchlist also. I go in with 90% of what im expecting to pay.

[Berries]

Have never bought anything on Trade Me but that is a nice GSXR. I do hope my wife's user name is diverdave46.

[neels]

I'll bid early to kill the buy now option on a low reserve auction, if I know I won't be at the computer when the auction finishes I'll stick on an autobid, or if I'm fishing for what the reserve is.

Otherwise I wait until it's finishing, and stick a bid in with about 3 minutes to go and see if anyone notices and outbids me.

I had a small bidding war with someone on my drz, gave up when it still hadn't met reserve at around my maximum, and they obviously weren't giving up. About an hour later the seller offered it for $50 more than the other guys highest bid, so I bought it. :niceone:

[Motig]

I do it cos I can. I get the sense you thought you were going to get a bargain and someone had the cheek to bid on it.

[ellipsis]

...i want to know why the things i put up are which are generally usefull bits dont get a look in at selling yet my missus bids on skiploads of useless shite and wins the fkn lot...

[Hoon]

I'll sometimes start off with a large bid to kill off all the bargain hunters and potentially 'break' any competition. I try to avoid bidding wars as people sometimes get bidding fever and incrementally push the price way past reasonable.

As the auction approaches the 2 min mark I'll check the page counter to see if anyone is refreshing the page. Whereas I refresh the auction from my watchlist, not the actual auction page.

In bidding wars I always use autobids to give away as little info to my opponent as possible.

[Virago]

...Within a day some people have bid up to $2500?
WHY?
All you are doing is driving up the price and you will therefore be paying more for the bike...

Rather flawed logic.

The item will sell to the person willing to bid the most. Whether that happens early or late is immaterial.

The perceived notion that someone who is willing to pay a higher price than you can be eliminated if everyone just holds off, is rather silly.

[jasonu]

I quite often bid stuff up to 15% of reserve if a numpty has put a stupid misleading low "start" price on something he thinks is worth its weight in platinum too.

How do you know if you are bidding to near the (hidden) reserve price?

[neels]

How do you know if you are bidding to near the (hidden) reserve price?
It's not really hidden, when you bid a message comes up if the bid is within 15% of the reserve, so it's possible to go fishing to find approximately what the reserve is without any obligation to complete the sale.

[jasonu]

appalling.

And ebay would be fine ifwe had first world internet speed

Indeed. If I input my bid and enter it with 10 seconds left I will win as long as someone else doesn't have a higher bid by proxy (auto bid).

[jasonu]

It's not really hidden, when you bid a message comes up if the bid is within 15% of the reserve, so it's possible to go fishing to find approximately what the reserve is without any obligation to complete the sale.

So you could bid $1 at a time then stop just short of the reserve? Makes having a reserve 'hidden' a bit pointless.
If I put an item on ebay I will have a starting bid of the minimum (realistic) amount I will take for the item and not bother with a reserve. Some say that kills bidding 'action'. I say it discourages the tire kickers.

[neels]

So you could bid $1 at a time then stop just short of the reserve? Makes having a reserve 'hidden' a bit pointless.
If I put an item on ebay I will have a starting bid of the minimum (realistic) amount I will take for the item and not bother with a reserve. Some say that kills bidding 'action'. I say it discourages the tire kickers.
Does make it a bit pointless, just means you can keep bidding .85 of your last bid until you're within 15% to get a ballpark idea of reserve, if its not in your price range ignore the auction.

May mean a seller with a stupidly high reserve gets excited because they think someone is actually going to pay it, that's just a bonus.

I agree with you, list the thing for what you'll take for it, if someone is willing to pay more even better.

[Laava]

Where is the,"I bid as the timer gets to 2min mark" option.
As all the auctions I have bid on used auto extend, it makes sense to try to not extend the time by bidding before the last 2 min.
I t also helps if you have good self control to just set up auto bid to your max and don't watch it.

[FROSTY]

If I want something I place a bid at the lower end of what I would be prepared to pay as fast as possible. This pushes the item up into a higher price bracket and avoids all the extra bidders