[Milsurplus] Another eBay change

[Dave Emery]

On Thu, Aug 26, 2004 at 12:39:38AM +0000, D C Macdonald wrote:
> I would expect that higher sale prices may result.
> 
> 73  ---  Mac, K2GKK/5


	Damn but this seems to have just happened....

	HOWEVER, the amount listed for the highest bidder is just the
usual delta over the next highest bid it appears.   It does not appear
that they have changed the proxy bidding algorithm or taken to
disclosing what the high bidder specified as his high limit.

	All that seems to have happened is disclosure of maximum bids of
bidder number 2 through n  before the end of the auction rather than
waiting until the auction ended to reveal this.

	In many if not most cases those tracking auction prices minute
by minute could figure out all of these bid maxima just from the 
instantaneous value of the current bid price (eg it would normally be
the standard 2.5% delta rounded slightly over the second highest
bidder's bid, thus revealing the second highest bidder of the moment's
bid each time).   And of course they are all disclosed at the end
of the auction anyway.

	What I often wish I could learn was the maximum bid by the
HIGHEST bidder which is never disclosed (or at least never has been). If
one loses one never gets to know whether if one had bid just an itsy
bitsy bit more one would have won, or if one's competition was prepared
to pay serious money and there was nothing one could have done about it.

	But of course there are some good reasons why disclosing the
maximum bid by the winner (as opposed to the price he paid) is not a
good idea - at least from a buyer's perspective - as amoung other things
this would allow a seller to set minimum prices that would ensure a
particular buyer known to go after multiple occurences of a certain item
would wind up paying almost as much as his maximum bid every time he
bought that item after the first when otherwise he might get each
instance of that item at a price determined by whoever else was
interested at the moment.   In some cases this could result in a
dramatic shift in prices and at the very least would defeat the notion
of an auction set price (converting it to a charge as much as the
traffic will bear price).

	As for the reason for not revealing the running maxima of non
winning bidders - my guess would be that someone was concerned it
might be used as a signalling mechanism between colluding buyers.




> Reply-To: jfor at quik.com

> eBay has started to list the amount individuals are bidding, BEFORE the 
> auction
> has ended. IMO, this is a fairly rational move. Their previous policy did 
> not
> make much sense.
> 
> -John
> 
> 
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-- 
   Dave Emery N1PRE,  die at dieconsulting.com  DIE Consulting, Weston, Mass 02493