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Technology Stocks : eBay - Superb Internet Business Model -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: VinWood who wrote (4353)	7/29/1999 6:47:00 PM
From: J. C. Dithers	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 7772

They always show the highest bid unless it is a blind bid... If you have sold a lot of things on eBay, then you seem to have done it without understanding the bidding system at all. Doug's explanation was totally correct, and quite clear. But let me give it a try with an example: The other day I wanted to bid on an item when the current bid was at $210.50. I really wanted this item and I knew the bidding would go higher. So I placed a "maximum bid" (as eBay requires you to to do) of $800. I immediately became the high bidder, but my bid only showed as $212.50, because the incremental bid amount was $2.50. At this point, no one but me (and eBay) knew what my maximum bid was. As other people subsequently entered higher bids, my bid was always raised to top their's by another $2.50. Theoretically, this process would go on until someone finally outbid me at $802.50. In this case, the bidding reached a figure at about the $530 level as the auction ended, leaving me as the winner. To this day, nobody but eBay and me know what my maximum bid amount was. Whoever wrote the original MSNBC article about a confederate placing a very high bid to scare other bidders off, was badly misinformed. This tactic could never work on eBay. No bidder ever knows what maximum bid may have been placed by another bidder. I have no idea what you are talking about when you mention a "blind bid," but there is no such thing on eBay. Sadly, this board has become a forum for misinformation about eBay.

To: VinWood who wrote (4353)	7/29/1999 8:34:00 PM
From: Doug Fowler	Respond to of 7772

As a seller, you do NOT know the maximum somebody has been on an item until AFTER the auction is closed, and THEN you know the highest bid by everybody EXCEPT the high bidder. You only know the amount that was necessary to overcome the second highest bid or to meet the reserve price. The EXCEPTION to all of this is a Dutch auction. In that case, you do see exactly what everyone bid, but it is the low winning bid that applies to all the winners when the auction has completed.