I understand the motivation for open-bid auctions, and I've even competed in − but never 'won' − a few of them.

I much prefer the 'Buy It Now' kind and usually avoid all others.

I do not like the way they drive up prices. I understand the effect is quite real, but I nonetheless view its cause as irrational, and I choose not to take part in it.

--

possible for the seller. It was true 2000 years ago and it is true today. BTW, you often, perhaps unwittingly, participate in auctions as when you "negotiate" in competition with others for something. Maybe it is your wife's time vs going to one of the kid's functions or going to one grandkid's activity rather than another.

--
Sincerely,

Hobie

The good news is, I'm single, so that's all I need to know.

--

--
Sincerely,

Hobie

I won't bid items up.

I 'watch' them sometimes, but if someone else bids, I move on.

--

as well, just bid up to my cut off and that's it.

--
Sincerely,

Hobie

We have a carpenter doing a lot of odd jobs around the house lately. He asked that I find him a Rock Island 1911 .45 for a decent price.

On a whim I bid on one listed on Gunbroker a few days ago. Imagine my surprise when I won against 5 or 6 other bidders, and managed to pick it up NEW for significantly below wholesale. Oh, did I mention it has the XT22 top end as well?

The seller was ok with the end price, not thrilled of course, but as he said, it more than evens out for him over time. So even in an open bid auction, the blind squirrel occasionally finds the acorn. It can happen. I simply bid the maximum I am willing to pay and just wait and see.

Last year I picked up a Ruger LCR for wholesale by simply biding my time, and that was when those were a hot item.

Patience grasshopper!

Otony

Or so they tell me.

--

Yup, I learned that from you a few years back. I was bidding piecemeal on a browning 1895 and missed putting in my final bid. It sold for a low price, less than actual value. I whined publicly (of course) and you said simply bid what you are willing to pay. Had I done that, I might well have won that auction but instead I was dribbling the bids out a shekel at a time.

Otony

...and forget about it until the auction is done. Sometimes you win, sometimes you're not supposed to. I do like "buy it now" sales, but you don't often get DEALS that way.

never look back.

Twice now, I have had second thoughts and re-upped my bid. Once because "when was the last time you saw one o' dem" and the other was a bad case of the "gotta-haves".

B-I-N is usually more than I am willing to pay (I am a cheap so-and-so) but there are things I have bought straight up like that.

The ones that make me go "Huh?" are the high dollar items which carry a reserve and a starting bid of $0.01 and no B-I-N. You know danged well they think they are asking too much and don't want to admit it.....well, I suspect so anyway.

we're to have it we will or we won't. Buy it now simply must be used now and then because the sellers sometimes don't understand it and it is really close to my max anyway and not far above the minimum bid.

Bidding is a bit of an art itself. Went to a "storage wars" auction (on storage units) on Tuesday and it was fun to watch. Lots of people showed up, only a couple bid and only one really wanted to "play".

--
Sincerely,

Hobie

asking too much. It is a tactic that often works for the sellers.

--
Sincerely,

Hobie

I like your idea, Boge. I currently have an autobid on an item, at the maximum I am willing to pay for it. The auction ends Saturday, and I won't even know if I won until I get home Sunday night. If I get it, fine. If not, another one will come along.

The concept of a Reserve makes sense to me until you get to the Starting Price.

If you're going to have both features available, then I think declaring one should set the other.

In a sense, I guess that's what a 0.01 Starting Price does, though: It frees the seller from having to disclose their actual minimum price.

Which is also fine, except for one thing: In my mind, it raises the question, 'Do you want to sell it or not?'

Like I said, I'm not very patient about these things.

With me, it's more like, 'Pee or get off the pot.'

--

Online auctions are a very good place to buy stuff for a reasonable price and even cheap on occasion. There are a couple of tricks involved..

1. Don't get emotionally involved and start to compete with other bidders. Figure out what you want to pay and stop there. The value of objects go way above reasonable price when folks make it a competition thing. If you can't be cold about it, stay away from auctions of any kind.

2. Whatever you are looking at, there will be another coming along later for a better price. If you don't get it for what you want to pay, then just bide your time, it will come around again, again and again.

3. I never bid until the last minute so as not to run the bid up with folks doing to me what I won't do to them, i.e. compete.

That's exactly what I did when I found my Nastoff-built Combat Commander on GunBroker.

I looked up the seller's previous auctions, figured out what his probable Reserve Price was, then I waited until the 'last minute' to cast my bid.

The good news is, I 'won' it.

The bad news is, no one jumped in to 'save me'.

--