Why are people making auctions jump real high in price?

[electric-pixel]

From a buyers point of view...

I see some auction that have low start points and everything is kept at low price for a while and then all of a sudden i see some joe blo like double or even triple the current price in the auction.

i just don't get it when people do that.. not when there are several days left and when you know you are going to be beaten for sure.

When i see this all i can see is that the auction may be rigged to make the price jump by small increments to not attract attention too much, just enough to make it rise enough just before the last minute battle.

Otherwise whats the point of tripling the price if you are going to lose. If you want the item that bad might as well go  out and give it the killer blow so nobody can touch it if you seem to have that much money to blow away.

Maybe my logic is not adequate but as a buyer i would like to believe that i can try to get the item i need at the lowest price possible if at all possible.

[femmefan1946]

That bidder may have a much higher bid, but all that will show is the next increment.

For example.

The auction opens with an asking price of $5

I bid $10 and it opens to me at $5.

You bid $6 and it is still mine but now at $7.

Fred comes along a couple of days later and bids $20. The top bid is now his at $8.

I come back and bid $100-- the killer bid.

You and Fred bid over and over trying to out bid me at a dollar a time. This is called nibble bidding.

At $40 you both give up and I am still high bidder at $41.

At the last second a sniper, who actually bid on Day One with a service, comes in with a $75 bid.

I win at $76.

The high bidder wins, not the first or the last.

Bid once, bid late, bid your maximum. If you are outbid, the other guy paid too much.

[electric-pixel]

I always get in the game in the last minutes if i see that i have a chance.

I dont just play the auction in hopes that someone will just give up because i have a higher amount at that time.

I guess i can understand the idea behind last explanation but still...

[reallynicestamps]

How about this explanation.

The average IQ is 100. This means half the population is below that.

Better? 

[froogal_electronic_parts_and_overstock]

It's nothing nefarious. 

hoofbeats = horses, not zebras or unicorns. 

First, people make auctions jump high because they want to buy the item. Eg. If the current bid is $5 for a $50 item, they aren't going to bid $6 only to (not) find out the original bidder has a standing bid of $25, then just walk away at 7. I find the most likely scenarios are this.

For an item that usually sells on ebay for $50. There are many types of bidders. These examples are maximum bids. 

Low ball bidders will put in a bid at $0.99, $5, etc. and bid on hundreds of items. These bids do actually win. So between the 2 the auction would stand at $5

Deal hunters will put in a bid of say $25. The auction is at $5. If they are the first then their bid holds at say $6, until another bidder comes along. I do this all the time, especially if it's a big seller with multiple similar items all bunched together. Many times listings of the same items are missed by bidders due to similarity.

If another deal hunter comes along, they may put in a bid of $25-30. So then the bid jumps 4-5x what it was at, as per your example.

MOST times this bid will not stand, but these bids win as well. The deal hunter will just hold that bid. 

Another bidder (myself included) will also come in at this point just to find out where everyone's max bid is, by incrementally bidding it up to their max, so I am just barely winning.  At this point other bidders like myself know the item will likely sell for more. 

Newbie bidders will also come in and this is where they get disappointed. They see a $50 item for $25, and put in a $30 bid.......and then they not only hope to win, but think they have a good chance. This is the problem with newbie bidders perceptions. They are trying to take advantage of the seller by getting a heavily discounted item. That is fine, but as opposed to the deal hunters, there is too high of an expectation of winning at that point.

The senior bidders, or serious bidders will put in their best bid. This will occur at any time in the auction, from the beginning for those who bid then stand by it, then there are last minute bidders who realize a $50 item should sell for 50 will bid higher, and finally the snipe bidders that manually or through a program bid in the last seconds. 

While many different scenarios can occur based on the value and desirability the one I find that mostly occurs is that the auction item is bid up to a range of %50-70 of it's final sell value (not it's retail worth, but average sell price on ebay). Then in the last minutes of the auction the price rises dramatically as a fairer value is achieved. 

This gives the appearance to new buyers that it's somehow unfair, but if they put in their highest bid in the beginning, then they would have a more realistic chance of winning. 

For you specific example, there is nothing out of line with how the auction prices jump up and are extremely normal.

[2011limey1]

femme - love reading your posts, you never cease to amaze me with your knowledge, but I especially love how you expand my knowledge of "ebay grammar" - NIBBLE BIDDING - love it!  Studied  English Lit. for a long time and I'm a frustrated writer, so I'm going to see today if I can use that phrase today, to someone, somewhere, somehow.  Thanks!

[brandeentertainment]

I alway bid high right away because I am never EVER around for the end of auctions and most of the time I lose but I am fine with losing because if I lose it is because it has exceeded what I am willing to pay for it ...

I use to watch at the very last seconds and make by bid at 4 second left but no time no more so I just always bid my maxes and walk away ..