Bid Stacking

[tulagirl]

What are your thoughts on bid stacking?  Would you avoid an auction because of this?  I know I would not.  If I wanted something I would not care in the least.  Sellers are complaining a lot on ebay about Bid Stacking affecting their businesses. I see their point.  It is allowed on ebay and I read it doesn't really affect the outcome of an auction.  It does though.  If someone has a pony up for sale many might want and a buyer knows that, they could stack a series of low bids and run off potential bidders.  Wouldn't the answer be to just not let the stacked bids freak you out when you are bidding?  I don't understand why people get in such a twist about things they do have some control over.  See a tower of bids...bid anyway.  I do see the sellers upset though as this is beyond their control.  Its worse for them because, if the person is thinking they won't be able to outbid that stacker, then they will look for another auction with less bids.

Have you bid on an auction recently where a bidder came in and bid stacked the auction?  Did you walk away or stay and bid?

Have you been a seller that has lost money due to bid stacking on a consistent basis?

This topic is concerning to me and I was really wanting to know what others though.  It seems so simple to  not let this kind of tactic get to you as a bidder, but it does bother me people are trying to manipulate auctions in another way so they can win. Blaaaa does it ever end?

[Baby Mischief]

Hi tulagirl!
Personally I do not care about how many bids the auction got already, I still have my roof for how much I allow myself to bid, so I always give it a try! If you dont, you will never know if you would have won or not!

[banditpony]

Hm. I don't think I know what bid stacking is... I guess I'll have to look that up. O_o Is it new?

[MikeysGrrrl]

Hm. I don't think I know what bid stacking is... I guess I'll have to look that up. O_o Is it new?

I'm a little unsure what that is as well.
I think it's an auction with a bunch of bids (that's what I got from the opening post) but I'm still not 100% sure

[tulagirl]

Okay here is what I think it is lol.  If I am wrong maybe someone can help me.  Apparently what it is .... is a bidder that wants an item for a low price will place like 15 or more tiny bids rather than one highest amount they are willing to spend bid.  It would look like this.

Starting Price 5.00 with a 5 Cent increment to bid up (example only)

Stacker comes in and puts in 10 bids all at one time that would look something like this.
5.00
5.05
5.10
5.15
5.20
5.25
5.30
5.35
5.40
5.45

When you look at the auction, all you can see is that 10 bids were placed by the same person.  So you are thinking, "man they are bidding high on this. I will go bid on another one."  This means that the bidder wins the auction for either the starting price of 5.00 or if somone did try to outbid them once but worried they wouldn't be able to, left and the stacker wins for 5.50.  So it looked like perhaps they make a really high amount of bids when in fact it was quite low.  Its a form of auction manipulation to me because, buyers will see that and think that person is someone they don't want to mess with or that person is a shiller and they won't get an honest bid.  So they don't bid and the seller loses money.

Hope this helps.

[bluerose9978]

Hi tulagirl!
Personally I do not care about how many bids the auction got already, I still have my roof for how much I allow myself to bid, so I always give it a try! If you dont, you will never know if you would have won or not!

I'm the same way. I watch out for shillers now after being burned by one but they usually bid between bidders and stackers are usually are the first bidders of an auction.

[MikeysGrrrl]

I think I understand what you're referring to now, I guess it depends on how bad I want the item in question.
If it's a must have item I'll fight tooth and nail for it, I don't care how many bids it shows, but if it's something that I kinda want but it's not a big deal, i'll just keep watching it while looking elsewhere.

[thekozmicpig]

I'll probably still snipe my max. If I win, hooray, if not, eh, didn't cost me anything to try.

[kitkatvintage]

I generally don't look at the number of bids when I see something I want. I have the most I'm willing to pay, and if someone wants to pay more they will win no matter how they bid.

[tulagirl]

I generally don't look at the number of bids when I see something I want. I have the most I'm willing to pay, and if someone wants to pay more they will win no matter how they bid.

See I always do because of shill bidding. I like to see if there are any warning signs of that.  So, I always click on the bidders to see what is going on with the auction.

I am also curious though to find out if any pony sellers have encountered this and felt they lost money as a result?

Post Merge: July 26, 2013, 12:36:33 PM

I think I understand what you're referring to now, I guess it depends on how bad I want the item in question.
If it's a must have item I'll fight tooth and nail for it, I don't care how many bids it shows, but if it's something that I kinda want but it's not a big deal, i'll just keep watching it while looking elsewhere.

Yes I figure I would put in a max bid at the end of the auction and try regardless of the number of first bids if I could be certain a shill situation wasn't going on.  Another thing I try to avoid is auctions where people are bidding and a sudden new account 0 feedback bidder jumps in the mix. That makes me nervous of shilling also.

[nhal039]

I generally don't look at the number of bids when I see something I want. I have the most I'm willing to pay, and if someone wants to pay more they will win no matter how they bid.

me too, I do this

[NoPonySpecial]

I usually open the auction up, and click on the little hyperlink that shows you the bids and who's been making them. That would show you any suspicious behavior.

[tulagirl]

Yea I also look at the day the auction ends because if more than one bid is on an auction with 6 days left I know its probably going to sell high, but if no bids are on the auction and its 1 day left quite often I prepare myself for sniper bidders lol.  The stackers were all new to me when I saw a discussion somewhere else where a bunch of sellers were saying they felt it should be declared illegal.  I was curious what people here thought as we are constantly dealing with these crazy behaviors.

[ponylady]

I generally don't look at the number of bids when I see something I want. I have the most I'm willing to pay, and if someone wants to pay more they will win no matter how they bid.

I am the same way. It's merely a strategy used by some that only influences a few in my opinion.

But I have "bid up" my bid although I was the highest bidder simply because it was too close of a price to the next runner-up.  In other words, I thought I would have a better chance at winning the item if I increased my bid!

[LittleKirara]

For me it's about the current going price not how many bids there are. When I find something I want to buy on eBay I think about what my max bid and will continue bidding despite how many bids or how active the other bidders are till it goes over what I set in my mind as a max price.

I think I have actually beaten a few bid stackers a few times in auctions. I guess I don't see that many people allowing themselves to be scared away from a auction with lots of bids, but what do I know.

As a seller it doesn't bother me much either I guess, because I always set a reserve at a price where I know I'm making money even if I only get the bottom price.