REA is open

[benjulmag]

Originally Posted by CuriousGeorge

I’m still struggling with understanding why closing the items all at once helps someone on a limited budget. It seems as if you run the same good or bad luck depending on when you get outbid on the item as you’re screwed if you get outbid right at the end and have nowhere to turn if they close all at once. Perhaps I’m missing something.

Here's how (and this what actually happened). I have a budget of X. There are 7 lots I have qualifying bids in on. One of them is literally a unique item which perfectly fits my collection and, by definition, being unique this is my one shot to get it. So I save my entire budget of X for that item. At 3:45 AM I got outbid once again, and this time I was at my budget. So I went back to those other 6 lots that I had qualifying bids in on and THAT WERE STILL OPEN BECAUSE ALL THE LOTS CLOSED AT THE SAME TIME, and started bidding on them. I ended up winning I think 4 of them, none of which I would have won had they had individual closing times.

Had the extended bidding period begun at an early enough hour and the bidding interval as midnight approached been steadily reduced to one minute, this entire scenario would have played out hours earlier.