Stupid REA Question
 

Why does Honest Auto Bid skip every other bidding increment?

Another stupid question. Is there anywhere they show the 15 minute countdown for Extended session? I know this will probably go on for a while, but both Goodwin and Heritage showed some clock counting down (and for Goodwin, constantly resetting). If there is any place to see recent bids on all lots, that would be useful too (I know I can see bids on individual lots).

It allows for you to bid, someone else to bid, and you to bid again (and repeat.) If it didn't skip bids, you could have two bids in a row, effectively setting it up so that the second bid could never happen.

If you click on "Recent Bids" you'll see that he still has about 200 bids coming in every hour. The 15 minute clock will NEVER come into play. After 11:00 PM Eastern, the auction will end when Rob gets tired and wants it to end. That's the way it's spelled out in the rules.

Yea, I don't like this, but it probably favors consignors receiving higher bids. In other auctions, you wouldn't have these skip bids, so the auction would favor aggressive bidders who put a high max autobid. All ties would go to these bidders, because they put in the high bid first. Therefore, a good strategy would be to put in a high max bid, so that you lead in the auction, and would win all ties going to your max bid.

Posted atop the home page of the auction on REA's Web site. Bold face is mine.

If the auction continues to as late as 11:00 P.M. EST on May 1st, 2010, Robert Edward Auctions reserves the right to close the auction, at its sole discretion, at any time. We recommend bidders leave maximum left bids utilizing Robert Edward Auctions' "Honest Auto-Bid" system to avoid disappointment. There will be no warning to exactly when we will close the auction should bidding continue past 11:00 P.M. EST. We do not anticipate the auction to remain open very long past 2:00 A.M. EST (technically the morning of May 2nd, 2010).

Got it. I see the Recent Bids in the Browse By box on the left hand side now. Thanks! Gary

This is not a stupid question, its a great question that I've posted about before. You should be able to auto bid any increment you want. There is no logical explanation for this rule in my opinion.

There is a simple way for this to be resolved. For example, if you are the high bidder at $1,000, you should be able to autobid up to the next level at $1,100 if you want. If someone else then bids $1,100, then you are now the high bidder at $1,100 because you bid first.

The person that also bid $1,100 would be informed that they have been automatically outbid, and they need to raise their bid to $1,200.

This is way better for bidders, because it gives bidders more flexibility. Its fair to bidders too, because the first person that bids a slot gets it. Its not confusing either, the losing bidder just thinks he's been outbid, and he has, someone else bid that price before him.

This would be better for consignors too, because the current system confines bidders to distant slots, which results in less bidding. Many times bidders don't raise their bid, because the next slot is too distant because of this rule.

The point of offering only alternate bidding increments is to avoid ties. It makes sense to me that competing bidders should outbid each other, and not tie. That's the way I implemented my ceiling bids too. Only alternate increments were available.

personally i dont' like the extended bid thing. when it's over, it'sover! just my spin.:D

Larry- I don't think consignors would go for that.;)

Not trying to obtuse, but I still don't get it.

Example:
Bidder A: $1,000 bid + $1,100 ceiling bid
Current bid $1,000

Bidder B: Now bids $1,100 and isn't high bidder, but Bidder A is at $1,100.

What's the problem?

It makes sense to me, but I can understand why some people don't like it.

If I'm high bid at $1000 and someone wants to bid on the lot $1100 has to be open for the next bid. So if I want to auto bid my next increment needs to be $1200 to leave room for the other bidder. We can't both bid $1100.

Think of it more from a live auction standpoint than Ebay.

But as far as the other bidder is aware, $1,100 is open. And when he places that bid, he's outbid again, right?

:confused:

Think of it this way:

Bidder A is high bid.

Bidder B places a bid.

In order for Bidder A to outbid Bidder B he would have to place another bid above Bidder B's.

The two can't share a bid amount.

As I said before think about from a live auction format. If I had a stand in bidding for me and they knew my ceiling was $1300 and I currently held the high bid at $1100. When the next person bid $1200 my stand in couldn't say "Sorry we're already at $1200." We weren't, we were at $1100. So my stand in would have to bid $1300 to counter the other bidder.

The problem is, it isn't a live auction. Its an online auction, which is why we have the whole concept of auto-bidding. Without any sort of auto-bidding, your system would make sense. But when you introduce auto-bid, you have to make it fair to the bidders to let them auto bid at any slot they want. There is no good reason to tie the hands of the auto bidder in this way.

The first bidder into the slot should win, end of story. The losing bidder doesn't know if he's been just beat to the slot, or outbid by a million dollars. He's just beat, and if he doesn't like it, he can bid more and/or bid earlier.

I have lost REA auctions where I wanted to increase my bid by one level, but was obviously unable to, and I refused the higher permitted slot because that would be overpaying for the item. This problem is amplified when the item is straddling the price point border and the next bid is a big price jump.

I could go on, but I'll stop. The problem would partly be cured if REA didn't have such wide price gaps in between slots. This rule will never make any sense to me. I guess the upside to this dumb rule is that this method has saved me from spending even more ridiculous amount of money on cardboard :D