Bobby,
My guess is that a bidder did place a straight bid at that level despite it being higher than the next bid increment. While we would all generally like to win items as cheaply as possible, as a matter of strategy, I know that some bidders will preemptively place a bid at a particular bidding increment in an effort to discourage further bidding. For example, lets say a card is worth $1100 and the current bidding is at $500. For the sake of example, lets say its a must own card and Im actually willing to pay more than fair value for the card - say $1400. Now, if I know that the card wont sell anywhere close to the next bid increment of $550 (or whatever it happens to be) and believe that it will at least sell for its fair value, I might, instead of placing the bid at the next increment, consider placing a $1000 straight bid. With the 20% BP added in, the card would sell for $1200 - more than the market value, but still less than what I'm willing to pay. My hope would be that the price, which is already higher than market value once you consider the BP, would discourage further bidding but allow me to pick up the card for less than what my maximum bid might be.
The inability to snipe, the extended bidding and the 10% (or more) bidding increments used by auction houses changes the typical "ebay" strategy of trying to pick everything up as cheaply as possible and not showing your hand until the last few seconds of an auction.
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02-01-2010, 08:28 AM
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