My B/S/T Live Auction Complaint

[drcy]

Oh, it's an unspoken rule. That must be why I've never heard it.

I don't know what it's like in Texas, but where I come from it's considered showoffy to bid too large an increment. A $25 bid increment from one of my church members would be quite the scandal.

[Tao_Moko]

I don't see an issue. It's not that he bid $1, he bid $1 higher than the previous bidder. The Titus could have had a $10 increment, but it's not that big of a card so I would have done the same as the OP.

[wolf441]

I can definitely see both sides of the argument here. As a seller on the B/S/T auction section, I try to keep the bid increments low ($1) to encourage more people to join in the bidding. But I am generally selling lower priced items in this space.

I think the issue with the SGC 40 Titus is that it sort of straddles the line in terms of pricing. It's a mid grade T206 common that, because of the perceived scarity (due to hoarding, mustache, etc...), carries a premium. If I was the seller, I probably would have still kept the bid increments to $1.

That said, I've never thought of that decision in terms of how it might anger the potential buyers. As you said, at a normal auction, a one dollar bid increase would be laughed at by the auctioneer. That's not the case if the rules state specifically that this is the bid increment.

I placed the opening bid of $75 ($35 over minimum) because that's what I personally would pay for the card. I know it is worth more and I already own a lower graded copy, but that was my price point and I figured why waste time bouncing between $40 and $75. Once it went higher, I was out of the running. And I'm glad that bidders moved it quickly up in price so that the thread didn't have 50 posts bidding the card up incrementally.

But once the card got close to its ceiling, I don't see really see an issue with people using the stated minimum bid to jump into the lead. Should the final bidder at two minutes prior to close spend an extra $25 on the card just so not to insult other bidders? There was also the chance that someone else could have jumped in and out bid him in the last minute as well.

B/S/T auctions aren't perfect, but I think they are fun and it's nice to see some cool cards get put up for bid. The one thing about ebay is that you can put in a large max bid, but not have to pay that amount unless another bidder brings the price up to that max. That is not possible on the B/S/T auction section (although Frank's suggestion would work in this situation).

Sorry for the long post, I was just thinking about the situation and had about five changes of heart while reading the thread. Happy bidding!

[Econteachert205]

When I want something I watch it like a hawk so a one dollar overbid wouldn't bother me really. I do think it's a good idea for the auction to have defined increments though.

[ALR-bishop]

Is there some place one can get access to the unwritten rules

[Peter_Spaeth]

Rules or not, I agree with David here, I think it was tacky. By the logic of the people defending it, it would have been fine to raise the bid by one cent.

[bnorth]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

Rules or not, I agree with David here, I think it was tacky. By the logic of the people defending it, it would have been fine to raise the bid by one cent.

I think David it being extremely tacky. Not his auction and didn't even bid on it but on here crying about it for no reason.

Yes unless there was a rule against it a one cent raise is ok.

Are there any other unwritten rules I should know about?

[Leon]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

Rules or not, I agree with David here, I think it was tacky. By the logic of the people defending it, it would have been fine to raise the bid by one cent.

I disagree. The beauty of our BST is there really are no board rules to speak of. There are no unwritten rules and if there were no increments specified then 1 cent bids would be fine. As far as starting this thread and ranting, that is fine too.

[LEHR]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

Rules or not, I agree with David here, I think it was tacky. By the logic of the people defending it, it would have been fine to raise the bid by one cent.

If there are no written auction guidelines then I wouldn't complain if I was the one who lost by one cent. If there are no rules then how is bidding one dollar or even one cent not considered fair? I just don't understand the complaint since there were clearly no written rules. It doesn't matter if everyone else was bumping $25-$50 a pop, if I thought I could win an item for $1 more than the last bid then my bid would be the current bid +$1!

[Paul S]

Originally Posted by ALR-bishop

Is there some place one can get access to the unwritten rules

They are writ in invisible ink deep in the bowels of the forge at Mordor.