A few thoughts on REA bidding

[M's_Fan]

Originally Posted by barrysloate

Jim- much to my chagrin the auction software I had did not necessitate alternate ceiling bids but allowed bidders to do it exactly as you said- if you bid 12K first and then they set their ceiling to 12K, they would be told somebody got there first who was the high bidder. Sounds fair, right?

Here is what really happens: bidders become irate, they don't understand what's going on, and they want to know why they were not high. They would call me at 1:00 AM to debate it, usually in the upper decibel level. To say it was a pain in the ass would be understating it. With alternate increments, that will never happen. Nobody will ever be tied.

This is how eBay works, I wonder if these knuckleheads get irate and call eBay when they tie with another bidder? I doubt that, for a couple of reasons: (1) When you tie with another bidder on eBay, but you didn't bid first, it simply says "you have been outbid by another bidder." Then you have to bid more. Its very simple. (2) eBay doesn't have bid slots with wide gaps, so people don't get mad, they just bid more. When you have wide gaps, people tend to get frustrated when someone else is parking in the bid slot, and you have to fork out a bunch of dough for the next slot.

In sum, they wouldn't even have to know they tied with another bidder, you just tell them they have been outbid, the same is if someone autobid higher. No way that could confuse anyone.