Thread: I hate the bid increment rule!

I just lost a vintage double duck blade by a penny. The messed up part was that I had the penny-higher bid! I used powersnipe.com to place a $30 bid, and someone won with a $29.99 bid (who DOES that??)

How it works is the website will place my bid for me like 2 seconds before the end of the bid and "snipe" the auction to win it, but its advantage is also its downfall. That is because no human can process a bid 2 seconds to the end (don't know why, seems like ebay wont let you) and therefore, it places my bid AFTER the very last bidder.

SO, because of the bid increment rule, I can't place a bid for a penny more than the last highest guy, it has to be like $.50 or $1 higher or something, and therefore, I lost a vintage dubl duck blade that would've cost me $30.

Yes but how do you know their maximum bid was 29.99?

Well, it's not entirely his doing, if the bid before his had been less than $29.01 his would've pushed it to less than $29.51 and then your bid would've won by 1c. Or if you had bid before him (that's a good case against snipping).

When the difference is so close I don't think you should be too angry for not winning it. I think this is the case of both of you wanted it the same (within the margin of the bid increment which is generally few %), so the earlier bid wins.

I bet the other guy bid $100 and a $30 bid entered sooner by someone else would have only driven the price up farther

I figured the final bid was 29.99 because thats what it said it was:

Vintage Straight Razor - eBay (item 120699878670 end time Mar-23-11 08:21:43 PDT)

I'm just irritated because it looked like an older model dubl duck, and how am I ever gonna find another one for that price? It looked like all I'd have to do was buff it with some oil and grit

I HOPE that guy bid $100, because if i knew that I wouldn't be so ****ed because I'd never pay that much for a beat up duck

You'll never know. If he was an experienced eBayer who only wanted to pay $30 plus shipping, he would've bid a few cents over $30 to beat the eBay newbies who bid even dollars.

yes, I learned after this burn that I'll always bid $1 over an even number, or commonly entered one: $10, $15, $20, $30, $50, $55.....no more

If you really want it, I would suggest bidding a little more...like $25 over where you would "like" to be. Otherwise, if you take the cheap route, just understand you will get outsnipped frequently. When I bid on something I really want...I may put in a snipe a 150% of what I think it will go for (based on historic auction data). I can only guess I am not the only one who might do this...just a thought

It's the old saying about putting in a bid for the max you are willing to pay. If you are outbid then even if it's a penny, well it was your final bid.