Online auction etiquette - a personal gripe

I just had something happen to me in this week’s Winebid auction that set off a personal gripe with me, so I hope you’ll indulge me for a moment. I was bidding on one of the lots in the auction, a wine where there were two bottles available. I had put in a bid earlier in the week for both bottles. A few minutes ago, I get an email that I had been outbid, on one bottle.

Dude, really? When I see a person bidding on a two-bottle lot of a wine I might want, I either leave it alone or bid on both bottles. I just think it’s poor form to screw with someone trying to acquire two bottles of something by bidding on one of them. Maybe that’s just me, but I think it’s poor etiquette to split them up.

OK, I’m done ranting now. Thanks for listening. Oh, I did bump the bid, on both bottles, to the next highest even increment.

Sorry, but that’s just nonsensical to me.

Maybe the sniper was being nice to you by only taking one bottle and leaving one for you. Of course, maybe he only wanted or could afford one. There are multiple threads, and I’ve contributed to them, about being sniped on WineBid and discussing bidding strategies.

In either case, we are all annoyed when we don’t get what we want, but not sure at all why this would be a pet peeve in particular.

Like a missed wave, there’s always another bottle of wine on the horizon …

let it go…it’s like getting upset about sniping…

Unless you already own a bottle, you have no rights to dictate anything about it.

This^
You don’t set the rules. Your preconceived notions on what rules should apply are invalid. If you want both lots you will have to outbid any and all parties on both.

Auction etiquette 101- When the hammer falls, the highest bid wins.

Tough crowd. Common guys, John is just venting…

I think the first problem is thinking of them as a ‘lot’. They aren’t combined. If they were, they would be sold as one unit composed of two bottles. Since they are on two separate auctions, all bets are off.

So you are saying that John could raise his bid on bottle “A” to exceed the other person’s bid, and leave his high bid on bottle “B” at a lower price? Is that really an option? If it isn’t, then they aren’t really two separate auctions.

Yes and no. This is a single entry in the online auction, where they say “2 available”. That’s why I mentioned this as an online auction beef, because it appears to be a “lot”, but they can be bid on separately.

Also, I wasn’t stating a setting of rules. I was talking about unwritten etiquette. But clearly it is just me that looks at it that way.

Does one also reserve exclusive rights to vent, to pair with self-claimed rights to purchase via under-bidding?

I don’t already own a bottle. I would like to own the wine, but only if I can get two bottles for use in a dinner party setting. One bottle doesn’t do anything for me, so I would rather have both bottles, or none of them.

He can bid on one bottle and if his bid exceeds the lowest winning bid, he gets it. They are separate auctions listed together.

(Edited for spelling)

Victor, I’m not talking about self-claimed rights. I’m talking about etiquette when one is trying to buy both bottles, to not split the bid. But like normal etiquette, people clearly see this different ways.

I don´t know if/how it is possible to bid on only one btl if it´s a two-btl-lot …?

However, there are instances when I also would like to get only one btl - for instance if I need it for a tasting - or if I just wanna taste it once … so if it´s technically possible (and not forbidden) I also would do it …

This is bizarre to me. It’s not truly a two-bottle lot if you can bid on each separately. And why do other bidders have to defer or conform to your desires and strategy?

I would add that weird things happen when there are identical lots. I was bidding on something on eBay a few months ago. There were two identical items with deadlines just a couple of minutes apart. The bidding was active, so I put in bids on both, even though I only wanted one. Expecting someone to come in at the last minute and overbid me, I made topping bids on both five or seven minutes before the first auction closed. Lo and behold, I ended up with both lots – which I didn’t want – and the final price on the second one was cheaper than the first.

Did I think someone deliberately messed with me or violated some unwritten etiquette? No.

Where has such etiquette been established, besides in the original post here?

How are other potential bidders supposed to know that you “need” to get both bottles for a single dinner party? They don’t. So while I can understand being disappointed, this really isn’t an etiquette issue to me. If having both bottles together was that important, put your max bid high enough that you don’t lose out on one of the two. That’s just basic auction strategy, IMHO.

Bruce

Nowhere, other than in my mind as trying to be a nice guy to someone who is shooting for both bottles in these kind of lots. Clearly I’m the only one to see it this way.

As I said in the title, it’s a personal gripe. I thought a few people might know where I was coming from. I guess not.

I think the solution here is to require that all bidders be telepathic.

Hmm. But I guess that could cause other problems for the auction…