Why do people place early bids on Winebid? Question/Rant

Piggybacking off the SQN thread, I have always wondered why people place bids on wines days before the auction is set to close. For example, eight different people have been fighting over this bottle for almost a week: 1995 Sine Qua Non Rose, Proprietary Blend | WineBid

This phenomenon doesn’t seem to be contained to high-end stuff either. People like Matt Esq and epstu do the exact same thing on inexpensive wines.

My question: what does all this early bidding accomplish besides jacking up the price? Wouldn’t it be better to wait until the last few minutes/seconds of the Winebid auction before bidding?

I do it for the thrill of being outbid. So I had the fun and excitement of the bid and I still have my money.

Let’s say I think the proper strike price is $100 for a bottle and there is a $10 increment. I bid $90 early with a max bid of $100. IKn order for someone to beat me, they have to bid $110. If they bid my strike price, I get it because I bid the strike price first. If no one bids, I get it for $10 less. I make my value judgment and that’s it. I eill not bid more than that, so this strategy wins me lots where there is a tie for the top bid.

Which reminds me. Acker screwed this up at the last auction and gave someone MY LOT on a tie even though I bid it first. I have to call them because they decide things wrong every few auctions. I do not know if it is programming error or a dumbell human or that they just cheat in favor of some customers.

I bid early just to get my price in. If I win, I win. If not, oh well. I set auto bids for things I really want. Works for me. I don’t understand why people freak out about early bidding.

To attempt to get the wine at the opening bid price or at a ceiling you’ve set for yourself. Just because I bid on a bottle, there’s no guarantee that others will also bid on the lot so I don’t see how that correlates to anyone ‘jacking up the price’.

I utilize both strategies - early bid and last minute - depending on the bottle, the bottle’s history (for those I’ve ben watching over a period of weeks), or hell, whether or not I can or feel like being around my computer on Sunday night.

There is no “strike” price. There is only market pricing. IMHO if you bid early, you end up bidding against yourself more times than not.

What Jay said. If you are only willing to pay the opening price or a little over it makes sense to bid ASAP.

A lot of people from our wine group actively buy on Winebid. We bid early in order to communicate our interest in the wine to each other and avoid bidding against each other. Kind of marking territory…

you need to read up on auction theory. You only bid against yourself if you are a moron or if the auctioneer is a cheater.

What everyone else said + I have a life and better things to do them snipe

+1

I always place the first bid so I can get a wine for the opening price. If someone else thinks it’s worth exactly the opening price, then they won’t bid on it if I bid first, in which case I get it for the opening value By contrast, if I wait, they’ll place the opening bid, and then I will have to bid an extra increment and pay more money to get the bottle.

I really don’t understand the point of waiting until the last second. I know how much I’m willing to bid, I put in my max, and either I get the bottle or I don’t. Why would waiting until the end increase my chances of getting it, or getting it for a lower price? Since a tie goes to the first bidder, the incentive is to bid first, not last.

If you bid first, then someone bids next, you have to bid again to win, thus bidding against yourself.

My first reaction to the original post was that it might as well ask, “Why isn’t everyone a sniping a****** living in his mom’s basement spending all day Sunday on a computer?” But then I calmed down.

George, you forgot “in his underwear.”

read my initial post more carefully. Then consider the fact that auction theory say that in an auction which is active and involves multiple bidders, the price paid is too high because all you need is one person who thinks the item is worth more than it actually is. Add a good dose of testosterone to the bidding process. I already own enough wine to last me to age 80, so I do not agonize over losing a particular bottle.

Because many bidders have a life, and aren’t wed to their computers on Sunday evening. With respect to WB, I disagree with MM’s theory about “bidding against yourself”. Re: auction strategy, I would second Jay’s approach, not that I welcome more informed competition;)

As long as we’re talking about “auction theory”, let me ask an “auction practicality” question…one that’s been lingering in the back of my head for awhile. And apologies in advance if this is thread drift.

There has been at least one thread, possibly several, re: “what’s your WB ID”, with the idea that if we all know each other’s bidding ID, one WBeserker wouldn’t bid on a wine if they knew another WBerserker bid on it first.

I don’t get that. At all. If I bid on the wine first, and you want it more than me, and bid higher than my max…take it…it’s yours. Fair and square.

No tears.

So your life seems to be viewing and posting on Wine Bererskers…I’d rather snipe at the last second on Winebid and save money.