From: James H. E. Maugham (CaptJHEM_at_waterw.com)
Date: Thu Mar 30 2000 - 15:07:45 EST
Some further digressions on Egghead auctions. While watching the Thinkpad 600
that was going yesterday I noted something peculiar.
Let me preface the following by saying upfront that I'm not a big auction
shopper on any of the sites, so if this question displays an enormous amount of
ignorance, consider the source and forgive me. :-)
When I first tuned in, which was right around the closing time, the (IIRC 8)
TP600s they had were bid at 1 at $1509 and 6 or 7 bids at $1409. Most of the
lower bids had the little icon next them which identifies them as having been
made by Bidwatch.
I answered a few emails and went back to my browser and refreshed the page.
BANG! ALL of the Bidwatch bids were now at $1509! No intermediate increases,
just straight to matching the high bidder. And as there had been new bids on the
item after the closing, the Auction was now in Going, Going, Gone status until
there had been no new bids for some period of time.
Even if the Bidwatch bidders had specified a max bid far above the $1509 that
was bid, had they simply bided their time they would have won at $1409. Or, an
incremental bid could have been made at $1459 to win the auction. I realize
that there could have been some intermediate bids that I didn't see, but there
didn't appear to be a _lot_ of activity on the units beyond that apparently
generated by Bidwatch.
So my question is, who benefits from Bidwatch? Certainly not the bidders based
on the above. Or I am just (as usual) missing something obvious.
Regards,
James the Puzzled
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