From: Andrew Scott Beals (bandy_at_ricochet.net)
Date: Thu Mar 30 2000 - 16:02:21 EST
Perhaps bidwatch is buggy when it comes to dutch auctions? (-:*
"James H. E. Maugham" wrote:
> 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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