Harvard Business School Studies eBay Sniping

[Brownian Motion]

http://workingknowledge.hbs.edu/pubitem.jh...d=-1&t=strategy

Bidders lie in the grass, waiting till the last minute or even the last few seconds before bidding. They do this to keep the price as low as possible. Well Duh, Harvard, you could have just asked.

[Brad]

I'm glad they're putting their money to good use

[Ron S]

I went to Wharton. We sort of figured this out on our own. B-)

[Dave James]

And here I thought wasting money to validate what is painfully obvious to anyone with an IQ over room temperature was the exclusive province of the government.

Frankly, I've never figured out why anyone bothers to bid before the deadline unless they're trying to ramp up the returns for a buddy. My approach has always been to determine what I'm willing to pay (knowing full well that I may not win as a result) wait until the last second, bid and let the chips fall where they may. I also never bid in even dollars, i.e. I won't bid $50.00, but $50.05. I lost once by going with an "even" number and only matching an earlier bidder. Never again.

Up over and out.

[ejp626]

So we should all add $0.06 to our bids just to foil Dave.

Yeah, that's pretty much the strategy I follow, though I did lose out on a few things, since my internet connection went out at a bad time. I guess there are actually snipe programs out there, but I don't have time to learn about them.

And sometimes I do prefer just to bid my max (on something I am lukewarm about) and just forget about it.