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CRYBABIES AND THE AUCTION GAME
It is been said that 'winning isn't everything, but losing sucks,'
and human personalities being what they are, some things really shouldn't
be surprising. After all, even racers pout, throw things, and yell when
they lose, especially if they feel that fate or circumstances out of
their control cost them whatever opportunity they lost. For collectors
of high demand racing memorabilia that comes up at auction on the Internet,
the idea of losing is just as painful. However, with instant messaging
and email, they are able to do something about it…BE ASININE!
Before I go any further, this is not my personal gripe. Recently, however,
I have heard about a number of people in the auction game who talk about
being threatened, cussed out and maligned from underbidders (losers)
in auctions they have won. In today's auction climate, when certain
high-demand items have brought prices not even imagined five years ago,
these winners are paying literally through the nose to win, and the
person who helped make them pay that much is none too happy that his
best effort was not good enough.
Like racing, an auction is a contest. However, the big difference is
that the guy who spends the most does win every time! And like in racing,
a technique called sniping can allow an unseen 'foe' to come in at the
very last moment and cross the finish line first; there are no 'sure
bets'. Sniping is done either by the bidder manually or by using software
that is commercially available. When the auction has less than a minute
or two to go, the sniper throws out a big number in hopes of taking
the item away from the current high bidder. By sniping, that bidder
(if he or she wins) will usually win the item for the next bid above
the current reserve since there is not enough time to counter-bid.
So let's say you've found something you really want (for example, a
multi-racer autographed copy of the Last Race at Lions poster from 1972
in EX+ shape) and your maximum bid is $269.76. As the auction comes
to a close, the person who has been bidding against you up to that point
has only bid $102.37, meaning that the high bid (yours) is only $104.87,
$2.50 more. The auction uses your maximum as a reserve, so that $269.76
is only used if another bidder pushes it to that point. Then the sniper
comes in at the last minute or last 30 seconds or whatever, and bids
$1,000.00, knowing full well that no one (well, almost no one) would
be foolish enough to make that their reserve bid, and wins the auction
for $272.26. To the guy who held the high bid until that point, thinking
he had it sewed up until the last critical seconds, it can result in
a gnashing of teeth in the worst fashion.
You can almost hear the cry 'WAAA, he took it away from me!" In fact,
I know that feeling because it's happened to me.
Now, lets say you decide offhand that you are going to win the auction
no matter what and you do put in a reserve bid of $1,200.00, figuring
there is no way that anyone will take it away from you. The sniper coming
in at the last minute, throws out the $1,000.00 and you still hold the
high bid at $1,025.00. The sniper, if he or she was willing to pay more,
has waited too long and cannot put a second bid in to try and top yours.
Now the sniper is crying ("That so and so is making it impossible to
buy anything, the prices are going through the roof!") as if he had
nothing to do with the inflated price.
In racing, the driver who loses might go and yell at his or her crew
or dismiss the crew chief. Not in this deal. No, in the auction world,
the losers go to the winner and BLAME them for the loss.
For example, one person stated that, after winning several auctions
by placing extremely high bids from the onset and keeping the snipers
at bay, he was being accused of "taking everything" by the other bidders.
What's more, he received a threat from one 'real loser' that if the
loser ever found who the high bidder was, he would smack him in the
face! No wonder some of these guys (both the guilty and the innocent)
keep their identities secret.
Another person was very good at the sniping game. He would wait until
the last moment and put a big bid and win. While this might be considered
underhanded by some, it is certainly not in violation of any rule or
auction policy, and, as we saw in scenario #2 above, bidding this way
does not guarantee ownership. Nonetheless, losing bidders heaped venom
on this guy to the point where he now only buys from a handful of individuals
so that he does not have to give people his real name when he is paying
for stuff.
It shouldn't be so surprising that the auction deal is bizarre. Like
all hobbies and jobs, individuals come from all walks of life, have
specific views on fairness, and can have a religious-like affliction
to that belief system. But, it is still an auction. The high bidder
always wins, and you can't go whining just because it didn't go your
way. If you as a bidder wanted it so badly, you can only blame yourself
(and not another person on the planet) if you don't bid high enough.
Put up or shut up, and play nice with the rest of the kiddies in the
sandbox…
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