GunBroker 15-minute rule: What do some people not get about it?

There's another thing being overlooked and that it could have simply been an absentee bidder, using an automated auction bidding (sniping) service to proxy bid, and they were not even logged on.

That kind of bid pattern with the same small increment repeatedly submitted, has all the hallmarks of an automated auction sniper such a Bidnapper battling with a bidder that had put a high "max bid" amount that was causing bidnapper to auto bid against each bid, and a seesaw bidding battle between computers ensues until the max bid amount of someone is finally reached.

Many people use them when they can't be online at the time of the auction close to see if they are the winning bidder or raise their bid if they aren't. A very common practice on eBay.
 
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$5 bids are the best way to discover your high bid.

For a potential buy who doesn't know what his competition placed as their max, it allows him to inch up and outbid you by $5, not $20 or $50.

For an unethical seller with a shill account it allows him to find out what your high bid bid is as well, and push his profit margin up.

I don't use the site. Saves money and aggravation.

I doesn't seem like you understand how the software works. You can out bid the No. 1 guy by a million dollars but the software is only going to post an amount equal to the previous No. 1 guy's max bid + $5.
 
And if the shill accidentally does exceed the legit bidders maximum, what then?? Technically he has just won the auction and the seller has to pay the Final Value Fee. I assume he will find some way to null his bid and leave the legit bidder with a max bid win. I've always felt that if a "winning" bidder defaults the next highest bidder should fall back to whatever the bid was before the defaulter started bidding. I don't imagine this would be real popular with the auction site.
 
And if the shill accidentally does exceed the legit bidders maximum, what then?? Technically he has just won the auction and the seller has to pay the Final Value Fee. I assume he will find some way to null his bid and leave the legit bidder with a max bid win.
I've always assumed the shill (and any fees) is an informed safety net for the seller.

I don't sell, how much is the fee? In some cases, if the seller has a number of guns and one is lagging way down for whatever reason, I guess it's worth it to eat the fee and try to sell in another setting. In most physical gun shops near me, I've noticed that used guns do eventually move, and their prices tend to be a lot higher than what you pay on GB. There's a place near me that had some FEG HP clones, they were refinished (parkerized) and pretty rough, and were selling for $400 at a time when you could get the same under $300 online.

Gunbroker seems the route to move things fast, and possibly for individuals to get their best price (outside of face-to-face). If you have a shop, you can sell something for more, if you can afford to wait.
 
$5 bids are the best way to discover your high bid.

For a potential buy who doesn't know what his competition placed as their max, it allows him to inch up and outbid you by $5, not $20 or $50.
I doesn't seem like you understand how the software works. You can out bid the No. 1 guy by a million dollars but the software is only going to post an amount equal to the previous No. 1 guy's max bid + $5.
I think you are missing Mainsail's point. In some situations (certainly not all, but some), it is very smart to inch up to discover another bidder's high bid. For a poor old guy like me who can never afford to overbid or overpay, the ability to find out that other bidder's high bid is winning information. :)
 
But knowing the other bidders max (high bid) is only good at that instant. With the 15 minute rule his max can change in a flash. If he is not paying attention to the closing, and you have found his max, your bid will still be no more than one increment above it regardless if you overbid by .01 cent or $100. Now if there are other bidders that pop in (i.e. "snipers") all bets are off.;) You will have to start nibbling to find their max. This could entertain you for hours. (And I afraid that it is just that, entertainment. Bid what it's worth to you or what you can afford and wait for it to close.)
 
But knowing the other bidders max (high bid) is only good at that instant. With the 15 minute rule his max can change in a flash. If he is not paying attention to the closing, and you have found his max, your bid will still be no more than one increment above it regardless if you overbid by .01 cent or $100. Now if there are other bidders that pop in (i.e. "snipers") all bets are off.;) You will have to start nibbling to find their max. This could entertain you for hours. (And I afraid that it is just that, entertainment. Bid what it's worth to you or what you can afford and wait for it to close.)
The problem is that I do not have unlimited money to buy what I'd like to buy. :) The truth is that I am old, retired, dirt poor and have no business being in the gun collecting business to begin with. In other words, I need to get crafty and lucky just to win something as cheap as a magazine, let alone a whole firearm. :)

The bottom line is that the technique and knowing the current high bidder's maximum has been very useful to me. It has made me a winner many times over again. If I had unlimited money and could always afford to bid the maximum for something, I wouldn't need it. I get that. That would be soooo nice! :D
 
The problem is that I do not have unlimited money to buy what I'd like to buy. :) The truth is that I am old, retired, dirt poor and have no business being in the gun collecting business to begin with. In other words, I need to get crafty and lucky just to win something as cheap as a magazine, let alone a whole firearm. :)

The bottom line is that the technique and knowing the current high bidder's maximum has been very useful to me. It has made me a winner many times over again. If I had unlimited money and could always afford to bid the maximum for something, I wouldn't need it. I get that. That would be soooo nice! :D
TTSH, forgive me if I'm missing something obvious; but how does this help you?

I mean, what's different than simply setting a max limit to your bid, and if that's surpassed, letting it go? And by that, I acknowledge having the option to creep up some beyond your initial bid.
Example- let's say I'm looking at an obscure 9mm DA/SA (like my recent purchase, another Star 30M). I have one with extra mags, an additional shooter is fun but not necessary. So I went 175 as an initial bid, that stayed about the range for most of the auction. I dropped behind, but the price didn't climb past 200 with a day left, so I went ahead and bid 225. That gave me high bid @ 201, someone bumped it to 206, and that's where I won.

If someone wanted to chase it, it was there for the taking. They probed once and bailed out.

I do understand being creative overall; I now have 2 Star 30's with 2 mags. Need more mags for the pair, so I looked around. Originals seem pricey on gunbroker and nonexistent on ebay, so I looked around. 31.95 at Numrich, not bad but not great (although they are stated to be Star, not Triple K). But a quick browse showed me Beretta 92S mags with the heel cutout are marked down to 11.95; so I ordered 2 of each. Total pushed me to 84 for 4 mags, free shipping since it's over 75. That's justifiable and now I have more mags for the Beretta on the way, in addition to the Stars.
 
I have ran up a gun and lost just as many times as it's happened to me. I've been lucky though and not overpaid for anything yet.
 
I won't bump the bid the minimum just to prolong an auction, but if I'm going back and forth with someone else for the top bidder spot you can guarantee that I'll take almost every second of that 15 minutes in hopes of the other guy not having the time. Sorry, but it works. What I don't understand is guys that bid before the last 15 minutes of an auction. I mean seriously, what is the point of that? If you are bidding on an auction and there are several days left then all you are doing is jacking up the price. I don't know how many auctions are won by bidders doing that, but I doubt very many. My guess is most auction winners don't bid till the very end.
 
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TTSH, forgive me if I'm missing something obvious; but how does this help you?

I mean, what's different than simply setting a max limit to your bid, and if that's surpassed, letting it go? And by that, I acknowledge having the option to creep up some beyond your initial bid.
Setting your absolute maximum and walking away is just fine if you can afford to pay your maximum for everything you decide to bid on. My problem is that I'm just not in a position to do that. I have to pick and choose my auctions. I have to probe for where the affordable bargains might be and where it is hopeless. In that regard, being able to determine your fellow bidder's bidding technique and current maximum bid without having to go over that bid is something that I find valuable. It's not a strategy I use in every auction or against every high bidder, but sometimes it helps... and sometimes it doesn't. I certainly don't use it in every auction nor do I recommend it for others. It just happens to work at times in my situation. :)
 
you can guarantee that I'll take almost every second of that 15 minutes in hopes of the other guy not having the time. Sorry, but it works. What I don't understand is guys that bid before the last 15 minutes of an auction.


You lost me .... With the 15 Min Rule, the second you, or anybody makes any kind of a bid in the 15 minute extension, the 15 minutes start over. (This is what started this whole discussion.) As long as anybody bids, the auction will keep running in perpetuity. It requires 15 minutes of NO bids to close.
What some folks can't seem to get their head around is that there is no ending of the auction that you can count on. It will only end when no one is willing to spend any more money. (Brilliant rule for the seller, auction house and shills)
 
You lost me .... With the 15 Min Rule, the second you, or anybody makes any kind of a bid in the 15 minute extension, the 15 minutes start over. (This is what started this whole discussion.) As long as anybody bids, the auction will keep running in perpetuity. It requires 15 minutes of NO bids to close.
What some folks can't seem to get their head around is that there is no ending of the auction that you can count on. It will only end when no one is willing to spend any more money. (Brilliant rule for the seller, auction house and shills)

I'm talking about a situation where say me and another bidder are trading that top spot with $10-15 bids. I've bought at least 30 guns off gunbroker, and it has been my experience that you will pay more money if you put in 1 max $ bid, vs bidding in increments. I've just found that when you have a max bid that is a hundred or more over the current auction price then you have guys that just keep bumping it to the point where they are bidding more than they really want to pay just to see if they can edge into the lead. But if at some point they are the high bidder, then you can often wait them out in a bid war for less $. And if you are in a bidding war then making that auction last as long as you are able to increases your chance to win. YMMV. For the record, I like the 15 minute rule. But I'll never understand bidding on a gun that has 4 days left on the auction.
 
Something else to consider is that it's online, with all the technical nuances and glitches that go along with it. In a perfect world everyone would have a brand new PC and lightning fast internet, but that's not reality. This doesn't address the OP's comment about incremental bidding a few bucks at a time, but in general I think the 15 minute rule is a good idea. It's a good way to equalize the technology differences between bidders, some will need that time just to deal with screen freezes, crashes and refresh the listing and see if they were outbid, and react to it they so desire.
 
I'm talking about a situation where say me and another bidder are trading that top spot with $10-15 bids. I've bought at least 30 guns off gunbroker, and it has been my experience that you will pay more money if you put in 1 max $ bid, vs bidding in increments. I've just found that when you have a max bid that is a hundred or more over the current auction price then you have guys that just keep bumping it to the point where they are bidding more than they really want to pay just to see if they can edge into the lead. But if at some point they are the high bidder, then you can often wait them out in a bid war for less $. And if you are in a bidding war then making that auction last as long as you are able to increases your chance to win. YMMV. For the record, I like the 15 minute rule. But I'll never understand bidding on a gun that has 4 days left on the auction.

Your analogy is exactly what I experienced with my last two purchases. I played the 15 minute rule game and got a screaming deal, hundreds under what this particular gun sells for there every day. The next one I knew I couldn't be around to watch the last 15 minutes so I put in a maximum bid days before and paid a premium to win it.
 
Auction sniping is infuriating
Why? Is it just because you think you are about to get a smoking deal and it all goes away with the click of a mouse..:mad:


My opinion is if you can't beat 'em, join 'em......:eek:;)
(Besides there is no sniping on GB. :rolleyes:)
 
This can get boring if I put in an early bid and then have to wait a week or so to see if I won.

This makes no sense to me. If an auction has a number of days left I won't even bother bidding. I prefer to put an item on my watch list and see what it does. If it gets a lot of traffic and goes higher than I wanted to pay I don't even bother.
 

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