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

[Ackley1952]

I went back over the original post and realized that the seller in that auction got $525 bucks for a Rossi 22 pump. Now who can say auctions don’t work ?

 

[jlemay69]

15 Minute Rule

There are shill bidders working to boost some auction selling price. I always look at the "feedback" on bidders for auctions I am interested in. If there are shill bidders their "buyers feedbacks" will contain some from the auctioneer as they often get the high bid when others drop out.

 

[Ackley1952]

Oh your gun broker account gives you feedback from the auctioneer?????? That’s some really high tech equipment you got there . I’ll bet the backup bidder on the $525 Rossi woke up next morning and promised to never drink again .

 

[326MOD10]

I get the 15 minute rule:

If I bid within the last 15 minutes it gives someone else the chance to come in and outbid me for 15 minutes.

Everytime someone bids within the 15 minutes it resets.

I like having the control to bid for myself and in the end the person making the highest bid gets the item no matter how long it takes.

If you chose to make your max bid and let it go they will tell you if/when you win so you don't have to check on it.

 

[The_Truth]

If you're truly entering your maximum bid anyway I really don't see why it matters. You enter your maximum bid and then you walk away and check the next day to see if you won or not.

 

[Ackley1952]

In an auction there are winning bidders, back up bidders, early bidders , and ground clutter. It’s important in an auction to know what you are !!!

 

[Grayfox]

There are several reasons why this might happen.
1. New guy unfamiliar with how things work.
2. Panic buyer: He wants the gun badly, but is on a very tight budget.
3. Cheapskate: wants the gun, but too cheap to pay what it takes to get it. Trying for the lowest possible price he can get.
4. Idiot/Jerk: there's no explaining these people.
5. Shill bidder: just running up the price.
Take your pick or any combination there of.
If you're gonna use the auction sites, this is just part of how the game is played. Get used to it.

About 15 years ago there was a gun on GB that I really, really wanted. But back then my budget was a major limiting factor in what I could buy. I knew what it was worth, what it would probably sell for and honestly, I had doubts about my chances. So I crunched the numbers and figured out what the absolute maximum I could possibly pay was and entered that amount a couple of days before the auction closed.
I was in the lead with money to spare right up until the last minute. Then this other guy started doing exactly what we are talking about here. Raising his bid $5 at a time over and over, extending the auction each time. After almost an hour of doing this, he finally gave up and I won!
Little did he know that if he had bid just one more time, he would have beat me by three bucks.

 

[RobzGuns]

While frustrating to some buyers (like myself in that particular case), the 15-min rule is often a seller’s best friend.

I've found this to be a possibility/probablilty on many auctions... Especially when the starting (or last) bid is unbelievably low for an item.

I no longer even frequent the auction sites.

 

[Rio Laxas]

It could also be that the bidder was trying to extend the auction as long as possible to give themselves more time to think about how badly they really wanted it.

 

[Borderboss]

Enter your MAX bid and walk away. You win -- Oh Happy Day, or you lose -- Tough there is always tomorrow.

Precisely my point of the thread. With the system used by GunBroker, there's no reason to try to nickel-and-dime the price up to see if you get a winning bid. Just set your max and you get it or you don't.

GB isn't eBay. I use Auction Sniper on eBay and it works great. But even there, I put in my max and I walk away.

 

[Borderboss]

Imagine the audacity of allowing others to bid at an auction! And the crazy rules allow the highest bidder to make the purchase. I’ll bet the seller would like to change rules to where some mid range bid takes the item. Which part of this bidding process violated the rules ? I just wanna be fair cause I don’t enjoy whining now that my kids are raised .

You're missing the point. I don't care that someone else is bidding. It's an auction. But to put in little bids a few minutes apart to try to get a high bid with the system that GB uses is ludicrous. All it does is extend the ending time of the auction.

 

[Rocket3]

"The purpose for the 15 Minute Rule is to prevent sniping and offer all users the opportunity to bid. The 15 Minute Rule allows all bidders an equal opportunity to place their best bid, and the seller can be assured he/she will receive maximum value for the item."

 

[jimmyj]

Question:
If a item starts out at $100.00 and you put in a maximin bid of $300.00 after the second bidder bids $150.00, do the bid automatically go to your maximin bid of $300.00 or does the bid price go to $155.00 ?

 

[The_Truth]

Maybe the guy doesn't want to risk bumping the price up by $50 and only wants other bidders to see his small, deliberate increments.

The guy may very well be an idiot but there are reasons to do all of these things.

 

[Borderboss]

I went back over the original post and realized that the seller in that auction got $525 bucks for a Rossi 22 pump. Now who can say auctions don’t work ?

Yeah, I did probably overpay.

I had spoken to the seller and they said the gun was practically new, with hardly any wear. That, and their high quality feedback on GB, is why I went as high as I did. I wanted the thing, and given that they're not made anymore and parts would be like hen's teeth, I wanted a good chance of getting one that would hold up.

 

[The_Truth]

Question:
If a item starts out at $100.00 and you put in a maximin bid of $300.00 after the second bidder bids $150.00, done the bid automatically go to your maximin bid of $300.00 or does the bid price go to $155.00 ?

Bid price would go to 155$

 

[Borderboss]

Question:
If a item starts out at $100.00 and you put in a maximin bid of $300.00 after the second bidder bids $150.00, done the bid automatically go to your maximin bid of $300.00 or does the bid price go to $155.00 ?

It goes to the next increment based on the auction house rules. If you notice the sequence in the auction I was in, I put a max bid of $556 in on 3/25. As the other guy put in his $5 increases, GB would have told him that he had been outbid and bumped it to the next $5 increment within my max. The bid never got to my max because he finally gave up.

Before he started bidding, the high bid was $355. So his bid attempts added $170 to the price I paid. While I would rather not pay that extra $$$, it's an auction and I set my max, so it is what it is.

 

[Ackley1952]

There are sniping programs being used that bid in last 3 seconds. The bidder was probably asleep. 5 dollar increments are set by gun broker . Place your high bid go to sleep ��. There is no conspiracy.

 

[LVSteve]

Any live auctioneer that waited 15 minutes for the next bid wouldn't keep his job very long.......

I had to deal with his close cousin. Years ago there was a pre-fall of France MAS 1936 in an estate auction. The auction had electronic bids in the days before the auction and was live streamed on the day.

When the item came up I was in the lead with a $170 bid IIRC. After some cajoling, somebody in the room bid $180 and the electronic system put me in at $190. I had a maximum of $210 I think.

For the next 3-5 minutes the auctioneer badgered the room and the Internet for more money. He clearly had a philosophical issue with selling a gun for under $200 bid. Eventually he got a couple of people in the room to bid and I think the gun went for $225. I was out and I didn't bid any more live because that auctioneer had knocked down everything else way quicker, and I felt the gun should have been mine already.

Now, the punch line.

I was also the lead electronic bidder on the next item at $300. It was a $550-600 gun most days. The auctioneer knocked it down to me in about 20 seconds. The blue haze around my den was pretty thick at this guy's inconsistency. Sure, I got a very original FN-49 dirt cheap, but still.

 

[LLOYD17]

Don't discount the human reaction in these bids. Have you ever bid on an item to see if the high bidder flinches and increases their bid prior to you beating their prior bid? There is a bit of sport in this.

I'm a firm believer in bid your max and walk away...and bid last minute...and constantly change my internal max bid limit last minute.

If you still won under your max bid who cares how long it took?