Notes from the Epicenter: Going Once, Going Twice, Sold — to auctiongirl37!

CreativePro Staff

I’ve never quite understood auctions myself. Which is probably because most of my exposure to them has been through sitcoms. You know the obligatory episode wherein the main characters venture to an auction and, more than likely, unwittingly bid on an expensive item by accidentally raising their ping-pong-like paddle at just the wrong time. Joey once bought a yacht this way on Friends. And for some reason he was able to pay for it, even though he’s been an out-of-work actor for the past seven seasons. This has not contributed to my understanding of how auctions work.

Beginners (Bad) Luck
This is probably why I didn’t do so well my first few times on eBay. Actually, that’s an exaggeration. I’ve been on eBay a grand total of twice, each time with absolutely abysmal results. The first time was supposed to be a dry run — I just wanted to look around. I did a search for globes (since I collect globes of the world). They were all rather more money than I wanted to pay, all except one. It was a bronze globe and it looked nifty enough, so I bid on it. I was almost instantly outbid, so I bid again. And again. I eventually won the palm-sized globe (valued around $2.98 at your typical street sale or flea market), for the low, low price of ten bucks (plus shipping).

The next time I bid on an eBay item was just before Halloween and I desperately needed a pair of Harry Potter glasses that for some reason (which I’m sure made business sense in bizarro world) were unavailable during costume season. I won that auction, too, by utilizing an auction trick an eBay-savvy friend taught me: You can tell eBay the highest price you’re willing to pay for an item and the online auction fairies will keep upping your bid in response to others until you reach your cap. If your cap is something like $20.03 and someone else’s cap is a more intuitive $20.00, then you win. So I won the Harry Potter glasses, a $4.95 value, for $20. Plus shipping.

At this point my eBay savvy friend warned me that if you always win on eBay, you’re not really winning. Oh, yeah.

Who Are These eBay Users Anyway?
There is a whole culture, or maybe it’s a genre, of people who are regular eBay users. You probably know some (or are one yourself). Maybe they have a great new tea cup set. "I got it on eBay," they’ll tell you. Or a really retro-cool Barbie lunch box (usually a pretty intense eBay bidding war). Or an actual fireman’s coat. Or a set of Pac-Man place mats. Or the marquee to their favorite eighties-era arcade game (these last three are items my eBay friend — let’s call him Auction Roger — has actually purchased).

On eBay, everyone has a handle, or nickname. You get your handle when you set up your account. After a while, whether you are a buyer or a seller, you start to amass eBay feedback. That’s when the person who sold to you, or the person who bought from you, enters a positive or negative check mark under your account, indicating that you paid on time, or mailed the purchased item on time, or that you didn’t. When you get a negative, one of your positives goes away. (You’ll often hear eBay types say things like "I’ve got six positives." This is what they mean.) When you get ten positives, a little gold star appears next to your handle. Apparently there is a rather elaborate system of stars to denote increasing amounts of positive feedback. In this way, it pays to be honest. And prompt.

I asked Auction Roger to share some other eBay insights with me. He tells me that I’m not the only one who’s ever been caught up in a bidding frenzy and ended up paying more than an item is worth. Auction Roger has been looking for a certain book for a while. It’s a very fancy book and can apparently be ordered from the publisher for $50. Auction Roger has been trying to find it cheaper on eBay. He showed me a number of instances in which the book was put up for auction (eBay lets you search on auctions that have ended so you can check out the final selling price of various items) and eventually sold for quite a bit more than $50. Don’t forget the shipping. One auction even started the bidding at $100. The book sold.

The Escaping Logic
Then there are the times a particular item doesn’t sell by the time the auction ends, so its owner puts it up for sale again, this time for a lower starting bid. For some reason the bidding takes off this time, and the item is sold for more than the original starting bid. Apparently auctions on eBay are subject to the same random market forces that made Cabbage Patch Kids so sought after one year and so utterly passé the next. Except on eBay this phenomenon works in Internet time.

The disconnect between logic and action that seems to characterize many an eBay transaction could be the result of the non-auction-savvy masses being suddenly allowed entrance to a ritual previously reserved for ritzy fundraisers and people with estates and accountants. Goodness knows I was awful at it. But, in a way, it’s also the disconnect between logic and reality that has characterized the dot-com surge as a whole that is being played out in the smaller arena of individual transactions. Should you pay $20 for a set of Harry Potter glasses? Heck, it seems like a good idea: Everyone loves Harry Potter, and besides online auctions are fun. Which sounds a bit like how I imagine venture capital used to get divvied up (you know — everyone loves pets, and besides buying pet food online is a lot of fun!)

But eBay is darned useful, too. Auction Roger eventually did buy his fancy book for only $30 (including shipping). And he once bought a very cool (in a San Francisco sort of way) coat for about six bucks. Apparently, it’s all in knowing how to play the game.

Read more by Andrea Dudrow.