Dutch auctions don't have bid increments????? Huh??

[johnwash1]

I've just started a dutch auction. And I've just cancelled it PDQ.

I can't believe what I saw, if I understood correctly it said dutch auctions don't have bid increments.

I'd put up a product that I've previously sold on eBay for 4 quid, and have sold here on eBid several times for 2.99 and higher. I thought as an experiment I'd try my first dutch auction and start it at 99p, with the expectation that both past and new buyers would give me quite a flurry of bids and get the price up to at least 2.50, perhaps with a bit of luck rather higher.

That's how I believe it would work on eBay. Dutch auctions there get lots of bids, and the final price is the lowest remaining one, e.g. if my 4 items had received bids of 3x99p, 2x1.20, then the buyers would all pay 99p, and the successful bids would be the last 4.

Doesn't it work that way on eBid?

[gazza]

The price paid by everyone is the price the last item is sold for.

Bids are ordered by amount and then time.

G

[johnwash1]

The price paid by everyone is the price the last item is sold for.

Bids are ordered by amount and then time.

G

Please reread my post.

DUTCH AUCTIONS DON'T HAVE BID INCREMENTS!!!

I've just tried creating my auction again, from scratch. This time I kept a sharp lookout in case I'd overlooked a chance to enter the bid increment.

Even so, I went ahead, created the stupid auction, then tried update/delete. It says on that page, clear as day, "Dutch auctions don't have bid increments!".

That doesn't make any kind of sense to me. I expected to put up an auction, starting at 99p, with people bidding up from there in, say, 20p increments. Your kind of dutch auction looks like a buy-it-now.

Incidentally, I'd set a buy-it-now of 3.99. Is that relevant?

[blackwid0w]

If you have 3 for sale, 2 people bid £4 and one goes for the start of 99p, the whole lot will go for 99p each - same as eBay.

There are no increments on the Dutch auctions here but the lot will sell at the lowest winning bid price same as on eBay.

Using BIN here will reduce the number available by one each time someone uses it.

CJ

[johnwash1]

If you have 3 for sale, 2 people bid £4 and one goes for the start of 99p, the whole lot will go for 99p each - same as eBay.

There are no increments on the Dutch auctions here but the lot will sell at the lowest winning bid price same as on eBay.

Using BIN here will reduce the number available by one each time someone uses it.

CJ

No increments? I don't understand. What happens when 4 bidders have each bid 99p for 1? Can a fifth bidder join in? If so, how? I.e. on what terms? Do they choose their own price or what? And how does that fit with proxy bidding?

You give an example of bidders bidding 4 quid, but how do they get to do that if there's no increment?

Ebay (shows cross, waves garlic) have a familiar and (IMNSHO) perfectly good scheme for Dutch auctions. How is this one better???

There must be something here that I'm missing, which means, at the very least, that a better explanation is needed at the point where the seller clicks on "dutch auction". If I didn't have faith in eBid I'd run, not walk, away from creating a dutch auction. As I see it at the moment it's a no-brainer -- I can get a maximum of 3.96 (4x99p) on eBid, or I can get 16 quid on eBay (take off LF+FVF, but even so...).

[Oddballdave]

If you have 3 for sale, 2 people bid £4 and one goes for the start of 99p, the whole lot will go for 99p each - same as eBay.

There are no increments on the Dutch auctions here but the lot will sell at the lowest winning bid price same as on eBay.

Using BIN here will reduce the number available by one each time someone uses it.

CJ

No increments? I don't understand. What happens when 4 bidders have each bid 99p for 1? Can a fifth bidder join in? If so, how? I.e. on what terms? Do they choose their own price or what? And how does that fit with proxy bidding?

You give an example of bidders bidding 4 quid, but how do they get to do that if there's no increment?

Ebay (shows cross, waves garlic) have a familiar and (IMNSHO) perfectly good scheme for Dutch auctions. How is this one better???

There must be something here that I'm missing, which means, at the very least, that a better explanation is needed at the point where the seller clicks on "dutch auction". If I didn't have faith in eBid I'd run, not walk, away from creating a dutch auction. As I see it at the moment it's a no-brainer -- I can get a maximum of 3.96 (4x99p) on eBid, or I can get 16 quid on eBay (take off LF+FVF, but even so...).

If you have BIN then the number of Dutch auction items will be reduced and they no longer count.

So you have four items, two people bid at 99p (and are winners)
third person uses BIN (and wins!) You now have three items in auction
Fourth person comes and bids 99p they too are a winner.

The auction continues and a FIFTH person sees the auction, fancies some but has to bid higher than 99p (any increment they like)
this causes person 4 to be knocked out (earlier bids of the same value have priority).
They come and rebid. Again any increment they like. BUT AFAIK the bid box will be showing the value of bidder five to be beaten (by any increment you like).

It works, but I have never seen any dutch auction here actually sell ALL the items so it has never to my knowledge been tested.

Question for Da Boyz. Can we set up a test dutch auction, invite a few Kitchen Tablers to come and play for 24 hours (or so) to demonstrate that it works?
Over the road have a test area for testing templates/html and all sorts of stuff, I shall nip to the suggestion forum and make a suggestion.

Dave

[johnwash1]

...
It works, but I have never seen any dutch auction here actually sell ALL the items so it has never to my knowledge been tested.

Dave

Thanks Dave. So it's really Quite Simple, eh! Well, pardon me for getting confused, I just hope the buyers will find it easier than I did as a seller!

I've put the auction up and let's see how it rolls.

I wonder how many sellers in the past have considered a dutch auction but never gone all the way. We shall never know!

[johnwash1]

OK, here's the story so far, on auction http://boxer.ebid.co.uk/perl/objects...9-0&mo=auction

Looks to me like there's been one bid, by Frances (designedbyfrances). Here's bits of it, pasted from it:

Quantity Dutch Auction of 4 items (still available: 4)

No. Bids 1

Highest bid £0.99

CURRENT WINNING BIDS
Bidder Name and Rating Time and Date Bid Amount Quantity
designedbyfrances (Platinum 48) Tue 16 Sep 08:54 2003 £3.99 1

Buythis itemNow
Quantity (Maximum 3)

Would someone like to explain to me what's happening? Has Frances done a BIN? If not, why can people only BIN 3? If she has, why does it say 4 are still available (the original auction was posted for 4).

john

[gazza]

The bid should show 0.99.

Bug fix in progress.

G

[f3speech]

John

person on here I reckon has most experience with dutch THAT ALL SELL! is funky fudge factory (or whatever she is calling herself since name change! :wink: )

Why not ask her - she's very friendly and I know she's used a lot of dutch auctions