[hunterking]

i just haven't gotten around to contacting ebay about it.

i'm yellowgalacticstar on the bidders list:

http://offer.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.d...m=250017066508

here are the rules for dutch auctions:

http://pages.ebay.com/help/buy/buyer-multiple.html

people who bid after i did with the same quantity and same price won some of the chips, but i didn't win any. people who bid after me with a smaller quantity at the same price won a chip. what about me?... any ideas?

hunter

[EricWeinstein23]

based on his feedback, you are probably glad you didnt win.

[hunterking]

Originally Posted by EricWeinstein23

based on his feedback, you are probably glad you didnt win.

yeah, totally. i was willing to take the gamble for 50 bucks for these. i just don't understand why i didn't win...

hk

[Nugzy]

Maybe those who did win entered higher maximum bid amounts? I dont know. But Im sure youre happy you didnt win now.

[pankwindu]

Originally Posted by Nugzy

Maybe those who did win entered higher maximum bid amounts? I dont know. But Im sure youre happy you didnt win now.

Yes, most of those who won a chip probably bid more than $25. The bid history doesn't show their higher bids, just the final price. One possibility is that denisegregson57 bid $25 and all the other winners bid higher. Since that $25 bid was earlier than yours they were higher on the list than you, and ended up getting the last one.

[lamonica]

Originally Posted by hunterking

yeah, totally. i was willing to take the gamble for 50 bucks for these. i just don't understand why i didn't win...

hk

Your post made me go learn about Dutch auctions. This is what I think happened:

The guy at the bottom (denisegregson57) apparently was first in with the $25/item that eventually became the winning bid - his bid was at Aug-10-06 13:23:29 PDT. Your $25/item bid came at Aug-12-06 19:44:18 PDT. All those other people in the winners' circle paid $25/item (price set the the lowest bidder that made it) - even though they all bid more.

When you bid, you were in the running based on quantity available. When the other interested parties came out later, you got pushed out of the winning group. If you had put in another bid at the very end- say at $40 per item - you would have sleazed in, at the next lower price - whatever holdemtight007 bid at Aug-17-06 02:14:45 PDT.

The info that ebay is displaying only shows the amount that everybody wound up paying - doesn't show the actual amounts bid in the winners' circle. I agree that this is confusing, and they could do a better job.

[hunterking]

ok, so here's the reply that i got back from ebay:

"Dear Bradley, [my name's not bradley!!!]

Thank you for writing eBay in regard to the dutch auction.

I understand your concern in this issue and will explain you. A Multiple
Item Listing (Dutch Auction) is a special auction format where a seller
can list multiple identical items they want to sell. The seller selects
the starting bid amount and indicates how many of these items are
available for the auction. Bidders who are interested in bidding on
these items decide how many of the items they want and how much they
want to pay for each item and then place their bid.

When the auction ends, the bidders who bid the highest for the items
will earn the right to purchase the items at the lowest successful bid
made by one of the winning bidders. I have provided some examples below
that should help explain what all of this means.

Let's say there is a Multiple Item Listing for DVD players, and the
seller is offering 10 of them for auction with a starting bid of $100.
If 10 people bid on this auction and only bid the minimum bid amount of
$100 for one item, all 10 members who placed their bids would be winning
high bidders for $100.

The example above is an easy example of a Multiple Item Listing.
However, we know that Dutch Auctions aren't always this easy and can
sometimes be complex. Below is another example:

Using the auction in the example above, let's say that 20 people placed
bids on this auction. Only this time 15 people bid $100 and 5 people bid
$150. When the auction closes, the 5 people who bid $150 will be winning
high bidders and the other 5 DVD players will go to the people who bid
$100 first. The best part of this is that ALL winning bidders will only
have to pay $100 for their DVD player. Remember, in the Multiple Item
Listing format, all winning bidders only pay the lowest bid amount made
by the group of winning bidders.

In a final example of this same auction, let's say that 10 people bid
$150 for the DVD players and the other 10 bid $100. In this example, the
10 bidders who had bid $150 would be the winning high bidders of the
auction and would pay $150 for their DVD player. Remember if enough
people bid above the minimum bid, the final price of the item will
increase as well. In our example, at least 10 people needed to bid over
$100 for the price to increase over the opening bid price.

Now, in the case of multiple quantities bid on by a bidder, the lowest
bidder of the winning bidders at the end of the auction may not earn the
right to purchase the complete quantity on which they bid. This is
because there may not be enough left to fulfill his or her entire bid
quantity by the time the higher bidders have been processed. In other
words, if the lowest bidder requested a quantity of 3 DVD players, that
bidder may only be entitled to one, since there are nine other DVD
players allocated to higher bidders. Bidders, the only way to avoid this
is to insure that you are not the lowest bidder. Sellers, in some cases
the lowest successful bidder may reserve the right to refuse purchase of
a partial quantity.

Please note that if the only bidder in a Multiple Item Listing bids on
the full quantity the seller is offering at an amount over the opening
bid, they will be the winning bidder for all items at the price they bid
per item. In some cases, the lowest successful bidder may reserve the
right to refuse purchase of a partial quantity. In that case, the seller
may skip that bidder and move on to the next one.


We thank you in advance for your cooperation, and wish you luck with
your future eBay transactions.

Sincerely,
Smith S.

eBay Customer Support"

[Strange]

Here's where I stopped reading:

"I understand your concern in this issue and will explain you."

Sounds like the kind of response that you get from a Nigerian scam.

[lamonica]

Originally Posted by Strange

Here's where I stopped reading:

"I understand your concern in this issue and will explain you."

Sounds like the kind of response that you get from a Nigerian scam.

LOL

Actually, they seem to be saying exactly what pank and I explained. I guess the lesson is that we should all bid enough to get in the group solidly, but not so little as to just miss. It's an interesting concept that you can be a winner, and pay less than your bid.