I know it kind of sounds like "Storage Wars" but do any of you ever bid on an auction you don't care to win? I must admit I did that with a Cafe Corner auction recently... I saw the first bidder was someone with 0 feedback who bid 0.99 on a used CC. I put a bid in at $350 knowing full well that it wouldn't win but if it did then it would be a steal of a deal (the box and instructions were in great shape, it was claimed to have never been in the sun, etc). By the time I got the outbid notice, the number of bids was around 35 and it was just by one person meaning they must have been trying close to $5 increments. It was kind of fun... the auction is now up to $565 US with 53 bids.

I know it kind of sounds like "Storage Wars" but do any of you ever bid on an auction you don't care to win?

I must admit I did that with a Cafe Corner auction recently... I saw the first bidder was someone with 0 feedback who bid 0.99 on a used CC. I put a bid in at $350 knowing full well that it wouldn't win but if it did then it would be a steal of a deal (the box and instructions were in great shape, it was claimed to have never been in the sun, etc).

By the time I got the outbid notice, the number of bids was around 35 and it was just by one person meaning they must have been trying close to $5 increments.

It was kind of fun... the auction is now up to $565 US with 53 bids.

Well, that's kinda the point anyway of the auctions - you pay what you want to pay for the item.. if it is above what you are willing to pay when you get outbid, that's the end of it.

I do that a lot - bidding on auctions where prices are very low - but in practice those auctions are going to end up at roughly the same average prices as others anyway.

I do this on occasion. I will see something that I'm not dying to have, but is currently at a great price, I'll throw some bids out to raise the price, If i get it, great, if not, then I made the seller a couple bucks.

Yes, sometimes if I've had enough already and I just want to go to sleep.

Sometimes, I bid on recently posted items that start out as a penny each, and have the max bid of around $5 for a set worth $50 just for kicks. Once, I got mad because I kept on getting out bid, so since I knew I would eventually get outbid, I just tried to jack up the price as much as possible. :-)

It was Elrond minifigure (that polybag) with free shipping started at 7$ ... I bid 18.00$ and the winner got it for 19.00$ and free shipping like a good month ago... kinda wished I bought it for 20$ or so in the end :D

Sometimes, I bid on recently posted items that start out as a penny each, and have the max bid of around $5 for a set worth $50 just for kicks. Once, I got mad because I kept on getting out bid, so since I knew I would eventually get outbid, I just tried to jack up the price as much as possible. :-)

Before I started to invest in Lego, I don't think I ever bid "just because." If I bid, it was because I wanted to win.

Rediscovering Lego has changed me!

This sounds illogical to me. It sounds like people are bidding on things they would actually want at a particularly low price. I would never place a bid on something I didn't want to win.

I do this on occasion. I will see something that I'm not dying to have, but is currently at a great price, I'll throw some bids out to raise the price, If i get it, great, if not, then I made the seller a couple bucks.

I do the same thing on items I know typically sell for a high price. I'll bid a low price knowing I probably won't win it, but if I do then great, if not then it's nothing lost.

I started out just putting things on my watch list but it got to be a pain putting in a bid later and watching the last 15 minutes to make sure I'm not outbid when it was about to end. Or they would end while I was sleeping. Now most of the time I just put in my max bid right away and then forgot about it. If I end up winning it then great. Otherwise I don't stress about it since it is going to end for more than what I wanted to pay anyway. But to answer the question I don't think I ever bid on things that I "don't want to win".

I almost did one time!

I will sometimes bid on someone else's item if it is the same as mine but listed much cheaper, just to make mine more appealing. e.***. If I list at start price of

YUUUUUUUUUUUUUUP!!

YUUUUUUUUUUUUUUP!!

SOLD! To the jack with the cheesy slogan and big ego. ;)

YUUUUUUUUUUUUUUP!!

I concur with this.

It was Elrond minifigure (that polybag) with free shipping started at 7$ ... I bid 18.00$ and the winner got it for 19.00$ and free shipping like a good month ago... kinda wished I bought it for 20$ or so in the end

Be glad, I have no idea why this item got to be so valuable, since, first of all, it doesn't look like elrond, the new minifig that is coming out this year actually looks like him and will be selling in a complete set with a bunch of other minifigs (one other exclusive) for less money than this one little goofy bag. I don't see how the current prices are sustainable with the new one coming out. Secondly, do you really want a $20 minifig? or is it the fact that other people want to spend that much on it that makes it valuable. Even if you had gotten it, and then flipped it, you wouldn't have made much money on the transaction after fees and shipping.

I have done this a few times just for fun (or that bored). Never came close to winning by a long shot, still was kinda fun for the heck of it.

Be glad, I have no idea why this item got to be so valuable, since, first of all, it doesn't look like elrond, the new minifig that is coming out this year actually looks like him and will be selling in a complete set with a bunch of other minifigs (one other exclusive) for less money than this one little goofy bag. I don't see how the current prices are sustainable with the new one coming out. Secondly, do you really want a $20 minifig? or is it the fact that other people want to spend that much on it that makes it valuable. Even if you had gotten it, and then flipped it, you wouldn't have made much money on the transaction after fees and shipping.

It does look like him generally but I do agree. The one in the set is more faithful to his appearance. As for value, there seemed to be a rather small amount of the Elrond polybag ever produced. Then add the fact you had to preorder the game to maybe get him in the first place, but so many people that had done this ended up with nothing and probably got the demo instead of the full game. A lot of bad karma around this one, don't ya think?

Anywho, the value of the Elrond polybag is mostly determined on how oddball difficult it was just to get one in the first place.

People love their polys and preorder specials!

Sounds like you threw out a "stink bid" at an unattractively low price which you'd have been very happy to pay if you'd actually won the auction for the low price. This isn't crazy, people do this all the time finding things on sale that they'd had no intention of purchasing but jumping when they see a steal of a deal. If, on the other hand, you routinely try to bid up items you honestly don't want just to run the price up on other collectors...they have dirty names for people like that...

Yes, sometimes if I've had enough already and I just want to go to sleep.

This. This is funny. I just watched that episode last week.

Yes but only to make sure no outrageously low prices are being had for items I have a vested interest in.

I started out just putting things on my watch list but it got to be a pain putting in a bid later and watching the last 15 minutes to make sure I'm not outbid when it was about to end. Or they would end while I was sleeping. Now most of the time I just put in my max bid right away and then forgot about it. If I end up winning it then great. Otherwise I don't stress about it since it is going to end for more than what I wanted to pay anyway.

But to answer the question I don't think I ever bid on things that I "don't want to win".

I found that there are two ways of bidding on eBay. What I call 'bid and leave' which is what you do, place your max bid and leave it. I usually do this when auctions are going to end at a time I am not going to be around. Or the other way is to place my max bid in the last ten seconds. Very satisfying to win it by a penny.

I never understand why people bid round numbers like 10.00.

Another thing I do is with auctions that have a low bidding price and a Buy it Now price, I put the minimum price in as this cancels the Buy It Now. It stops someone coming in and ending the auction early in something I want.

I never understand why people bid round numbers like 10.00.

I totally agree. I always bid on odd numbers like $0.23 or $0.96 or somthing.

I tend to end mine .02. I would not do .96, as I would be beaten by everyone doing .00s. :)