Hacker News Reader

Guessing here - but they are probably relying on game theory / auction theory. They have a built in "sniping bot" - by allowing you to type your highest price, and it will auto-bid for you until that price.

The fear of being sniped encourages you to bid your maximum value, and not just wait and see if you can sneak in a lower bid. This is what all auction sites want.

View on HN

> They have a built in "sniping bot" - by allowing you to type your highest price, and it will auto-bid for you until that price.

With ubid, you also had the feature of letting it bid to your highest price. Yet they still extended the auction if someone outbid your highest price.

That seems like a good bit of psychology as it accommodates both people with the mental fortitude to type in their genuine max bid in the first place, and also people who don't really know what they're willing to bid until they see somebody else bid higher.

Except nobody uses it that way. Auctions are rare themselves. Sellers dont like it, buyers dont like it yet ebay won't change it.

People will pay a premium to win, not everyone but enough to make it worth it.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com