Why do people bid so early on ebay?

[Xilo]

Several reasons:

- People are dumb

- Seller is using an alternate account to drive up the price

- People are trolling to drive up the price

[The King of GnG]

My theory is that they do so because they are utterly and completely dumb.

[Izlude]

Why do people bid so early on ebay? I'm looking at an item that ends in a couple days and people are already having a bidding war on it. Are these people just bidding early in case they forget to bid later or do they just bid early to scare off other bidders. To me, it would be smart to only bid within minutes before the auction closes.

What's worse is when there's only 2 people bidding on 1 item, and the person keeps putting the cost up. What originally costs like 200 dollars, the item is put at 30 dollars no reserve (owner got an unexpected upgrade and didn't need the item). The person bidding puts it over 300 dollars. Either of us could have had it for only 50 bucks. They won as I simply didn't wanna spend more than what the item was worth. Gawd I hate that!! When I'm bidding, I bid at the last few seconds (it's a hit/miss situation whether you wait or bid early) but it's more practical to wait than to put the cost way up.

[Gabureiru]

gotta start sometime right?

if you wait till the last minute it'll just give more time for tons of people to become interested in the item, increasing the competition

people have a set limit of what they're gana spend, doesn't matter if it goes up to that limit quickly or slowly.

That's correct, I have a budget, based on that I make my bid, early. If I win it, good, if not I go find another item.

[Guest]

I always thought that this was the work of people with multiple accounts, making people look as though they are interested, at the same time, not having to set a reserve price and cut into their profit even more so.

My ex girlfriends dad did this all the time. Actually, he was quite a crook really, he actually forged an "original" royal mail sign mold by making it himself with some cheap resin. It made him ?200!

[Ryoken]

I just set my max bid and let it go.. I have better things to do with my time than wait till the last 2min and make sure I'm online or such nonsense..

If I get it for what I was willing to pay or less, I'm happy.. if not, so be it.

[no]

These bidders are the worst thing that ever happened to Ebay. They come in ignorant and bid then leave. Most likely they drop out half way through the auction after bidding the item up. Most of these bidders never buy anything but only bid costing the rest of us money. Ebay loves them because Ebay earns a few dollars more. The real auction begins the last 30 minutes and of that the last minute. If I had my way I'd ban anyone who has bid in the past but never bought. They are truly the worst.