Belt Auction

Does bidding for items on ebay attract attention or discourage people bidding because of the competition?

My dad says bidding attracts people to an item. But I tend to avoid items with bids because I don't want to have to keep raising my bid to win the item. I'm a man and I don't have that mentality. I'm a man and I don't have that mentality.

Public Comments

1. IMO it can attract people. If nobody else is bidding (depending on the item) it makes me wonder what's wrong with it. But if there are 20 bids and I see that over half are from the same person then I wont bother bidding as it's not worth it if someone keeps pushing the bid up over pennies. I'll bid If there are a few bids by a few different people though You can just set a maximum bid up though, so if someone outbids you it will automatically increase your bid upto that limit instead of waiting around watching it. wow I said bid alot there.
2. What attracts people to an item is one thing and one thing only, it is something they want or need. Whether people are bidding on it is immaterial. But if you are looking for a bargain and you see it has already got 5 bidders on it then chances are it will sell for more than you hope to pay. if you are a seller and want to attract buyers there are 2 desired factors ~ a good feedback score and an informative listing. When you are buying, don't get carried away and get into a hectic bidding competition. ebay is a huge market place, don't win this item and there will always be another similar up for grabs shortly.
3. Items with bids definitely attract other bids. That is why I start all my sales at 99p - the trick is to get bids. Once a man (and it is men!) has bid then mentally the item is his. If another bidder appears then they are trying to take what's his from him so he will up his bid, not so much because he wants the item, more because he wants to defeat the 'interloper'.
4. Well, it depends if it will attract attention or not. This is what I would do: If the item is at £0.99 and it has been up for quite a few days then only watch it because there are bound to be many watchers on that item and hope that the final bid will be yours. In my opinion it will attract LESS attention the higher the bid, and thus meaning the amount of bids will discourage people. Lets face it, 30% of people on eBay are there for the bargains, scouring the website for things worth 5x the amount they are going to buy it for. Good luck.