Why are people stupid? Ebay and Porsche Parts

[binaryc]

I wonder what would happen if ebay didn't show the high bid until the auction is over? I wonder if that would cause people to pay more, or less?

[Jeph]

It seems to me you guys are missing the concept of an auction. It's NOT geared for getting the best deal. It's set up for the person that will pay the most.

If you place a bid that will "blow everybody out of the water," you'll win whether you place it at the last second, or the minute the auction becomes live.

Yes, the people that bid in tiny intervals repeatedly don't grasp the concept of auctions, but everybody was a beginner at sometime. (And yeah, there are just stupid people that don't learn and others driving up the price).

[Paul]

We do reverse auctions at work to buy just about everything. This process allows us to list something we want to buy, then let vendors bid the price DOWN.

I said all of this to point out a feature of these auctions. Although they have a deadline, each bid adds 2 minutes to the auction.

Wonder why eBay doesn't do this? It would eliminate snipers.