Show Items With Bids

[CeramicAnt]

I know it's been said before but for me it's the 1 thing that is missing from Ebid.
The main reason being that it is useful when trying to get an idea how much items maybe worth and if there is much interest from buyers rather than viewers.

[JaBek1]

I'm not sure how much good seeing bids would be in determining value, but it would definitely help in generating some sense of excitement with regard to the item being offered.

[cornishmaid1961]

I've asked and asked for years for the bids to be shown. They did relent for a few months after an overwhelming poll, a long time ago, but then the bid column was taken away again. Bidding will never take off here without one.

[lofty100e]

In my experience a bids made option would not acheive much as when I was selling previously all of my items were available on both auction (10p cheaper) and buy it now. Only ONE item ever had a bid placed on it.

Maybe there should be an option for bids to me made visible if the seller would like it (as with make an offer it would not be compulsory) to use it.

[tony41]

I know I've said it before but I can't see why showing bids will help determine value. Neither will it show what interest there is. All my lots have a bid price and a buy now price. The vast majority of buyers use buy now. So showing bids would show neither interest in items or value of items. In fact, showing bids might have the opposite effect, namely that users would look at a list of items. There would be very few bids showing so they conclude there is no interest while, in fact, there is a steady stream of sales - all buy now
I think the majority of buyers want items now, not wait for an auction to finish.

[JaBek1]

I know I've said it before but I can't see why showing bids will help determine value. Neither will it show what interest there is. All my lots have a bid price and a buy now price. The vast majority of buyers use buy now. So showing bids would show neither interest in items or value of items. In fact, showing bids might have the opposite effect, namely that users would look at a list of items. There would be very few bids showing so they conclude there is no interest while, in fact, there is a steady stream of sales - all buy now
I think the majority of buyers want items now, not wait for an auction to finish.

Perhaps I used the wrong choice of words in my previous post. The showing of bids would best serve in an auction atmosphere by creating something of a sense of competition between bidders. Of course, if there is not enough interest in an item to entice more than a single bidder to bid on it there is not much that can be done. Some items just aren't good candidates to be sold at auction.

On the other hand, the use of a "buy it now" price in conjunction with an auction is something of a hybrid which is neither auction or fixed offering. Frankly, by setting a BIN price with a starting bid on an auction is something akin to setting the value of an item rather than letting the market set the selling price. I would probably suggest avoiding selling items at auction and simply listing them as fixed price listings instead, if that is the case.

[JanetB]

I am inclined to blame Google for the (slow and sure) decline of auction style listings all over the internet because of their Buy Now rule to have listings accepted on their shopping search engine - perhaps this is why eBid won't show a bid column because Google denies all listings with bid prices and no Buy Now prices and therefore no exposure?

[astral276]

Round and around and around we go....

[buttons-and-bows]

We used to have a bid column way back when but there were hardly any bids so they removed it, can't see the point really if i am looking for something on the OS i look for the same item without bids and get it cheaper.

[JaBek1]

Of course, if you can find the item for sale cheaper for a fixed price there is a good chance that the item probably isn't one that should be sold at auction.

I agree with Jan about Google requirements hurting auction type sales.