When to accept bids in the last 4 hours?

[ian]

I have an auction going on right now that is in the last few hours and I have a number of pending bids.

What do you do in this situation?

On one hand, I want to accept them all at once to try and show how popular the auction is, but on the other, if I stagger them out I can keep refreshing the 4 hours to get more exposure to buyers.

Any thoughts on a strategy for this or am I overthinking it?

[Clinton]

There are various theories in various site flipping ebooks.

For larger value websites I don't believe it makes a difference to stagger bid approvals, sit on bids without approving then etc., purely to play a game and "fool" prospective buyers (Flippa should put a time stamp on each bid!)

Delaying bids to refresh the 4 hour extension is another matter. It could be counterproductive. How do you know that the bidder with the deepest pockets is going to be awake in his time zone when the auction finally ends? And are you potentially losing any bidders who can't be bothered with constantly watching a long drawn out auction.

[ian]

Thanks Clinton. I had already approved all the bids I wanted to about 10 minutes ago and you basically hit the nail on the head.

Not only would it be a pain for the buyer, but it would be too much effort for me to keep doing that too.

[meathead1234]

if I stagger them out I can keep refreshing the 4 hours to get more exposure to buyers.

Pretty sure this doesn't work anymore. Haven't run an auction for a while but that's from memory. The auction is only extended when the bid is made (not accepted). So staggering them won't extend the auction (I believe it used to).

I would just accept them all asap. Then send everyone a message (if you haven't already) about your BIN price (set one if you haven't already - even if it's high). Serious bidders don't like to be kept waiting.

If the site is a few hundred bucks, then it doesn't really matter either way.

[Andrew]

meathead1234's nailed it. Auction is extended when bid is placed regardless of when it is accepted. Right now, other bidders/watchers are not notified of the bid (and resulting extension) until the bid is accepted which would suggest early acceptance may be a good thing. We're looking to alter this so watchers/bidders are notified when the auction is extended ... personally, I think accepting bids you're happy with earlier rather than later is better as it gives other buyers the longest time to assess their position given the new bid amount.

[grynge]

Hey Andrew just taking the thread off topic for a sec, one of the things I hate about bidding on flippa is not being able to see the names of the other bidders. I understand why you do it but I was wondering would it be worth giving that option to the auction owner? Have hidden bids or shown bids. Just an idea? Forgive me if you already allow it I haven't setup an auction for a while.

[Andrew]

Hi grynge - We'd probably give the option to the bidder rather than the owner if we did it. Can I ask what we'd be looking to achieve with this?

[grynge]

Hi Andrew, it would give more transparency in the auction and allow people like me to check out the competition. One of the things that I hate in auctions is the idea of shill bidding, knowing that the last 3 bidders had been on flippa for x amount of time and had x credentials means I feel safer in bidding.

Actually how is this if you want to keep the bidders hidden why not put their statistics next to their name?

Bidder 1, Active 5 years, Trust rating 11, Feedback 100%
Bidder 2, Active 1 day, Trust rating 0, Feedback 0%
Bidder 3, Active 1 day, trust rating 0, Feedback 0%

or say on another auction
Bidder 1, Active 5 years, Trust rating 11, Feedback 100%
Bidder 2, Active 2 years, Trust rating 7, Feedback 80%
Bidder 3, Active 1 years, Trust rating 12, Feedback 70%

You can see which auction I would trust obviously the second one. This way you keep peoples anonymity but still allow other bidders some view of who is bidding.

[dbqinc]

Bidder 1, Active 5 years, Trust rating 11, Feedback 100%
Bidder 2, Active 1 day, Trust rating 0, Feedback 0%
Bidder 3, Active 1 day, trust rating 0, Feedback 0%

or say on another auction
Bidder 1, Active 5 years, Trust rating 11, Feedback 100%
Bidder 2, Active 2 years, Trust rating 7, Feedback 80%
Bidder 3, Active 1 years, Trust rating 12, Feedback 70%

A REALLY great idea, grynge! Last night i was on a bidding war with this one bidder for an auction that has now ended. I was really keen to own that website, and was willing to outbid this other bidder all the way, but as it dragged on (the bidder quickly outbid me each time) i suddenly thought to myself, what if this other bidder is just the seller's friend or seller's other account, since the only two bidders bidding and outbidding each other was only me and this bidder! Since there's no way to check "who" this other bidder is, i just let him win the auction in the end.

[Clinton]

grynge, having bidder identities public wouldn't make much of a difference. It didn't in the Sitepoint days. What would happen is that the price for aged Flippa accounts with feedback would simply go up.