Losing on purpose

When I shop on eBay I usually avoid auctions and go for the buy-it-now choices. One reason is I don’t want to invest time tracking the auction and making bids. Another reason is an article I read a few years ago that said auction winners pay too much. That claim is based on the idea that things are worth only what someone is willing to pay. If you win the auction it means all the other bidders thought the price is too high. Sure, you might still get the item at less than market price, but that just means the market price is also too high. And, yes, the buy-it-now price might also be too high, but at least I didn’t need to fiddle with the auction process.

So, the other day I went looking for a replacement for my nearly obsolete phone. I had read a lot of reviews and watched several user videos. I made a choice and found a handful of used ones on eBay. But they were all at auction. Okay, okay, I’ll bid on one, despite my aversion. Then I was out-bid. So I raised my bid, and it stuck for the rest of the day, with four days until the end of the auction.

Later eBay sent me an email pointing out other offerings of the same phone. One had a buy-it-now price lower than my bid on the other phone. Rats. Was there a way out of the auction? I couldn’t find it. I could only wait to be outbid, to “lose” the auction.

So I waited. And waited.

Finally someone bumped up the bid. Thank you, whomever you are, for allowing me to lose.

UPDATE: The winning bid was way over what I was willing to pay.