How Does Comic Link Determine the Final "Sale" Price? 2 2

[Upgrayedd2]

Recently while bidding on ComicLink (as the high bidder) I could see what others bid as they tried to catch up. For the items I did not win, when CL posted the winning bid, it was not the price that outbid me, but the highest bid amount the buyer placed. For example, if towards the end of the auction I had the highest bid at $1,000 and someone bid $1,500, the final "sale" price shows up at $1,500, not $1,050 (or whatever the next bid increment was). 

I am trying to convince myself this is not the case, but I've seen it happen a handful of times. The only other thing I can think of is that they are including the buyer fee in the final price. Unfortunately, I cannot determine how to review historical auctions on CL. It would be great if they provided stats like eBay (date, time, bidder, price). It appears they leave old sales up for 1 month, but it only shows the final price and number of bids.

I'm looking for a buyer who recently (within the last 2 months) won an auction by outbidding someone in the final moments. What price did CL reflect as the final, the amount you outbid the 2nd place or the highest bid you placed?

PS - nothing but love for CL. But this is one of those things I cannot shake.

[namisgr]

1.  There is no buyer fee for ComicLink.

2.  I have been buying and selling at auction on the site for something like 14 years, and have not seen the situation you describe.  Instead, winning bids are above the second highest bidder's top bid.

An example.  When you are the high bidder at $1000, the final hammer price is $1500 when an underbidder bids $1400, no matter how high at or above $1500 the winning bidder offered.  You should also realize that it's not uncommon for multiple bids to be placed within the last 15 seconds of an auction, from bidders using a 'snipe' application.

Edited June 6, 2021 by namisgr

[Upgrayedd2]

Correction, there is a 3% buyers commission (not fee). I'm looking at a receipt from one week ago.

[scribbler75]

That extra 3% is charged for payments made by credit card. If you pay for your order via check, money order or your bank account, you don't have to pay that additional 3%.

[Gaard]

20 hours ago, Upgrayedd2 said:

For the items I did not win, when CL posted the winning bid, it was not the price that outbid me, but the highest bid amount the buyer placed.

I trying to figure out how you would know what the highest bid the winner made.

[Upgrayedd2]

2 hours ago, Gaard said:

I trying to figure out how you would know what the highest bid the winner made.

Good point, I'll explain.

I bid, what I and my friends considered, a ludicrous amount for a comic. I wanted it for my personal collection so damn anyone who said I was over paying any current or inflated price. To put things into perspective, the issue as graded sold for less than $2,000 the previous month. With less than 15 minutes left, I was well over $1,000 above the nearest bidder. Myself and three of my friends were in my house watching each bid. The screen showed the amount that each person bid and time left in the auction. At first, people bid small amounts (less than $100), but every so often someone dropped $100, then $200 but they were no where near my bid. Within the 10 minute mark, the price was double what the last issue sold for and bidding came to a stop. With 20 seconds left, someone dropped $500 but still not close. With less than 10 seconds someone dropped over $600 above my bid - we were amazed. We all saw the dollar amount. And when the auction ended, the overbid amount was what appeared as the sale amount. We all commented on why wasn't the winning bid the next increment over our bid? In addition, the winning bid was a unique number. For example, instead of say $5,000, it was $5,311. We speculated that the investor(s) who entered the amount did so in a hurry.

I wish I had screen-shot the bidding history. From what I recall, I do not remember seeing this tracking/logging of each bid on other items. This was the first time I was the highest bid for well over an hour and sat in front of the computer through to the end of the auction. I have watched other auctions and I do not recall seeing the logging of each bid.

I hope this helps as opposed to adding confusion. I welcome any speculation, doubts, conspiracy theories and location of current unicorns.

[greggy]

26 minutes ago, Upgrayedd2 said:

Good point, I'll explain.

I bid, what I and my friends considered, a ludicrous amount for a comic. I wanted it for my personal collection so damn anyone who said I was over paying any current or inflated price. To put things into perspective, the issue as graded sold for less than $2,000 the previous month. With less than 15 minutes left, I was well over $1,000 above the nearest bidder. Myself and three of my friends were in my house watching each bid. The screen showed the amount that each person bid and time left in the auction. At first, people bid small amounts (less than $100), but every so often someone dropped $100, then $200 but they were no where near my bid. Within the 10 minute mark, the price was double what the last issue sold for and bidding came to a stop. With 20 seconds left, someone dropped $500 but still not close. With less than 10 seconds someone dropped over $600 above my bid - we were amazed. We all saw the dollar amount. And when the auction ended, the overbid amount was what appeared as the sale amount. We all commented on why wasn't the winning bid the next increment over our bid? In addition, the winning bid was a unique number. For example, instead of say $5,000, it was $5,311. We speculated that the investor(s) who entered the amount did so in a hurry.

I wish I had screen-shot the bidding history. From what I recall, I do not remember seeing this tracking/logging of each bid on other items. This was the first time I was the highest bid for well over an hour and sat in front of the computer through to the end of the auction. I have watched other auctions and I do not recall seeing the logging of each bid.

I hope this helps as opposed to adding confusion. I welcome any speculation, doubts, conspiracy theories and location of current unicorns.

ComicLink works the same way that eBay does in their bidding.  

What's important is what the bid was before the winner made his last bid.

If $5,311 was above the minimum increment extra that he had to bid, he is allowed to bid and that will be his winning bid because it's above your $5000 proxy bid.

For example, if the bid prior to the last bid was $4700 and the minimum increment is $500, all he has to do is bid $5200 or above for the bid to take.

The system doesn't require them to bid a full increment above your max, as it's unknown to others at that time.

Hope this explains everything. 

[Upgrayedd2]

I completely agree with you.

However, the notional $5,311 was not only greater than my bid, but also higher than the next required bid increment. So, the winning amount should reflect the next increment above mine (which is less than $5,311) or $1 above my bid amount. 

I do not recall the bid increments for comics in the $5,000 range. I know they first begin at $1, then grow from there; $10, $20, $50

[Artboy99]

47 minutes ago, Upgrayedd2 said:

Good point, I'll explain.

I bid, what I and my friends considered, a ludicrous amount for a comic. I wanted it for my personal collection so damn anyone who said I was over paying any current or inflated price. To put things into perspective, the issue as graded sold for less than $2,000 the previous month. With less than 15 minutes left, I was well over $1,000 above the nearest bidder. Myself and three of my friends were in my house watching each bid. The screen showed the amount that each person bid and time left in the auction. At first, people bid small amounts (less than $100), but every so often someone dropped $100, then $200 but they were no where near my bid. Within the 10 minute mark, the price was double what the last issue sold for and bidding came to a stop. With 20 seconds left, someone dropped $500 but still not close. With less than 10 seconds someone dropped over $600 above my bid - we were amazed. We all saw the dollar amount. And when the auction ended, the overbid amount was what appeared as the sale amount. We all commented on why wasn't the winning bid the next increment over our bid? In addition, the winning bid was a unique number. For example, instead of say $5,000, it was $5,311. We speculated that the investor(s) who entered the amount did so in a hurry.

I wish I had screen-shot the bidding history. From what I recall, I do not remember seeing this tracking/logging of each bid on other items. This was the first time I was the highest bid for well over an hour and sat in front of the computer through to the end of the auction. I have watched other auctions and I do not recall seeing the logging of each bid.

I hope this helps as opposed to adding confusion. I welcome any speculation, doubts, conspiracy theories and location of current unicorns.

I always bid a weird number so the next guy cant try to guess what I have bid.

[bc]

From $1K to $9,999, the minimum bid increment on ComicLink is $100.00

Just remember that ComicLink does not show a users maximum bid, just the minimum amount to cover the $100 minimum.

Another bidder (Mr. A) somewhere must have placed a maximum bid that was $x,x11 (lets say it was 5,211.00). Another bidder (Mr. B) places a maximum bid of $5,500. Since the minimum increment bid is $100, Mr. B would win the auction with a bid of $5,311, even though his max bid was $5,500.

Real world example - just won this book last month on ComicLink. Here's the bid history:

My max bid was not $837, it was higher (for this example, let's say my max bid was $900). The 2nd place bidder used an "uneven" amount in his max bid at $787. The minimum increment bid at this tier is $50, which is the exact difference between his max bid ($787) and still less than mine ($900).

Hope this helps!

-bc

[Upgrayedd2]

BC,

I would like to make it clear that I do not believe CL is posting higher sale prices. I am trying to figure out the anomaly we observed.

Thanks for the info. It makes perfect sense. I'm going to use something similar for illustration purposes.

This is what we saw with 11 seconds left in the auction

Date   11:05:15 PM ET $4,700 (I am the highest bidder)

 

With 10 seconds left, we saw this

Date   11:05:25 PM ET $5,311 (and a prompt appeared that said I have been outbid)

 

Then we watched the final few seconds tick off the clock and the auction ended. In order to beat my bid, someone had to enter an amount greater than $4,800. However, we saw the amount of $5,311 and assumed that's the new highest bid. However, CL said they never reveal the highest bid. You have to keep bidding up. If the person set the new high of $5,311, then when the auction ended, the final price should have been $4,800 (or $4,811 not sure).

One possibility is that someone else, within the 10 seconds bid the amount of $5,211 and then the winner bid $5,311 all within 5 seconds. If there had been another bidder who outbid us we would have seen the other amount as it would have beat mine. Once $5,311 hit the page, it did not change and that number appeared as the winning amount.

Perplexed

[bc]

13 hours ago, Upgrayedd2 said:

BC,

I would like to make it clear that I do not believe CL is posting higher sale prices. I am trying to figure out the anomaly we observed.

Thanks for the info. It makes perfect sense. I'm going to use something similar for illustration purposes.

This is what we saw with 11 seconds left in the auction

Date   11:05:15 PM ET $4,700 (I am the highest bidder)

 

With 10 seconds left, we saw this

Date   11:05:25 PM ET $5,311 (and a prompt appeared that said I have been outbid)

 

Then we watched the final few seconds tick off the clock and the auction ended. In order to beat my bid, someone had to enter an amount greater than $4,800. However, we saw the amount of $5,311 and assumed that's the new highest bid. However, CL said they never reveal the highest bid. You have to keep bidding up. If the person set the new high of $5,311, then when the auction ended, the final price should have been $4,800 (or $4,811 not sure).

One possibility is that someone else, within the 10 seconds bid the amount of $5,211 and then the winner bid $5,311 all within 5 seconds. If there had been another bidder who outbid us we would have seen the other amount as it would have beat mine. Once $5,311 hit the page, it did not change and that number appeared as the winning amount.

Perplexed

Can you post the Bid History like I did on this specific book?

-bc

[ExNihilo]

13 hours ago, Upgrayedd2 said:

One possibility is that someone else, within the 10 seconds bid the amount of $5,211 and then the winner bid $5,311 all within 5 seconds.

That's one possibility, but it seems far more likely that the high bidder entered a bid of like $5,500 and a sniper came in at the end with a high bid of $5,211.  Due to the $100 increment, the winning bid appears as $5,311.

[vheflin]

The clink is not real time, you have to keep refreshing to see bids which can't be done fast enough in the final seconds.

Were you feverishly refreshing?  If not, that is why you didn't "see" the last bids coming in.

[Motor City Rob]

I have a headache. 

[Xenosmilus]

[Upgrayedd2]

7 hours ago, vheflin said:

The clink is not real time, you have to keep refreshing to see bids which can't be done fast enough in the final seconds.

Were you feverishly refreshing?  If not, that is why you didn't "see" the last bids coming in.

Uhhhhhh, I believe this is the explanation. I did not hit refresh in the final moments.

[namisgr]

Which was explained in the first reply to your original post.  Which in turn explains the headaches.