Sniping Bargains: Late Bidding on Pairs of eBay Auctions

Internet auctions have resulted in much data that may shed light on buying and selling behavior. Furthermore, they have allowed for field experiments to explore these phenomena with more control and with greater depth. Finally, they have revealed new behavioral patterns worthy of exploration. One of these behaviors is late bidding, or sniping, which occurs when people place bids close to the auction’s close to supposedly have a greater chance of winning at a lower price. This study investigated the monetary benefit a user may gain by delaying the decision of which auction to bid on until the last two minutes. It reviewed past data on DVD auctions to examine this effect.