Idea - one budget for multiple items

[TADontAsk]

I'm not sure if this has been suggested before or how realistic it is, but it's a situation I've often found myself in. Sometimes I'm interested in multiple eBay auctions, but instead of having individual bids in mind I have an overall budget.

Say I'm following 3 items that I expect would go for around $40 each, but my overall budget is $100. Rather than bid $40 on each, my idea would be to include them in a group that bids on subsequent items based on an overall value that deducts the amount of winning bids.

In my example, I would group these 3 items together and enter in an overall budget of $100. That $100 is used to bid on the first item. If it is won for $35, then the bid on the second item is $100 - $35 = $65. My bid for the third item is then $65 - whatever the winning bid was. If I lost the second item (ie: it went for over $65) then my bid for the third item is $65.

[Cupid]

IT always makes me nervous when people start suggesting schemes under which they bid more than they believe an item to really be worth.

Suppose someone else thinks exactly the same as you and sets up their group in exactly the same way, you both bid $100 on the first item and one of you wins it for that amount, way above what both of you think it's worth and the winner of that auction has no budget left to bid on the later auctions. The other bidder has $100 and perhaps with little other interest wins the other two auctions at a much lower price.

Others don't have to be thinking the same way even, we have people suggest on here that in order to win early and fast maybe they should just snipe at ridiculously high amounts... suppose one of these sees you first item and decides that since its worth around $30 they'll bid three times that amount in order to make sure they win it this time... unfortunately with your scheme you still win, but at a price way above the market value.

I don't ever think it's a good idea to schedule snipes at amounts higher than you are happy to actually pay if you win at that amount.
_________________
Mark

[TADontAsk]

That is some great feedback, and thank you for sharing.

I guess my intention was more along the lines of, if you get the first item for less than you would expect, then you have the opportunity to bid more on your second or third item.

Overbidding on a particular item is something that can possibly happen now. I've overbid on an item to make sure I get it. If someone else has the same idea, then it will go for more than what it's worth. In the end, I know that if I bid $XX, then there is a chance I will end up paying that much.

Perhaps a different version of my original idea is to bid an appropriate amount on the first item, but then have the second one use the budget. So my bid for the first item can be $50, and then the second bid is $100 - the winning bid. Item 1 goes for $45, then my bid for item 2 is $55. Yes, this can result in an overpay if, for example, I lose out on item 1 completely and then my auto bid is $100, but again, if I'm filling my bids out this way then I should know the risk.