“So the winner of the Indy 500 …” – The team that comes in first place SHOULD be called a “winner”. Deep pockets alone will not guarantee success. Skill is very important in that kind of “competition” or “contest”. In the 500, the driver and pit crew with the best skill has an advantage over other teams with comparable equipment. But in an auction, if I bid more than anyone else, I will “buy” the item (no luck; no skill); I won’t “win” it. My original premise was that “winning” denotes luck or skill. With enough money, I need neither luck nor skill; therefore I’m not “winning” something. I’m just paying too much for it. Deep pockets rule!
“What if you are the high bidder …’ - I would agree, given an auction attended by a very small number of bidders that are uninformed, you could indeed “win” an undervalued item (luck AND skill). But with something like 50 million people on ebay, that is rarely (not never) going to happen. Due to the number of “buyers” (ebay’s classification on feedback), the high bidder is willing to spend more money than anyone else. That means, he most likely (not always) couldn’t turn around the next day and sell it for more money. In fact, he would probably have to sell it at a lost. He paid more than the market value for the item. That’s not “winning”; that’s “losing”. I’m not talking in absolutes. Some buyers resell at a profit, but the closing price for most auctions on ebay, or any large auction, is probably above the market value.
“One can also win …” – I’ll concede that there are some good values in BIN’s, but that isn’t an auction. No one bid against you. You didn’t “win” the item. You “purchased” the item. You might say there’s luck in being the first one to spot the BIN and skill in knowing its market value. True. I might say you’re spending a lot of unprofitable time searching ebay.
“By checking bid histories …” – Again, I will agree with you to some extent. But, if I’m willing to spend more money than anyone else, whether you know my bid history or not, I will be top bidder. No luck; no skill. As an obvious side note: you can’t check bid histories on snipers.
“Sure glad you …” – And I thank YOU for taking time away from “studying bid strategy” to get this troubling response off your chest.
In summary: The high bidder in a well attended auction is rarely a “winner” because he paid more than the market value, and an auction usually requires no skill or luck, only deep pockets (luck only if deep-pockets dies before he “purchases” the item).
p.s. - Like the poem.
T o S – I’ll take all the help I can get on this line of thinking.