# A reverse auction **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 8, 2021, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-reverse-auction/939585 "2021-04-08T02:13:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Baal\_Houtham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baal_houtham/32/13604_2.png) [@Baal\_Houtham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baal_Houtham)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2021, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-reverse-auction/939585/103 "2021-05-07T21:12:26Z")
Twelve is a good number. That’s 12. A dozen. XII. ---
**Author:** ![Baal\_Houtham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baal_houtham/32/13604_2.png) [@Baal\_Houtham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baal_Houtham)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2021, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-reverse-auction/939585/104 "2021-05-09T17:24:53Z")
Not to deprive the OP from unveiling a winner, but here’s the count I came up with 1,1,1,1 2,2 3,3, **4** 👍 5 6,6 7 8 9 10 12 14,14 16 17,17,17 18 19 27 29 34 37 43 57 85 86 1,000,000 I was the last bidder, and being last actually had a downside, in that I thought --based on the number of responses-- that there would probably be close to 80 or 90 bids – instead of 34. So, I went too high. {Actually, there was no way for me to win at the point I voted.) ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2021, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-reverse-auction/939585/105 "2021-05-09T17:45:50Z")
I should have posted this last night. But I had a long day and I was tired. My thanks to Baal\_Houtham for covering for me. Here’s the results I recorded: \*1 Johnny\_Bravo - OldGuy - Omar\_Little - That\_Don\_Guy \*2 DSeid - elfkin477 \*3 Ace309 - kayaker 4 Cheesesteak 5 CardboardBoxx 6 Tired\_and\_Cranky - EyePaintFaces 7 RivkahChaya 8 Czarcasm 9 FastDan1 10 blabbermeister 12 Baal\_Houtham \*14 Little Nemo - pjd 16 Dead\_Cat \*17 LSLGuy - Pardel-Lux - Pleonast 18 Mean\_Mr.Mustard 19 Kimble 27 thorny\_locust 29 iamthewalrus\_3 34 Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit 37 TriPolar 43 Hari\_Seldon 57 I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I 85 eschrodinger 86 AlsoNamedBort 1000000 Oredigger77 So Cheesesteak is the winner. Congratulations. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2021, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-reverse-auction/939585/106 "2021-05-09T17:48:22Z")
One interesting thing I noticed is that it would have been impossible to win this auction by cheating. Let’s say somebody was willing to cheat to win. They could have waited until late yesterday and then read all of the other bids. But it wouldn’t have allowed them to win. If they bid four, they would just be duplicating Cheesesteak’s bid which would have passed the win on to CardboardBoxx. ---
**Author:** ![TheGunIsMightierThanThePen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thegunismightierthanthepen/32/2981_2.png) [@TheGunIsMightierThanThePen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheGunIsMightierThanThePen)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2021, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-reverse-auction/939585/107 "2021-05-09T18:28:35Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > One interesting thing I noticed is that it would have been impossible to win this auction by cheating. Let’s say somebody was willing to cheat to win. They could have waited until late yesterday and then read all of the other bids. _This_ particular auction, more specifically, with _this_ particular set of bids already in place by yesterday, no they couldn’t. But if by miraculous chance no one had bid on 3 up until the last minute, but with 1 and 2 already having multiple takers, then they could bid-snipe and win it in that scenario. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2021, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-reverse-auction/939585/108 "2021-05-09T18:56:49Z")
> [@TheGunIsMightierThanThePen](#): > > _This_ particular auction, more specifically, with _this_ particular set of bids already in place by yesterday, no they couldn’t. But if by miraculous chance no one had bid on 3 up until the last minute, but with 1 and 2 already having multiple takers, then they could bid-snipe and win it in that scenario. I just thought it was interesting that the situation could arise where cheating was a self-defeating strategy. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2021, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-reverse-auction/939585/109 "2021-05-09T19:02:25Z")
I wonder how it would work if you played this out with a group of people who had some information about how the group would bid. I’m imagining a situation where everyone has to put some amount of money into the pot to bid; let’s say twenty dollars. Then we play out the standard reverse auction as the first round and the person who submitted the lowest unduplicated bid wins half of the money. Pretty much what we did here (only with no actual money involved). The second round (for the other half of the money) would be a new reverse auction that would follow the same rules. But it would be limited to the people who paid into the first round. So you’d have a group of people who knew what bids everyone in the group had made. Would you try again with the same bid? Adjust your bid based on what won in the first round? Try to figure out how other people would adjust their bids? ---
**Author:** ![Cheesesteak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheesesteak/32/3694_2.png) [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2021, 10:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-reverse-auction/939585/110 "2021-05-10T10:24:10Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > So Cheesesteak is the winner. Congratulations. Woohoo! It’s the little victories that mean so much. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-reverse-auction/939585.md?page=5)