BidX1: eBay for Property – Easier, Clearer, Safer
As the great Alfred Matthew Yankovic, better known as “Weird Al”, once sang, “A used pink bathrobe. A rare mint snow globe. A Smurf TV tray. I bought on eBay.” eBay, since 1995, has been the primary site, an online marketplace, where buyers and sellers can trade almost anything for auction. Though it is a good way to come in contact with businesses and customers, there is often a scam factor where it is difficult when it comes to cars and homes to really know what you’re going to get. However, a new site in the UK has been helping to eliminate the caution and nervousness that homeowners and buyers feel about online auctions; a new digital online auction for property called BidX1.
Much like eBay, BidX1 runs their auctions off of a type of auction we learned in class; an Ascending Auction. Also known as a Traditional Auction, where the price set at an opening bid, and the price is increased by interested customers until one bidder remains with the highest bid, and that price is paid. This is a Dominant Strategy for most customers, where they will stay in until their desired value is reached and/or the bids go out of their price range that they are willing to pay. In most cases, each individual knows their own value, but not what others are willing to pay, and they act independently of each other. However, on BidX1, once the bid is won, a 10 cent deposit is put down and the remainder must be paid within an established amount of time, instead of the full bid being paid immediately. There is complete transparency on the site, meaning both sides of the auction can see who is bidding, how much is being bid, when it was bid, where the bid was made from to avoid scams, and records can be checked to see if the people bidding are honest or are simply trying to scam others into paying a much higher price. According to the head of Residential Auctions Richard Watson “We’re running at an 80 percent success rate this year, while the industry average is around 70 percent.”
A site like this is revolutionary for the housing market because many times homeowners and buyers are promised a certain amount for their home or are promised a beautiful home, but scammers and bots will simply “catfish” the market with false promises and too low bids. Many of the scams take advantage of sellers not knowing the actual value of their property, so they can be tricked into selling for a much lower price than they actually should’ve sold for, and for buyers, you never what you’re really getting when you buy online. This is why many people avoid online auctions when it comes to high-value items, like vehicles and property. However, a site like BidX1 helps introduce clarity and a sense of security to the online property auction scene, making the auction scene a much more reliable place for homeowners and potential buyers.