Like we said though, it's hard, but we're two people so we discuss why we like them or how they will fit in our collection so yes, one of us is going to cave and decide to go with the other, but at that moment we agreed that we're at a standstill. It doesn't mean, hey, add more pins but rather if things stand, the win could go to either one of you...
I always thought that maybe I'm of the opinion of not having ties because of 2 reasons:
1) I love ranking things, I'm a compulsive ranker if that's a term and when I do rank, I NEVER tie things...I just can't, I don't believe 2 things can be completely tied if you think about it for hours and hours and hours, one will come out on top UNLESS you are comparing 2 items which are nearly identical. With bids it's never like that.
2) I'm a lonely pin trader in my household haha I don't have to deal with opposing collections ^_^
However, in the end, I think it should be thought over a lot before the leaderboard is posted to avoid a tie. If you are going to decide after the auction ends, you could decide now before the auction ends...that's at least how I look at it ^_^
YAY! Examples haha I was getting so confused with some of the things that I'm really glad there is an example
On the example though, I actually really like it and think it is much more fair than saying "they are tied." Here is why:
*In this circumstance, let's say that that nobody adds anything new just for sake of making things easy in this situation, though adding pins wouldn't really complicate it.
Given what we have, if nobody else added anything to their bids and the auction ended, I would know that since I was in first I would win the auction since I was placed as #1. If this was the last leaderboard, the auction ends and you are pronounced the winner, I can call that as unfair since I was given no reason to add more pins. However, given the same situation of me being in first place and you being in second, what if the leaderboard looked like this:
1. Kupo/StoneCold
2. Sally
And yet deep down the auctioneer couldn't decide but was leaning towards me and I have to add more pins to become first despite the fact that I was going to win all along, that almost seems unfair to me in this circumstance.
I know that deep down sometimes deciding who is first and second is really, really difficult because with some of these auctions, the bids are all grails for the most part haha However, in the end, I feel like having a tied first place can be related to shill bidding on Ebay.
Let me make it 100% clear that I am in no way saying that people who put people tied for first are as bad as people who shill bid on Ebay, let me explain ^_^
Okay, as I was saying, in both cases (shill and first place ties) the seller/auctioneer don't mind it but the bidders do. The reason being that the bidders don't know the true intentions of the auctioneer. While I'm sure most of the members on DPF are not of this mindset, we cannot prove that these "ties" aren't to get more pins out of those in first place (I am not accusing anyone, I really don't want this to turn into an argument, I love how civil it has been thus far). Likewise, we can't really prove if a seller is shill bidding on their auction. However, in both circumstances the actions can (not always because in both cases the person in first may give up) result in whoever is in first place having to put more out then they should have to get a pin which wasn't worth the amount it sold/completed the auction for.
That is my main problem with ties in that they may cause that. In the end, as StoneCold pointed out, no system is perfect, there are flaws in both, and as others have stated before, DPF has no rules on ties or really on leaderboards either lol so I feel like this topic is by no way forcing anyone to run auctions any certain way. However, this is just food for thought, that's all. I'm in no way saying people who have ties are evil or saying that they need to be implemented, this is all just brainstorming ideas ^_^