Originally Posted by buckleyboy

Pardon me for being presumptuous in thinking this might help, but this might help.
Think about bidding as if you walked into a hardware store to get, well, hardware. There is only one of everything there.
You could go in and say, “I want a stainless steel pan head slotted screw with 1/4-20 threads that is 1-1/4” long.” If it is still there, you can get that. But if someone senior already got it because they were allowed in the store first, you’re screwing your self out of your good screw. That’s like having “award” lines on your schedule.
While you can still ask for that specific screw, it is better to follow up your screw request with “I surely don’t want washers. Nor do I want rivets. Not do I want nuts.” Etc etc etc. The clerk then filters out all those hardware pieces you do not want and consider useless. That is the purpose of the “avoid” function. After that, you can ask for specific or at least acceptable screws.
If you go about hardware shopping that way, your favorite screw might not be there when it is your turn in the store, but at least you’re not getting screwed with those nuts you despise.