posted on February 10, 2003 12:23:36 PM new
I had an auction that ended a couple hours ago. The bidding started at $4.99 and there were two bidders. The auction ended with an apparent snipe. The winning bid was $5.57. I received a note from one of my regular buyers who said that she was the first bidder and her bid was $5.50. Her question is that if bid increments are 25 cents, how did the winning bidder win with a 7 cent increase. I'm puzzled too. Can anyone explain this to me? Thanks in advance.
posted on February 10, 2003 12:42:57 PM new
Your first bidder made a proxy bid of $5.50. Your sniper made a proxy bid of $5.57. If the bids made were the same amount, your first bidder would have won. Since the sniper added the $0.07, they outbid your first bidder. Hope this makes sense.
posted on February 10, 2003 12:43:08 PM new
I have won many items by as little as a penny.
Once you place a bid (by snipe or by yourself), the proxy bid goes in. Say $5.57.
Then someone else bids $5.50. It did not beat the 5.57 which had already been bid so they did not win. The other person did raise the bid by the amount required, but before the $5.50 bid was made.
I always bid in odd amounts like $5.51 or $6.01 etc.
posted on February 10, 2003 01:46:10 PM new
An interesting addendum to this occurs when a bidder increases their own proxy bid. If the bidders original proxy was $5.57 and that is the current high bid and they decided to change their proxy to $6.57 to make sure they win the item, Ebay will actually allow them to bid against themselves. When they enter their new proxy bid, the current bid would change from $5.57 to $6. It's as if they bid against themselves. They were winning for $5.57, now they are winning for $6. This is not bad for a low increment item but I had this happen to me on an item with $5 increments.
The bidding strategy rewards those with the lowest bid that goes into (but just barely) the next increment. If the winning bid was going to be $6, you would be best off bidding $6.01 rather than $6.50 or more. But, of course, you don't know what the winning bid will be.
[ edited by lindajean on Feb 10, 2003 12:46 PM ]