Newbie ebay bidding questions

cheesenmarmite

Hi all,
Am relatively new to ebay, and have bought a couple of items via buy it now and also sold some stuff through auction. However there's an item I'd like to bid for and just had a few questions about the process - sorry if these sound silly!

I understand about proxy bidding etc, and the item I would like to bid for currently has 2 bids and is at about a fiver. I would be prepared to pay up to about £40 for it (as I suspect would any other buyer who has done their homework!!). Do I enter £40 straight away on the bid? Then presumably if no-one else has put that as their maximum bid ebay will just put the price up to about £6 until someone else bids? Or, if I bid max £40 and someone else already has, does the price just shoot up to that straight away and whoever entered it first is the bidder in the lead?

Hope that makes sense and thanks!

amcluesent

Yes, that's how bidding works on Ebay. I can't recall what the increment is in each price band, so an item at £5 may not go to £6 if you bid £40, could be £5.50 etc.

TBH, what are talking about is why lots of bidders use a snipe(*) service, so they don't reveal their bid amount until the last few seconds. Of course, you may still be outbid, but that limits the chance of winner regrets!

(*) And if peeps don't like snipes, talk to the hand. :whistle:

Norma_Desmond

I always bid my absolute maximum in the last few seconds of the auction - most of the time it works! I've never had the courage to use a snipe service.

mookie

I would also bid max bid in the last few seconds, otherwise someone may keep bidding against your max bid and then give up at a certain price, leaving you paying higher than you might of had you left it till nearer the end of the auction. :money:

cheesenmarmite

Thanks everyone. The item is still at £5.50, and I am prepared to pay up to £40 for it. Any more than that and it isn't really any discount on the RRP so there would be no benefit to buying it through ebay. 2 people have bid already and I suspect their max bid would be similar to mine so this could be a fight to the bitter end!

I will be at work when the auction ends so might have to use one of those sniper thingies!