Automatic bidding and increments

Moglex

Over the last few days I've encountered something new to me on ebay.

I keep getting outbid by a few pence.

It seems that if a bidder bids, say, £6 with the current bidding standing at £4.5, he will be shown bidding at £5. If I then bid £5.95, I will be shown as the highest bidder, possibly for hours, but when the auction ends the original bidder will win with a finishing price of £6.

Now, I can see that ebay must honour the first bidders £6 bid, but surely they should not be telling me that I'm the highest bidder when that is clearly not the case.

Here is an actual case. I was showing highest bidder until the end of the auction.

User ID:	Bid Amount	  Date of bid	

	KarnEvil( 87) 	£9.00	05-Oct-06 14:13:37 BST	



	Moglex( 157) 	£8.87	05-Oct-06 13:46:56 BST	


	KarnEvil( 87) 	£8.00	05-Oct-06 14:13:17 BST	


	Sneek( 642) 	£5.10	05-Oct-06 12:40:08 BST	


	julier5( 148) 	£5.01	05-Oct-06 12:58:31 BST	


	julier5( 148) 	£1.04	05-Oct-06 12:58:22 BST	

babes21

There's a new tool called Auction Sniper (totally seperate from Ebay) which allows people to enter a bid and auction sniper will bid on their behalf a couple of seconds before the auction ends.

It's seems as if this as happened in your case.

Moglex

No, the sniper programs will not defeat the ebay bidding increment rules.

If you look at the times, it appears that KarnEvil was allowed to make a bid of £8 which was lower than the maximum bid well after the current maximun bid was made. This would appear to be against the rules.

He was then allowed to make another bid that did not meet the bidding increment conditions, which won the auction.

smartie1976

I'm not sure I agree.
Bidding hist
£5.10 @ 12.40
£8.87 @ 13.36
£8.00 @ 14.13.17
£9.00 @ 14.13.37

Surely when you put your 8.87 bid in, it didn't show the current price as 8.87, it showed around £5.60, which is what you would have had in to beat the £5.10 bid?
You wouldn't have been on at £8.87. Then he bid £8, your highest kicks in and beats him, showing £8.00, and then he bids again with £9 and wins.

Hintza

Smartie is correct increments are 50p at this level so when he bid £8 you will have been showing as highest at £8.50. He then bid £9 thus beating your £8.87. Easy.

The thing is a bid at £8.87 is not a great bid in my book your highest bid should have been £9.0x with x being your lucky number.

Moglex

Ah-ha, I see what you mean.

The problem is that ebay will not allow you to make the bid you want.

Of course there are always ways around these problems