[Cupid]

OK thanks for the reply Kirk,

It's always interesting to hear how people are thinking with respect to buying things via auction on Ebay, which is why I asked you.

With respect to reserve prices, on Ebay the way that works for bidders is that they are informed that the reserve is not met until the point that they bid more than that reserve. All those bids below the reserve raise the auction price in the normal way, i.e. the second highest bid plus up to one bid increment from the highest bid, which is still below the reserve. However, as soon as someone places a bid that is above the reserve the auction price jumps directly to the reserve price set by the seller. So, if you're seeing a message that the reserve has been met that always means that the auction price is now at, or above, that reserve.

[captainkirkw]

Thank you for answering so timely. I usually do use Gixen but I was trying to see what the actual max for the one bidder was. I have not actually placed a bid on anything through ebay in so long that I had forgotten if I could figure that out without bidding.

I kind of know the owner of the item as he is a member of a forum that I moderate but I didn't want to ask him what his reserve was since he also has a Buy It Now. If his reserve was close to the Buy It Now then I was thinking about just going ahead and using the BIN but it shows that the reserve has been met, I am just not sure if that is by my current bid or my max bid.

I did this while staying up late one night and don't even remember placing a max of $350 honestly, I just saw the starting bid at $25 and knew that was way too low so when I bid $25o, I think I was told that someone had already set a bid higher, which I can now see was $255 then $265, so I bid $275 and left it at that.

If my max is actually $350m which again, I don't remember doing but obviously did, then I just want to make sure that someone doesn't outbid me at the last minute but am fine with going to $400 and just wanted to see if I should place that max big with Gixen now versus doing it through ebay since I had already started the process there.

Thanks again and like I said, I always bid through Gixen unless I use a BIN, but this was a one off situation that I really should not have started and just done it all through Gixen.

I appreciate your service and that I is why I have been signed up for many years.

Thanks again,
Kirk

[Cupid]

It is always in your best interest to do everything through Gixen.

This is as much due to the way Ebay works as to the sniping feature that Gixen provides to you, and this is why Gixen is designed as it is.

On Ebay if you use the same account to place multiple bids you never pay more than one bid increment more than a different bidder/account, that's just how Ebay works, nothing to do with Gixen. In simple terms you can't 'outbid yourself' in the manner you suggest with the auction price rising as a result.

Of course placing multiple bids early in an auction can encourage others to bid against you and that might increase the eventual selling price, but adding an extra bid at the end, which others can not react to, by scheduling a snipe, doesn't do that.

So, just to be ultra clear, since in an effort to explain my response in as detailed and clear manner as possible, I sometimes seem to try to explain in more detail than some require or would like....

If your snipe of 400 is placed in the last seconds without any other bids being placed by others you are not going to be paying any more for this item.

So having cleared that up, a question for you... Why did you manually place a bid of $350 on an Ebay auction when you evidently already know that Gixen can place snipe bids for you in the last few seconds of an auction ?

[Guest]

I am the high bidder on an item at $270 with a max of $350. If I want to make sure that someone does not outbid me last minute, and am fine with increasing my max a bit more, should I do it through ebay or Gixen?

If nobody outbids me then I obviously don't want to outbid myself so I am just not sure which was is best to increase my max to $400 and I want to make sure that if nobody outbids my current $270 that placing a $400 max through Gixen will not override anything and make me pay more than $270 or the next increment up.

I hope that I am explaining myself correctly.