How did i loose this one?

bo545 · Guest

Item was at 6.99 when i bidded.
I bid 8.00 using Gixen
I still lost.
Item 200146254622

juangrande · Posted: Sun Sep 02, 2007 7:10 pm Post subject:

In short, you were outbid by noured1987. Here is the bidding history:

bo454 · Guest

So if the bid wasnt 6.99, why did e-bay say it was?
How does this at least bidding work?

bo454 · Guest

Ahh.... no edit button.

So he noured bid 8.50 on aug 29, how come xraykid was able to bid?
E-bay displayed xraykid's bid of 6.99 to be the highest bid.

Gixen · Advertisements

juangrande · Posted: Mon Sep 03, 2007 7:21 am Post subject:

A bid history shows only the current bid (or winning bid) of the auction and the actual bids of lower bidders: it does not show what the current bid was at an earlier time in the auction. Note that the current bid is the second-highest bid plus a bid increment (unless the highest bid is less than one increment above the second-highest bid, in which case the current bid coincides with the highest bid).

At the time xraykid40214 bid, noured1987 was the high bidder and the current bid was 6.49 (firewaterwind's bid of 5.99 + 0.50 bid increment). So the minimum bid available to xraykid40214 was 6.49 + 0.50 = 6.99, and he bid that.

Perhaps it's worth emphasizing that the "current bid" displayed on an auction page at any given time is not an actual bid: it is the second-highest bid plus a bid increment. (OK, the current bid sometimes corresponds to the highest bid, but only if the second-highest bid is less than a bid increment lower than the highest bid, as mentioned above.)

See eBay's bid increment page http://pages.ebay.com/help/buy/bid-increments.html for an explanation of bid increments.

See tiptie's "How to Read Bid Histories" at http://members.ebay.com/aboutme/sniperbill/ for an excellent explanation of how to read bid histories. This is really worth reading if you want to know how eBay's bidding system works.
_________________
John

If you don't know where you are going, you will wind up somewhere else.
--- Yogi Berra

bo454 · Guest

So why doesn't ebay just show the highest bidder?
isn't that how auctions are suppose to work?

Whats a proxy bid?
How do you place maximum bids or w.e its called, like how JACKIE did in hxxp://cgi3.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewUserPage&userid=sniperbill?

juangrande · Posted: Mon Sep 03, 2007 11:46 am Post subject:

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auction for more on auctions.

See eBay's help page at http://pages.ebay.com/help/buy/proxy-bidding.html for an explanation of proxy bidding.
_________________
John

If you don't know where you are going, you will wind up somewhere else.
--- Yogi Berra

bo545 · Guest

So lets say the item is at $9.00
The bid i need to win (which i dont know yet) is $9.50.
I go on gixen and set it to my maximum bid to $100.
So when i win the bid, will i pay $9.50 or $100?

juangrande · Posted: Wed Sep 05, 2007 9:03 pm Post subject:

The amount of the win is determined by the amount of the second-highest bid: the winning bid is the second-highest bid plus up to one increment (the winning bid is the highest bid if the highest bid is less than an increment higher than the second-highest bid.

Using your example of an item with a starting bid of $9.00, let's say I bid $9.00. The showing bid would be $9.00. If you bid $100.00, then the winning bid would be $9.50, which is all you would have to pay.

As a second example, suppose I bid $99.75 on the same item. The showing bid would again be $9.00. If you bid $100.00, the winning bid would be $100.00. In this case, your bid would be less than an increment ($1.00) more than my bid, and so the winning bid amount would be just the amount of your bid.
_________________
John

If you don't know where you are going, you will wind up somewhere else.
--- Yogi Berra

Cupid · Joined: 09 Aug 2007 Posts: 7596 Location: Bristol, UK

Cupid · Joined: 09 Aug 2007 Posts: 7596 Location: Bristol, UK

Another consequence of the system as explained by juangrande that is perhaps worth highlighting here is that whenever you bid (ie whether via sniping at the last minute or manually well before the auction end) you must always be prepared to pay the amount that you bid as it may come to that.

A quote that I read recently with which I agree and appears apt here is: