First time user problem

[davebern]

I used Gixen for the first time with a bunch of snipes. Won some, got outbid on some, but the interesting issue was I had 2 bids at $5.00 on 2 items which both went for $4.95, and I didn't win. The message on the Gixen summary page was "BID UNDER ASKING PRICE". I won another item with a bid of $8.01, beating the next bidder by 0.01c (he bid $8.00), so it can't be a minimum bid increment issue. Why was my bid not even placed on these items, when it was more than the winning bid?

Thanks
Dave

[juangrande]

Actually, it was a bid increment issue. The bid increment in the range $1.00 - $4.99 is $0.25, so if the current price (current bid) was $4.95 at the time your bid of $5.00 was placed, your bid would be refused by eBay because it was less than $5.20 = $4.95 + $0.25 and Gixen would report BID UNDER ASKING PRICE, as you observed.

So how could you outbid someone by $0.01? The point is that the current price is not necessarily the amount the leading bidder actually bid: it is often a great deal less than the leading bidder's actual bid. For example, suppose the opening bid of an item is $5.00 and I bid $8.00. Then I will be the leading bidder and eBay will display the current price as $5.00. Then you come along and bid $8.01. Since $8.01 is greater than $5.00 + $0.50, eBay accepts your bid and you end up the winning bidder at $8.01.
_________________
John

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

[juangrande]

For the official explanation of how you can be outbid by less than a bid increment, see the eBay help page at

http://pages.ebay.com/help/buy/bid-increments.html
_________________
John

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

[davebern]

Thanks guys. I've often won auctions by a few cents, but never looked into the details. Now I know to be always at least one bid increment above the starting bid.

[Gixen]