ebay

[Sam Murdoch]

Help me understand please - If an item has 8 bids in play and the listing shows a current bid of $ 48.00 and the place bid instructions say Enter US $51.00 or more.

At that point are you really seeing the highest bid that has been placed - $ 48.00 or might there be other bids behind the scenes?

Then if I were to place a bid at $ 51.00. Will that now show up as the current bid? In another words am I just announcing to all 8 previous bidders that I have just upped the game?

I've never bid on an eBay item because I was always weirded out by this unknown. I like the Buy Now feature but I think the bidding could be fun and/or frustrating. Just not clear how it works.

Thanks for helping me understand.

[Jim Matthews]

I've been selling on eBay for the better part of fifteen years.

It's rare I get a bid, let alone a question - until the last two hours of an auction.
These days, I set fixed price sales with a low offer filter.

Below a certain dollar value, I don't want to be bothered.

In my opinion, there is SO much product on eBay it's just a matter of patience.
If fifty of you are looking to buy the same tool, and
there are 100 on offer over the next year, wait.

There's always more 'fish in the sea'.

Keep in mind that most of the woodworking tools
we prize at auction were mass produced.

[Pat Barry]

I have sniped and have been sniped 100x more. It stinks and makes me mad. Mostly because there have been several times when I was watching an auction count down to 0 time left and I was the highest bidder, then I refresh the screen to pay for my item and it says "Sorry but you've been out bid". Pretty much guarantee it was a sniping site (pay service) that is in league with eBay to allow sniping at the .5 seconds left time frame.

I would rather they adopt a system like Gunbroker where there is a 15 minute rule. Any bids made in the last 15 minutes of an auction resets the end of the auction to the 15 minute mark. No more sniping....

This is just how those penny auctions work, just at a very slow pace. Count me out. Only a good practice for the seller IMO

[Bill Orbine]

Help me understand please - If an item has 8 bids in play and the listing shows a current bid of $ 48.00 and the place bid instructions say Enter US $51.00 or more.

At that point are you really seeing the highest bid that has been placed - $ 48.00 or might there be other bids behind the scenes?

Then if I were to place a bid at $ 51.00. Will that now show up as the current bid? In another words am I just announcing to all 8 previous bidders that I have just upped the game?

I've never bid on an eBay item because I was always weirded out by this unknown. I like the PAY NOW feature but I think the bidding could be fun and/or frustrating. Just not clear how it works.

Thanks for helping me understand.

As you can see, bids go up in increments. You can be out-bid by automatic bids. That person who is leading the bid may have placed a higher bid than the $48.00 you see on the screen. It's a little complicated to explain.... but you'd need to understand the automatic bids. That person who is leading at 48 bucks might have enterded 60 bucks. So if you bid $51.00, you will se the next bid automatically go to $54.00. You would also be shown as a bidder at $51.00 on the "bid history" page, but that same bidder who was at $48.00 moved up to $54.00.

You can find more information about bidding on Ebay. Click help and enter "bid increments" or "automatic bids" and you'll get so explanation how the system works.

Even if you snipe, the rules of automatic bid and increments still applies.