ebay question

[mrsbornkuntry]

I know alot of people on here on avid ebayers so I was hoping someone could explain what might be going on here. With these boards as my inspiration I just started listing some things on ebay. Yesterday I started the bidding on an item at .99. When I checked on it last night it said there were two bids for .99 and when I looked it up both bids were from the same person. I don't know how they did that, DH and I thought maybe they clicked the place bid button twice or something, but I checked on it today and now it says there are 4 bids, still at .99, and still the same person! They were in two different time frames, twice yesterday, then twice today. I don't understand what they're doing or how they're doing it.

Is there something I need to do about this? Does anyone know what might be happening?

 

[KMH1]

I have 2 theories...

First, are you sure you only listed one item in this auction? Or in the quantity section, does it say you have more than one?

Second, this person could be increasing his/her maximum bid. Since no one else has bid, the initial auction price remains 99 cents, but maybe he/she keeps changing how high he/she will go.

That's all I can think of right now...

 

[disneyatl]

The seller might have more than one quantity to sell.

 

[mad4themouse]

If the individual decides that their starting bid was too low and they do not feel like getting outbid, they can go back and place another bid for a higher amount on the item. The bid price will remain at the opening bid because they have, in essence, just bid against themselves. If another bidder comes along and bids $1.25, then bidder #1 will still have the higher bid as long as he bid at least $1.25 in his last bid. The current bid will then change to $1.25.

If you have set a reserve price on that item, the bidder might be trying to slowly bid up the price until the reserve is met. Unless someone also bids on the item, the current bid will remain at 99¢. If bidder #1 reaches your reserve price while bidding, the current bid will change to the reserve price.

 

[disneyatl]

Maybe it's a dutch auction

 

[mrsbornkuntry]

Thank-you all for your help, this is much clearer to me now. I checked my quantities because I only had one item and it was correct so I think they must be raising their high bid to try to reach the reserve, although I didn't have that high of a reserve price so I'm a little surprised they haven't reached it with 4 bids.