question for ebay experts ( long, sorry )

[faithinkarma]

Today I bid on bowls. The seller had 2 for sale. I wanted my maximum bid to be $45. I entered $45 and it immediately entered that my opening bid was $45 per bowl !

So I went in and withdrew that bid. I hated to do it, I have never withdrawn before.

I immediately put in another bid, for 22.50. Once again, although the seller was asking for an opening bid of $14.99, and no one else had bid, my bid went in for the maximum of 22.50.

I emailed Ebay and got a computer generated response that did not help. I emailed the seller who told me to go ahead and withdraw my secod bid. Whish I did. After which I entered a bid of 14.99.

A few hours later someone else bid 16.00 . I thought I would try a maximum bid again, but did not want to bid the whole 22.50 again, just in case. Good thing I did not. I bid 18.00 and the bidding immediately went to 18.00. This despite the fact that it was only supposed to go up in 50 cent increments.

Can anyone tell me what I am doing wrong please? I don't want to bid my maximum bid right away, but I don't want to have to be sitting here at the end of the auction either.

 

[Rutt and Tuke]

That's odd. I've never had that happen.

 

[mrsv98]

Can you see on the auction if there were other bidders? When you put in your high bid, the computer looks to see if there are other bids and what their max is. Then, if your high bid is more than their high bid, you will automatically go to the highest bid. Hmm, that sounds confusing, even to me!

Here, it is like this, say you see the bowls and you put in a max bid of $22.50. Now, Suzie Q also sees the bowls and puts in a bid of $22.00. The computer matches your bids until someone comes up higher. Then it looks like your bid started at the highest amt even tho you actually went thru a little bidding war.

Now, if there were no other bids and your bid started at the top amount, then there is a glitch somewhere and it is good that you retracted the bid.

I hope this helps more than it confuses!

 

[faithinkarma]

Now, if there were no other bids and your bid started at the top amount, then there is a glitch somewhere and it is good that you retracted the bid.

That is exactly what happened. I was the only one bidding. This was an item I had been looking for, and I bid as soon as it was offered.

Will the retractions be held against me?

 

[Melora]

I believe somewhere on your in your feedback section it will tell the number of bid retractions. I don't think this makes a big difference to most people though. You could try contacting ebay, but again, I don't think its a big deeal.

I've been doing ebay for years now and never had that happen. Must be a glitch maybe caused by the time change?

At least the seller is understanding.

 

[Feralpeg]

Did the auction have a reserve amount? If the auction has a reserve, I believe the auction will jump immediately to the amount that you bid. I once had an auction and I put a reserve amount of $75 on it. The bidder put in a bid of $100 and it immediately went to $75 and ended the auction. She wasn't real happy because she thought she would get it for less since no one else had bid. You might check to see if it had a reserve.

 

[faithinkarma]

Did the auction have a reserve amount?

I don't believe there was because I rebid a lower amount after my first retraction, and it immediately jumped to my lower maximum.

But it is interesting to know that it will jump to the reserve. I will keep that in mind for future bids.

 

[Rajah]

Was it a "dutch" auction? (I think that's what it's called). I've had that happen twice before when there were multiples of the item to buy.

 

[faithinkarma]

Yes, it was. Hmmm...now that would be interesting if that is common policy. I think it might make me less likely to bid.

 

[Melora]

Jeff just confirmed that if this was indeed a dutch auction, and no one else bid on it, it would jump to your bid.

The way a dutch auciton works is that someone offers several identical items for sale at the same time. Lets say for $10 each. Now someone comes along and bids $10. Now another person can come along and bid $12. If they are the only bidders both items will sell for $10. But if someone comes along and bids $15 and those are the only 3 bids, then both items will sell for the $12.

The items go to top number of bidders for how many items there are... then they sell for the lowest amount bid by that number of bidders.

Example: If the seller has 2 items for sale and there are 5 bids for $5, $6, $10, $12, $15, the top 2 bids win but they sell for $12 because thats the lowest winning bid amount.

Confused? Well it is slightly!!!

 

[faithinkarma]

Thanks Melora,

I had to read it over three times, but I finally got it. I apprecite you taking the time to educate me.