Ebay bidding

jayswett
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Fri Mar 18, 2011 2:00 pm

I can't seem to figure out this ebay bidding busiiness. I created an account and tried to bid on the Taylor cutaway AE guitar. Current bid was 880, so I put in 900 (or something like that) and I immediately received a message that I was outbid. Also, I submitted a bid for the lesson of choice for 275, and somehow the result of hte bid is something like 256. No doubt there is a simple explanation.


dennisg
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Fri Mar 18, 2011 2:31 pm

Jay,

Say, for example, there's a guitar you want to bid on, and the most recent bid was $600. You're willing to go higher. When you click on the Bid button in eBay, it asks you for your MAXIMUM bid, not your NEXT bid. Say your maximum bid is $1250. eBay will look at your maximum bid, but just tick up the bidding to $620. If someone else has a maximum bid higher than that, eBay will go grab a bid from them -- say, to $640. All of this will happen automatically. If no one else has a maximum bid higher than your last bid of $620 when time expires, the guitar is yours for $620, not your maximum bid of $1250.

Back to your actual experience: so when you outbid someone by $20 by bidding $900, you told eBay that your MAXIMUM bid was $900. Someone else had a higher maximum bid, which is why you were immediately told you were outbid. Make sense?

I don't really understand the second issue.


tombo1230
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Fri Mar 18, 2011 2:43 pm

jayswett wrote:
I can't seem to figure out this ebay bidding busiiness. I created an account and tried to bid on the Taylor cutaway AE guitar. Current bid was 880, so I put in 900 (or something like that) and I immediately received a message that I was outbid. Also, I submitted a bid for the lesson of choice for 275, and somehow the result of hte bid is something like 256. No doubt there is a simple explanation.
I can see how this can be confusing. From memory as I haven't used ebay for a while, you have put in a bid which is 900 but someone else, the 880 bidder has also put in a maximum bid of lets say 1200.... it could be anything. The only way you get to be top of the leader board is to make small multiple bids until you reach their maximum bid, which could again be anything. Or the best way to play it is to set your own maximum bid and if you are still not winning at least you tried. Or you bid even more, a win, win situation for the seller.

The 275 bid you made means that's what your maximum bid is and you can't do anything to withdraw that, I'm sure you can increase it but not reduce your max' bid, but if someone bids anything over your max' then you lose. Hope I haven't made this more confusing. 275 won't be the bid unless someone gets to within a set amount of your 275, triggering your max' bid. If someone bids higher, you get an e-mail saying you have been outbid and so it goes on.

Setting a max means I think, that there is less chance of someone waiting to the last seconds and outbidding the highest bid.

Hope this helps.

Tom N.


haoli25
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Fri Mar 18, 2011 2:51 pm

Jay, there are some auto-bidder programs that some people use. POWERSNIPE is one of those. The program will monitor a particular item until the auction closes and will continue to bid (or outbid) until the preset limit by the program user is reached or the item is purchased.

Bill


jayswett
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Fri Mar 18, 2011 4:05 pm

Thanks for the information. All of that makes sense, and I understand now why I was being asked for a maximum bid. I'm off now to have another look at that guitar.


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