posted on March 18, 2001 11:29:04 PM
Hope this question isn't stupid, but I'm a newbie Seller and I am wondering why a bidder would do this: I have an auction with a $99.99 opening bid and a reserve still to be met. A bidder with (0) history has bid twice, about 2 min. apart, indicating his bid at the opening price of $99.99, based on the listing page. When I looked at the bidding history, it shows his name twice as I said, 2 min. apart, and a (-) under the bid amount. Why would he bid twice, since it only shows that his bid is at the opening amount I set the auction for?
In fact, I've often wondered about this too: I've looked at other bidding histories and sometmes see a single bidder's name 3,4,5 times or more in a row, with only seconds or minutes apart, and no other's bidder's names other than his. What does that mean? Thanks for your help.
posted on March 18, 2001 11:44:15 PM
He bid once, discovered he hadn't met the reserve, and bid again. When he still didn't meet the reserve, he gave up.
posted on March 18, 2001 11:45:02 PM
What it sounds like to me is that he bid, then realized that maybe he had not bid high enough to win the auction, and decided to up his proxy bid.
When you see people bidding several times in a row, generally you see that on auctions where there is a reserve and there are bidding bit by bit to see if they can hit the reserve - either that or they keep second-guessing themselves and think 'dang, should have bid a bit higher' and keep upping their proxy bid.
Upping your proxy bid only ups the bid price of the auction if you're bidding against someone and are not at the next even increment (from what I understand), so I guess they're getting their bids in early so they don't have to be there at the end of the auction
posted on March 18, 2001 11:48:11 PM
What Glenda said If someone else bids on the auction and doesn't meet the reserve it will put the current bid price at one increment over what the guy bid the second time. If someone bids and DOES hit the reserve price it will automatically jump to *exactly* the reserve.
Most buyers find reserves annoying and give up after a couple goes - on something you won't lose money on you might try 'letting it ride' and letting the bidders get into a war early on - generally it will drive your price up higher than you would get with a reserve
If someone else bids on the auction and doesn't meet the reserve it will put the current bid price at one increment over what the guy bid the second time. If someone bids and DOES hit the reserve price it will automatically jump to *exactly* the reserve.