ebay newbie question

[MonicaH]

Hi ebay savvy mamas,

I have been watching a few things on ebay to try to figure out how the bidding works. I am confused. There is a playdress set that is ending very soon and it looks like the same person has bid the price up from $15 to $35 in $5 increments over yesterday, then to $39 in $2 increments today. It doesn't show any bids in between hers. Is this that automatic bidder thing doing this or is this person purposely just driving the price up?

Thanks to you all I have found a new way to waste time on line, by looking for items to think about bidding on. ;)

Monica

[nfowife]

It's the proxy bidder system. What happens is you put in your maximum bid. So let's say her max bid was $40. Then you come along and bid $25 as your max. It would automatically go up to $26 (or $25.01 or something) but it wouldn't show your bid since she automatically outbid you. All those bids against herself are when others bid but their maximum wasn't has high as hers. Does that make sense?

[mickminmom]

Is the proxy bidder system contained on ebay or is that other software that you have on your own computer that automatically checks and ups your bid? I haven't tried ebay...mainly use Craigslist or consignment shops.

Chris

[nfowife]

No it's in ebay. When you bid on an item, you enter your max bid. So if there are no bids and the item starts at $6 but you would pay up to $20, then you bid $20. As long as there are no other bidders, the item will stay at $6. If someone else bids, your bid (up to your max) will go up just above theirs. So putting in your max doesn't mean you automatically pay your max. This is also why most people wait until the very end to bid, so an item doesn't get bid up prematurely and make it more $$. But with in-demand things, is usually happens anyway.

[MonicaH]

Thanks for explaining it!

Monica