[raven74]

I am bidding on something - first time as a bidder. Last night I put a bid of $35. It was outbid at $36 this morning so I upped by a dollar. Immediately I was outbid by another dollar. Five minutes later, I did a dollar bid again (no other bids had beel placed). Followed this pattern for 10 minutes or so. Every time I put in a dollar bid, I was immediately outdone. The intersting thing is, it is only increasing when I bid (the nanosecond I bid ) - no further bids at any other time.
Can the seller put on bids to drive up the price or have an automatic bid out on the item until a certain time? I know that there could be another person sitting on the item but it's still on for another 7 hours - I know if I really wanted it I'd wait until the time was almost up and outbid if I could at the last second, not sit on it so far out and go dollar for dollar. It seems odd that the bidding is increasing the way it is. The second I up a dollar I get the "You've been outbid!" screen. It just seems odd that this particular item would be so hot. Seems really odd.
Or I am naive to ebay?

[bakesgirls]

Someone else probably has an automatic bid in or just like you, someone else really wants it. If you are sitting there watching the screen and upping your bid, is it really so unusual that someone else may be doing it also?

[RachelT]

I'm no expert, but say you put a bid of $50 on that item, it won't go straight up to $50, it goes up (by in this case $1 but depends how much the item is worth) until it reaches ur maximum. Not sure if that makes sense?

[noi'mnot]

It looks as though the person who originally outbid you put a maximum bid - Ebay uses the minimum required from this maximum amount for them to win, and automatically increases their bid up to the maximum bid, every time somebody else bids. For example, their maximum bid might be $50 so if you keep on going, they will continue to outbid you until you get to $51 at which point their automatic bidding will end and you'll be the highest bidder.

I hope that makes sense.

[lsolaBella]

Someone may have put in their max bid say at $50. So although item may be listed at $25 currently, you bid of $26 is automatically outbid at $27 by the person who has $50 as their maximum bid.

[raven74]

No it isn't. As I said, I am an ebay newbie and was wondering if the owner of the item can do this to bump up prices. As an ebay virgin, I didn't even know you could do automatic bids Which answers the question I think! Cheers girls.
I am surprised though, it's at $50 now - waaaaay overpriced
ETA: I am also extrememly cynical and could get addicted to ebay...

This post has been edited by raven74: 03/02/2013, 10:35 AM

[noi'mnot]

So, if you have an absolute maximum that you're willing to pay on the item, put that "maximum bid" in, and Ebay will use the minimum required from that to win the auction for you, unless somebody else puts their maximum bid in at a higher price.

Not everybody uses the automatic bidding system, sometimes people just increase their bids bit by bit, but I find automatic bidding to be the easiest and least fool-proof. The seller will never know what the maximum was that you were willing to pay.

[noi'mnot]

No it isn't. As I said, I am an ebay newbie and was wondering if the owner of the item can do this to bump up prices. As an ebay virgin, I didn't even know you could do automatic bids Which answers the question I think!
I am surprised though, it's at $50 now - waaaaay overpriced

Rest assured that it's not the seller's doing.

Ebay is nuts like this, though. Sometimes you'll get something for an absolute bargain, sometimes it's cheaper to go buy it at a shop. People get caught up in the excitement of bidding! This is another reason why the automatic system is good, because you let Ebay do your work and don't get too excited in the moment.

[PatG]

If you are new to ebay I'd suggest just deciding how much you are willing to pay for the item (taking into account postage) and place your maximum bid, log out and don't go back until the auction has ended. You will either win or not win the item and you won't have paid more than you planned to. You might even get it for 1/3 of your max bid....

[babatjie]

I use Auction sniper, it bids the maximum I'm willing to pay within the last 5 seconds ad I forget about it.