Locked
Discussions in this board are limited to the original poster and Community Mentors
Current bid
My current max bid is bigger then the current bid listed. Why doesn't my max bid change the listed current bid?
2 comments
Locked
Discussions in this board are limited to the original poster and Community Mentors
My current max bid is bigger then the current bid listed. Why doesn't my max bid change the listed current bid?
woodland_gnome
·2 years agoIf you mean you were already in the lead and rebid and the current bid didn't change, that is how it works in almost all situations. The price ("current bid" while the auction is running, which is simply what the price will be if there is no further activity before the end) is based on what the SECOND highest bidder bid: generally that "underbid" plus up to 1 bid increment (it will be the full increment over the underbid unless the highest bidder has placed a bid less than the full increment over the underbid, in which case it will be that amount (including an earlier-placed tying amount). The amount the high bidder bid is only relevant (other than to determine it is higher than the underbid, including an earlier placed tying amount) to determine whether it is a full increment over the underbid, if not then the price is the full amount of that high bidder's bid.
Exception: if the auction was "Reserve Not Met" before a new bid and the new bid is at least as high as the Reserve Price, in which case the new price is the exact amount of the Reserve Price (unless the general rule would produce a higher price).
Another possible exception (but as far as I know not actually done at this time) is if the high bidder rebids while leading by less than a full increment. Until 2011 this resulted in the "current bid" going up to the full increment over the underbid but eBay settled a class-auction lawsuit over that happening and it gets complicated after that (my understanding of the current applied rule--which has NEVER been publicly disclosed--is that the price is calculated using the lowest bid of the high bidder that in itself is enough to beat the underbid (including an earlier-placed tying amount). There have been times since 2011 when the "current bid" went up to the full increment when the high bidder rebid but it came back down to the amount of the lowest winning bid at the end.
The short version is that eBay hides the full amount of any bid by the highest bidder that exceeds the price calculation (based on the amount of the underbid, or the Reserve Price, or the Starting Price if there is only 1 bidder and no Reserve (or an unmet one).
eburtonlab
Mentor2 years agoeBay only uses enough of the high bidder's maximum bid to beat the second highest bidder's maximum amount by up to one bid increment, no more.
https://www.ebay.com/help/buying/bidding/automatic-bidding?id=4014
Because of this, bidders have an incentive to bid their maximum without worrying that they will have to pay more than one increment over the second highest bidder.