i have an auction that is getting bids but the price is not updating

Question

i have an auction set with reserve that says it is getting bids (four bids to be exact) but the price is still stuck on my initial price ($0.39). I had to pay a listing fee because I set a reserve, so i don't want to cancel for fear of losing my listing fee."

Here's eBay's Reserve Fee description:

monroe67 · Answer

" i have an auction set with reserve that says it is getting bids (four bids to be exact) but the price is still stuck on my initial price ($0.39). I had to pay a listing fee because I set a reserve, so i don't want to cancel for fear of losing my listing fee." Here's eBay's Reserve Fee description: "$5.00 or 7.5% of [the] reserve price, whichever is greater (maximum fee $250) Charged whether or not your item sells" Of course, nobody can know what your reserve price is just by looking at the auction. I know Ohtani is like a Major Baseball Star these days, and I have no idea what that particular card goes for. I hope for your sake that somebody is willing to pay more than 39 cents for it. But I would say you will be paying eBay at least $5.00 simply because you put a reserve price on that auction. AND, in theory, you could actually owe money to eBay after the Final Value Fees as well. Save yourself the Reserve Price Fee in the future: Do Not Put a Reserve Price on ANY Auction !!! Start any and all auctions at the barest minimum that you are willing to sell the item for.

gosimus · Answer

@mowhicards < (four bids to be exact) but the price is still stuck on my initial price > All four bids have been placed by the same person. He's increasing his bid each time, probably by a little bit. Some bidders think that other interested buyers will see that there are a lot of bids and be frightened off . . . scaring away his competition for the item. I'm not aware of any empirical documentation that demonstrates just how effective this strategy actually is. Or maybe the bidder is getting antsy, and is trying to hedge his bets. LOL, some people, more than you'd think, actually use the word "bet" when they're really referring to a bid. Whatever his motive is, we don't know it, but it doesn't matter anyway. The bid isn't increasing because it's the same guy and he can't bid against himself. As soon as someone else places a bid, all the bids that the new bid happens to exceed will be revealed.

comics-scifi-collectibles · Answer

@mowhicards That just means that the same person has increased their max bid. If you go to the listing and click on the bid number you can see that the 4 bids are from the same person.

Always start auctions at a price you will be happy with if you get just one bid.

Reserve price fees are 7.5% (or $5 whichever is greater) even if the item doesn't sell.

Anytime you see a fee at the bottom of the screen before you submit a listing that fee is due even if the item doesn't sell.

https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/fees-credits-invoices/selling-fees?id=4822&st=12&pos=1&query=Selling%20fees&intent=selling%20fees&context=DEFAULT_SELLER&docId=HELP1456

mowhicards · Answer

Ah -makes sense - thank you

eastlaneave · Answer

@mowhicards

The same bidder has bid 4 times. Each time they raised their max bid a little bit. But the selling price/bid price won't increase until someone bids against them.

See here

https://www.ebay.com/bfl/viewbids/227041219944?item=227041219944&