How can an item with 5 days to go have 5 bids and still remain at the min. bid?

[njfleamarket]

I understand about proxy bids and all but I've been watching several of my items over the past few weeks, and I see items that show multiple bids sell for minimum bid?
When I go to bid on an item as a buyer, it will only let me bid the next increment bid or higher. I can't bid the same amount, so as I bid, the item price advances. 

How does an item get 5 bids and sell for minimum bid?

[coastaltechsolution]

What item?

I'm seeing bid increases on your sold items so not sure what you are asking

[alcoforever]

If the same bidder makes all 5 bids on an item with no bids, the starting price will not go up until another bidder comes along.

[nobody*s_perfect]

If an item gets multiple bids but stays at the same bid amount, then all of those bids must be from the same bidder.

You can't  bid against yourself.  If an auction gets just one bidder, it will sell for the opening bid amount regardless of how high or how many times that bidder bids.  Each of their bids would have to be higher than the previous one, but that won't show unless somebody bids against them. Your current auction for a Sturmey Archer speed hub is an example of this; all 3 bids are from the same bidder.

[mtgraves7984]

I think it's a silly strategy, but some bidders will load it up with several bids. Maybe to scare others away?? IDK...

[coastaltechsolution]

Strange bidders would go through so much but hey save a penny right 

[slippinjimmy]

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@mtgraves7984 wrote:

I think it's a silly strategy, but some bidders will load it up with several bids. Maybe to scare others away?? IDK...

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It's not a "strategy", it's more like.....

Buyer places a bid for the minimum account

30 minutes later they think that maybe they should up their bid to make sure they win

An hour after that they begin to wonder if maybe they didn't place a high enough bid so bid again

The next day they wake up thinking about how they really want this item so they once again increase their bid

And so on and so on.

Then maybe with one day left they change their minds once again  and decide they don't actually want the item or don't want to pay that much so they start retracting bids.

I don't know if you have noticed but people don't operate logically all the time! Lots of scatterbrains out there who can't decide what they want.

[vintage-car-magazines]

You have 5 bids from 1 bidder and that bidder has not been outbid yet.

If the opening bid is $5....

Bidder bids $10.....high bid is $5 

Bidder increases bid to $15.....high bid is $5

Bidder increases bid to $100....high bid is $5

Bidder increases bid to $500.....high bid is $5

Bidder increases bid to $501.99.....high bid is $5

5 bids.....still at the opening bid.

It's proxy bidding and the fact that, while you can increase your bid, you can't bid against yourself.

[soh.maryl]

Are the multiple bids all from the same bidder in any of those cases? 

[a_c_green]

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@mtgraves7984 wrote:

I think it's a silly strategy, but some bidders will load it up with several bids. Maybe to scare others away??

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Exactly. The spouse and I call those "Keep away" bids, intended to discourage rivals or snipers at the end by making it look as if the hidden maximum bid is getting pushed higher and higher. The lead bidder might actually just be putting in nibble bids and isn't any more than, say, $9 ahead of his rival, but no one will know that unless or until they try to outbid him.

[simba6]

If all the bids were from the same bidder, then the price would not increase unless a different bidder bid. Nothing wrong there.

[clemowbooks]

And if the bidder is a newbie, he may be bidding again and again without realizing that the winning bid is still to him and that is why it is not rising. The high bid (to him) is still showing as $5 the opening.

Then after he has increased his maximum bid from a reasonable $10 to a silly $100, someone comes along and bids a generous but not crazy $25 against the newbie's high bid of $5, and the newbie is outraged that he has to pay $26 when his high bid was only $10. because he forgot about all those others.

[postingid7659]

Yes, this is a bidder strategy to bid a couple extra times to try to make others think they have to bid a lot to outbid them.

Usually when they do get outbid it's only for a few bucks over the start price. 

[aruna_store1]

If the same bidder places all five bids on an item with no bids, the beginning price will remain the same until another bidder enters the auction.

[tharindpramo-3]

helpful .thank you