Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/12/23

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Subject: Re: [Leica] Re: Bidding on eBay
From: Dennis Painter <dpainter@Bigfoot.com>
Date: Sat, 23 Dec 2000 19:44:35 -0800
References: <B66A8C01.3791%howard.390@osu.edu>

Martin Howard wrote:
> 
> Stanley E Yoder jotted down the following:
> 
> > Not necessarily. If your max bid is $100 and someone then bids $100.01,
> > they will be high bidder, even though the penny is less than the
> > increment. IOW, the increment is effective only for the automatic proxy
> > upbidding-to-max, yes?
> 
> Not as I understand it.  You cannot enter manually a bid which is less than
> the minimum allowed bid.  The minimum allowed bid is the current maximum
> bid, plus the minimum bid increment.  So, eBay's web page would not accept
> $100.01 as a valid bid on an item which currently stood at $100 and had a
> minumum bid increment of more than 1 cent (which, at that price, it would
> have).
> 
> M.
> 

My understanding of how it works as an example.

Example bid sequence:

The current bid is $97.00 the bid increment is $1.00

You enter a proxy bid of $100.01 (any bid greater than current bid plus
minimum increment is a proxy bid) and the current bid goes to $98.00

Hours, days, later, with one second before the end of the auction your
nemesis (the evil sniper ;) enters their proxy bid of $100.02. 

Ebay proxy bids for you, raising the bid amount to $99.00.

Ebay proxy bids for your nemesis raising the bid amount to $100.00, it's
getting to be a squeaker ;)

Ebay proxy bids for you raising the bid amount to $100.01 (notice it
didn't bid the full increment!, the proxy bidder cannot because your
maximum proxy bid was $100.01, but it won't leave your penny on the
table, imagine the howls of protest if it did)

By now you know what is coming.

Ebay proxy bids for your evil nemesis raising the bid amount to $100.02
(well that was their maximum proxy bid)

and you are outbid by a penny.

Happened once with my wife, she outbid the other bidder in proxy bids by
one cent. Just a coincidence, she didn't know the other person's maximum
proxy bid of course.

What doesn't show in the bid history is the mechanics of the proxy
bidding. But rest assured the proxy bidder will use all your money in
the bidding.

Clear Martin?

Dennis

In reply to: Message from Martin Howard <howard.390@osu.edu> (Re: [Leica] Re: Bidding on eBay)