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 Replies: 8 / Views: 2,138 |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2023 Posts |
Many of my purchases have been on ebay, so I'm accustomed to their proxy bidding. I was outbid on something over the weekend at another auction house by an amount less than the stated increment. I've dealt with this auction house several times before (through auctions and buy-it-now), so I'm not a new customer to them, but I am on the lower end of the scale. After I received the "sorry you didn't win" notification, I inquired how it was possible to lose by less than the increment. I'm having trouble understanding/accepting the auction house's response. See if this makes any sense to you: I entered my max bid of $375. For most of the week leading up to the close, I had the winning bid of $360. In this price range, the increments are $20, so I figured my bid was protected up to $395 ($20 more than my max). The auction closed with the final price of $390.60, so I lost by $15.60 -- less than the $20 increment. Here's their response to my inquiry: Quote:
The reserve on this lot was set at $360. You had a bid placed of $375. This sets your winning bid to the lowest amount possible ($360) and you have a hidden maximum bid of $375. Other bidders see a current bid of $360 and the next legal bid of $380. A bid of $380 was in-fact placed, but the winning bidder also increased his bid to $390.60 shortly thereafter. The system always checks to make sure a winning bid is one increment above the highest bid made by an opposing bidder to help ensure auction integrity under normal circumstances. In this case, you highest opposing bid was your $375 so that's why it bumped the current bid up to $390.60. What gets me is that the system checked against the highest visible bid, and not the highest hidden bid. I might have lost anyway, if the winning bidder had decided to go even higher at the last minute, but I'm miffed that my bid wasn't protected in the range I thought it was. Had I known their system behaved this way, I might have bid higher. Like I said, I'm accustomed to ebay's proxy bidding, but their explanation still confuses me. What am I missing? (Side note: I have adjusted the amounts above by some factor. Otherwise, their response is a direct quote with only one typo corrected. Also, I obviously withheld the name of the auction house in question. It's one that we've mentioned here before, and has a certain degree of respect -- I don't want their name to affect any bias in your responses, but I may tell you who it is if this seems like unfair treatment.) |
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Pillar of the Community
Russian Federation
5181 Posts |
Pretty sure that's how ebay increments work too (or at least that's the impression I got from their descriptions); if the current bid is $340 and you enter $375 (and the increment is $20 in this range), the visible result is $360, and if someone then enters $380 and nobody bids higher, they win the item for $380. IIRC, I've heard of someone losing an item by a few cents that way. |
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
2023 Posts |
Okay, you made me look at ebay's policies again, and they do have a section stating that you can be outbid by less than a full increment. I may need to rethink my strategy. (And I'm glad I didn't call them to complain further.) |
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Rest in Peace
United States
17900 Posts |
No two auction houses seem to have the exact same "rules" for increment bidding. For some, as with Great Collections, you have to be a full increment above the last bid. Thus, if the "normal" bids went $460, $480, $500, $550, a bid of $495 would only count as the $480, and someone bidding $500 could win being only $5 above you.
Heritage and Stacks also do it differently, too.
For Heritage, doing the "odd number" bidding is great because the next bid has to be a full increment above your highest amount.
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Moderator
 United States
14463 Posts |
That's the way bidding also works on a site I frequent. On that site, the increment is for the current bid price. My proxy has been out big by a few cents because the current bid at the time was less than my maximum proxy bid. It is frustrating at times.  |
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
4598 Posts |
HA also allows cut bids on their on-line platform, one per item, it's 1/2 the increment. At least the last time I checked, you can put any arbitrary number in for the max bid, vs. a straight increment.
-----Burton 50+ year / Life / Emeritus ANA member (joined 12/1/1973) Life member: Numismatics International, CONECA Member: TNA, FtWCC, NETCC, EveryCountry (online) coin club Owned by three cats and a wife of 40+ years (joined 1983) Author: 3rd Edition of the Sample Slabs book, https://www.sampleslabs.info/ |
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Rest in Peace
United States
17900 Posts |
You can bid any strange amount on most auction platforms. How the increments work can give an advantage, especially when the jump levels hit $50 or $100, or higher.
Bidding first always counts for first bid in before floor bids. So if I know the last three sales equaled $1100, a common bid for a Saint $20 in 63, and I really want the coin, I bid that $1100 immediately. The chance of a minimum $1200 bid is small.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
992 Posts |
The highest bidder takes it, regardless of increment, as long as initial bids are in compliance with the incremental bid rules. I've won auctions for 1 Cent to 1 Dollar over next lower bid.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2023 Posts |
In this case, I knew that I could get a similar item for $370 (based on recent sales at ebay and a different auction house), so I bid $375. But because the reserve was set at $360, that's the price that locked in. The next legal bid, $380, was more than I knew I could get one for, and if my $375 bid had stuck, I believed that no one would bid $395 (my high plus the increment). Because the reserve price kicked in, any bid I might have made between that ($360, too low) and the next higher amount ($380, too high) is meaningless. Anyone who bid $380 would knock me out, regardless. If there had been human-placed bids instead of a reserve, my $375 maximum might have come into play, forcing someone to bid $395 and I might have won. In any event, what this tells me is that if I'm the high bidder and my maximum is less than one increment higher, it doesn't matter. Lesson learned. As I said in another thread, "Look how much money I saved!" But as I said in that same thread, I turned around and spent it on something else anyway. |
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Replies: 8 / Views: 2,138 |
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