Don't understand this ebay quirk??

ProAc_Fan

Addicted Member
Heres the hypothetical situation. If you have a reserve auction and you place a bid that is lets say $71.99. Now because of ebay automatic proxy bidding the bid appears as $36 because that is the lowest current high bid. But the reserve isn't met yet so wouldn't it make sense for the bid to go up to at least the reserve price or if the bid isn't higher than the reserve the bid should at least go all the way to the $71.99 to show that your bid hasn't met the reserve. Am I way off on this or am I missing something?

Mike
 
Good point. If the reserve was say $50, sounds like you would not win the auction even though your bid was placed for $71.99. Doesn't sound logical or fair does it? Is this a fact?

I would ask E-bay, but based on my last attempt to communicate a complaint to them, I want as little to do with them as I can. They seem to selectively read complaints, ignoring facts such that they will not answer a straight question. I tried twice and gave up.

Lefty
 
Hi,
If the reserve is 72 and you bid 72. It bumps you up to 72, even if the guy below you is at 30.
dennis
 
Dennis, is that a fact? I'd rather it didn't work that way as I'd end up paying more than I have to. If there is a gap between the highest bid and the reserve (which perhaps indicates the reserve is unrealistic at that point in time) , than IMO it should lead to the seller making contact with the highest bidder to negotiate a price. At least that's the way it happens with real estate auctions over here. Alternatively, the highest bidder could be the one initiating contact.

If I'm correct, ebay would already have their fees in such case so even less motivation for them to be involved.

Speaking from a buyer's point of view, of course.:)

cheers
Jack
 
Yeah I don't think Dennis is correct. Are there any ebay hounds who can verify Dennis' take on this ebay policy?

Mike
 
Dennis is correct. If you bid on a reserve auction and meet the reserve it will bump your bid up to the reserve price even if there are no other bidders.

It didn't used to be like this, a while back you could place a bid higher than the reserve and if you were the only bidder and the starting bid was lower than the reserve the auction would close with "reserve not met" and you didn't get the item even though you bid higher than the reserve.

Mike, as to what you're saying, if you bid and don't meet the reserve, why would you want your actual high bid to be displayed?

Dave

http://pages.ebay.com/help/index_popup.html?buy=buyer-reserve.html
 
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Its happened to me. I put in what my high bid was not knowing the reserve and since it cleared the reserve it automatically went to the reserve.
Ebay is indeed a refined form of capatolism run by a brainless computer.
You have to have real live autioneers to get around this.
The option of course is to start the auction at the minimum but the bean counters found out they lost $$ and being Texans they soon changed that.
 
Thatch, look at it this way... If you want to buy something and you are willing to pay the sellers reserve in the past you wouldn't be able to buy the item unless someone else placed a bid to bump your bid up past the reserve.

And from a sellers point of view, in the past if you listed an item and had a single bidder place a bid higher than the reserve and no one else bid to bump up the bid past the reserve you wouldn't sell your item even though the bidder is willing to pay the reserve price.

I think it's a good thing that eBay changed it so it does bump your bid up to the reserve if your bid meets the reserve, this used to be so frustrating when you wanted to buy something and you knew your bid was higher than the reserve but yet the auction would end at a $1 and it would say "reserve not met" and you didn't get the item and the seller didn't get to sell it even though you bid higher than the reserve.

Dave
 
If there is a reserve then the auction should start at the lowest bidding price that means anything, the reserve. If no one will meet the reserve price as a starting bid then it is economics and the seller can lower the reserve or use the item as a doorstop.
There should be no surprises when using an online auction service.
Bidding $75 on an item hoping it will sell for $50 and having the price go from $35 to $75 with $1 intevals is upsetting. I know that you were willing to spend up to $75 but now everything has changed in the middle of the auction.
And this "winning "an auction is B.S. You win the obligation to pay for something that could well be junk, the oppoturnity to pay $10 for someone to put it in a box with newspapers, and $35 for getting it lost in the mail. You do not win anything.
Ebay is great. You can find all kinds of stuff, and most of the people are good to deal with.
Lets start an Ebay horror story thread! Grumpy Dave, I am sure you have been pissed of by more people and through no fault of your own pissed of more than anyone else in AK just because of your volume.
You get the 1st 10,000 lines. Canadians get to add customs stories to theirs, I get 1 paragraph cause I'm handicapped and Thor gets one line cause people just think he is handicapped and sell him stuff half price.
 
OK, I 've read the relevant part of the ebay rules and understand how it works know and think I see the sellers' POV. Thanks Mike for mentioning this in the first place.

It does seem to distort the economics somewhat but as we've said before ebay is a different beast to the traditional auction. Would be nice if there was an option for the bidder when placing a proxy bid(any bid higher than the prevailing high bid) as to whether he/she wants to be trigger the automated "bid-up-to-reserve" software.

cheers
Jack
 
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