Haven’t come across this before but bidding on an item which hasn’t reached reserve and I’ve had an email saying I’ve been outbid and ‘outbid’ appears on my watching page but not my ‘bidding’ section. Normally this would appear as ‘you are the highest bidder but reserve not met’.

My bid is a fair bit higher than the current price, so just wondering if it’s a new way of Ebay getting you to increase your highest bid or just a glitch?

Any ideas?

Could be someone outbid you and then retracted…could also be spam trying to get you to log in with your details to increase your bid on a dodgy link.

Just ignore it.

Some unscrupulous sellers might use alternative accounts or get their mates to put in bids, to work out you maximum bid then retract them when they exceed your bid, so that they can later push you up to your max bid.

Some unscrupulous sellers might use alternative accounts or get their mates to put in bids, to work out you maximum bid then retract them when they exceed your bid, so that they can later push you up to your max bid.

this ^ either retract your bid or lower it so when they bid you up they end up the higher bidder.

I’ve always wondered that, as several times I’ve ended up winning something that just happens to be exactly what my highest bid was.

i decide what im willing to pay, then bid that amount in the last 5 seconds of an auction.
i either win it, or i dont, if i win it means nobody was willing to pay as much as me (just like an auction eh).

same as marty, don’t think I’ve ever bid for anything outside the last 15 seconds. then I’ll bang in the max I’m prepared to pay. With smart phones it’s even easier these days, set the alarm, bid on the go.

This exact same thing happened to me yesterday. Was outbid, increased my maximum bid but was still just shy of the other maximum bid. Then the bids were retracted so my bid dropped down to the previous low and then an hour later I’m back up to my maximum bid again.

That all smacked of manipulation so I got onto eBay customer support and they assured me that it was all fine and not a problem, that they have people watching for precisely this kind of thing and the retractions all loooked genuine.

Now I’m not sure. I don’t mind paying my maximum bid if it’s a genuine auction but not if some twunt is going to be deceptive about it.

got onto eBay customer support and they assured me that it was all fine and not a problem,

Similar thing happened to me a few months ago, I told ebay that I was not happy and retracted my increased bid. Surprisingly other bids melted away and I won the item.

Like others have said place your maximum bid and don’t get carried away by increasing your bid

i decide what im willing to pay, then bid that amount in the last 5 seconds of an auction

That’s what I normally do, or snipe it if I’m not around. This one is a relatively low max bid I’ve put in, so if I get it (highly unlikely) I’ll be over the moon.

I’m surprised Ebay don’t take a harder stance on this if it’s as common as you say. I know someone local to me was successfully prosecuted details here but he obviously wasn’t the smartest of sellers!

Kinda moot point though if it hasn’t reached it’s reserve price though…

i decide what im willing to pay, then bid that amount in the last 5 seconds of an auction.
i either win it, or i dont, if i win it means nobody was willing to pay as much as me (just like an auction eh).

Surely if you decide what you’re willing to pay and bid that amount it doesn’t matter when you bid – you’d get the same result bidding in the 1st 5 seconds?

No…. cos if you bid early it gives people a chance to…. do all the stuff described above?

Mad Pierre – Member
Surely if you decide what you’re willing to pay and bid that amount it doesn’t matter when you bid – you’d get the same result bidding in the 1st 5 seconds?

if you put you max bid in at the start of an auction your more likly to be out bid – ie it gives more time for others to bid on the item. Also you may be more willing to ‘up’ your maximum bid driving the price of the item up.

If i want an item that under auction i put the lowest bid on it i can (.99p etc), this way the seller knows that the item has bids on it and is less likly to withdraw the item. Then i set up a snipe for my maximum bid and forget about it, so that i dont go over what i would be prepared to pay for the item.

if you put you max bid in at the start of an auction your more likly to be out bid – ie it gives more time for others to bid on the item.

Also you may be more willing to ‘up’ your maximum bid driving the price of the item up.

Both these are irrelevant if the buyer does as was stated:

“i decide what im willing to pay, then bid that amount”

Kinda moot point though if it hasn’t reached it’s reserve price though…

Not really, as I don’t know what the reserve is until someone outbids me and possibly takes it above reserve.

i decide what im willing to pay, then bid that amount in the last 5 seconds of an auction.
i either win it, or i dont, if i win it means nobody was willing to pay as much as me (just like an auction eh).

I used to go for the old last second sniping tactic but then the temptation is there to up your bid as you watch the countdown and see the current winner has only a little bit higher than you, it’s a mugs game…

These days I just bid what I think it’s actually worth well before the end and if I’m outbid then nevermind, I probably didn’t need the item anyway… It’s better to trust your first instinct, and not overvalue items.

TBH Ebay isn’t really a great place to pick up bargains anymore…

Surely if you decide what you’re willing to pay and bid that amount it doesn’t matter when you bid – you’d get the same result bidding in the 1st 5 seconds?

If you decide you’re willing to pay £20 for something, then bid £20 at the last minute, and it is still at £10, then you get it for a tenner and a bit. You bid £20 at the start, then someone dodgy bids it up to £20, retracts their bid, then bids 19.00, you pay £19. It is all very well being willing to pay £20, but you’d be silly to pay £20 for something which no one else is willing to pay more than £10 for, as it suggests that your valuation was way over the odds.

If you bid in the last second, then it essentially allows ebay to work in the way it theoretically should, where everyone just bids their maximum, and it goes to the highest bidder, rather than how it does in practice, where people are strongly influenced in how much they are willing to pay by the behaviour of others, and also where people manipulate the system against the rules but in a hard to prove manner to achieve a maximum price.

Oh, and gixen.com seems to work fine for me, decide your price when you see the item, put it in, it bids for you in the last second. No need to watch auctions or manually bid, you pay what you were willing to part with or less.

It is all very well being willing to pay £20, but you’d be silly to pay £20 for something which no one else is willing to pay more than £10 for, as it suggests that your valuation was way over the odds.

This!

I only use buy it now or throw my bid in using EZ Sniper.

EX sniper puts your bid in 3 or 4 seconds before the end of the auction. That way nobody can bump you and my theory is that there will always be someone who wants what you want more and has more money / less sense or both.

never thought that someone would bump your bid up to maximum until I read the stuff above.

You could find that as it has a reserve on it the other bidders are just trying to work out what the reserve is. Once they know then they could retract their bids and either stay away or come back in at the end and snipe the item, knowing that they will be above the reserve price.

Mad Pierre – Member

Both these are irrelevant if the buyer does as was stated:

No there not – you’re giving other ebayers the opertunity to out bid you, driving up the cost of the item at the very least. From a buyers point of view you want as few bids on an item through out the auction as possible. From a sellers point of view, you want as many as possible.

I’d say I’m outbid 95% of the time… which is fine by me if others want to waste their money that’s their business…

TBH I’m probably valuing things a bit lower than most other bidders but it’s ebay, I’m after a bargain it’s not like winning the thing really matters… has winning an ebay auction become a bit like getting a Strava KOM? – you gain “Internet Props” for your use of pop psychology and last second tactical bidding but ultimately a it’s pretty pointless “Win”…

So I stick in what I think it’s really worth (not what it’ll probably go for) and log off…

Sometimes I get a pleasant surprise and win something at a price I’m willing to pay, often it’s on auctions that end at some stupid time like 03:32 on a Sunday morning when most people are not online (assuming nobody has set up a snipe on the item)…

I really can’t be arsed “cheating” to win strangers cast-offs, and if someone manages to “inflate” the bidding to the point where I pay my top price then yes it’s dishonest but at least I’ve not gone and bid more than the thing is worth to me, so long as it’s still cheaper than buying it new, so I can live with that…

I’m surprised Ebay don’t take a harder stance on this if it’s as common as you say.

Really? The higher the end sale price, the more commission Ebay make. Sheesh, next you’ll be suprised that Ebay don’t do more to stop sales of stolen/fake/misdescribed items. 🙄

adding a ‘Reserve’ is pointless in my opinion – all it does is increase fees for ebay – i’ve never understood why sellers do it, just list the item at the reserve price (ebay get approx 4x as much in the selling fees for ‘reserve’ priced items).

eg:
selling an item for £100 when you started the listeing at £100 costs about £1.60
starting an item at .99p with a reserve of £100 would cost about £4.60

I used to go for the old last second sniping tactic but then the temptation is there to up your bid as you watch the countdown and see the current winner has only a little bit higher than you, it’s a mugs game…

If you bid in the last 4 seconds then there is no temptation as there is no time left to re-evaluate and put in a higher bid. You bid what you think it is worth and have no time to get caught in auction fever.

Bidding early just gives you and everyone else time to get caught in auction fever, continually re-evaluating what they think the item is worth until they start bidding unrealistic amounts.

adding a ‘Reserve’ is pointless in my opinion

people won’t come into the auction unless the opening bid is low, then you are hoping they get the fever and start bidding more…

They’ll come to the auction if the price is right in the first place – ie cheaper than a Buy it now (if there is one one) and there is no point in setting a reserve that realisticly wont be reached.
Generally people will only put reserves on high value items which are rare enough to bring bidders to them even if the starting price is high (ie over £50). However imo most people who set reserves on their items rarely use ebay and have highly inflated values of the items that they are selling – hense the reserve.

For example:
I sold my bike last year, I could have put a reserve on it, but didnt. I set the starting price at £1300 (slightly under the 2nd value of the parts if sold seperatly), it had 3 bids from 2 or 3 different people and sold for £1350ish. After fees i got just over £1220 which i was happy with.

If i’d put a reserve on it i’d have to pay an extra £50 in ebay fees and to reach the amount i wanted to sell the bike for (after fees) I would have had to set the reserve at £1350. The bike may not have sold, and if it had sold I would have been about £30-40 out of pocket. – i hope that makes sense…..

If you bid in the last 4 seconds then there is no temptation as there is no time left to re-evaluate and put in a higher bid. You bid what you think it is worth and have no time to get caught in auction fever.

Bidding early just gives you and everyone else time to get caught in auction fever, continually re-evaluating what they think the item is worth until they start bidding unrealistic amounts.

But that’s precisely the opposite of what actually happens; bidders watch the numbers go up and up beyond what they initially (more objectively?) valued it at (say 48hrs earlier) the “Fever” takes hold in the last 60 seconds and people punt a number well over what the thing is really worth at about 4s…

You’re not the only one doing this of course, so you’re trying to second guess other the bidders next move too, all with the same mindset…
It’s not a calm evaluation of the value of the item, it’s a last second overvaluation, precipitated by a fabricated pressure to win despite getting piss poor VFM…

Like I said I won’t win 95% of the time, I think I should have phrased it differently, I don’t get fooled into paying more than I’m willing 95% of the time.

I bid “early” and walk away, the “bidding fever” that drives the final price up seems to kick in the closing minutes/seconds, I’ve just opted out of that bollocks.

I’m not the one “inflating” the price, I was almost always going to be outbid, its more normally the mug who chips in 3 bids in rapid succession, ~2 minutes before the end trying to beat everyone else, only to be gusumped anyway by someone using a sniping service…