Bid increments

[nigele3]

I thought I understood bid increments but this one has me puzzled. Item number 364858290651

Another bidder bid £37 a couple of mins out. I then bid £37.64 with 10 secs to go and I won. I'm not complaining but don't understand why I won as my bid didn't meet the bid increment which I think is £1 between £15 and £59.99. What am I missing?

[fargvs]

A full increment is not required at the auction item cut off/end time ... useful to add a few odd pence to your final bid at auction end time which often makes a difference between winning/losing an auction.

[rainbowtrax · Accepted solution]

A bid only has to be one bid increment over the current price to register, not one bid increment over the current high bidder's maximum. At the time you placed your bid, 5***9 was winning at £23. They had bid a maximum of £37 but the auction was only at £23 as that was one increment above the bidder below them. So you only had to bid one bid increment over £23 for your bid to register. 

If you had bid say, £24, then your bid would register, 5***9 would still be winning but would have been pushed up to £25.

As you bid £37.64, that pushed their bid up to its maximum of £37 and put you in the lead by 64p. If you had bid £37.01, you would still have won by being 1p higher than them. But if you'd bid £37.00 then they'd have won as your bids would have been the same but they bid first.

[nigele3]

Thanks, I've got it now!