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I can't make any sense of the bidding system
Summary: dwferguson280456 is experiencing confusion over an auction bidding system. They attempted to place a bid of £5, but the system shows their bid as £2.50, even though they see another bid of £2.77. tommystrezures explains how auction systems work, clarifying that the maximum bid is kept secret and is used to automatically outbid others up to that amount. papso22 adds that the difference in bid amounts might be due to a buyer protection fee visible in the bid history.
I'm trying to buy an item by auction, which I haven't done for a long time. There was one bid of £2.77 when I tried to place my bid. I tried to bid £5. I cannot find my bid of £5. When I look at the item details, I am told on the one hand that my bid is £2.50, which I never bid, and on the other hand that my bid is in the lead, although there is an existing bid of £2.77. Attempts to increase my actual bid to £5 are simply taking me to a "maximum bid" window, which I don't want or need. Can anybody make this make sense, and tell me how to make a bid of £5, which is what I am trying to do?
dwferguson280456
OP2 weeks agoThanks for the helpful comments. The process is very confusingly presented and not at all explained on the site itself, and the "AI Assistant" as is almost always the case, is utterly useless.
papso22
Mentor2 weeks agoIf you look on the bid history page you see the bid amount less the buyer protection fee, the main page shows the winning bid including the buyer protection fee, that's why there is a difference in the amounts.
tommystrezures
Mentor2 weeks agoIf you are at any auction including here, it doesn't matter what your maximum bid is thats kept secret. So for example if an item is at £1.50 and you bid £5, then the system will take automatically to the next bid level eg £1.60. It then needs other potential buyers to make their bids so if person B comes along and bids £2.00 your bid would then appear at £2.20 (or what ever the increments are).