First maximum bid that meets the reserve

[maujohwai]

Is it true that the first maximum bid of at least the reserve immediately moves the price up to the reserve? I've been trying to find this out in eBay Help, but the information doesn't seem to be there. If so, it strikes me as very unfair, since it may be that no other bid is anywhere near, and you should only be committed to one increment over the next highest bid, as normal; if that doesn't win, so be it. The only way to avoid the trap that I can think of (unless you have been told the reserve, of course) is to bid repeated small increases for as long as you want, which is a bore.

[pixiesen2012]

how is it unfair?

the whole point of a reserve is the item doesn't sell for less than the reserve set

if someone is willing to pay more than the reserve and places a maximum bid higher than the reserve the bid jumps to the reserve, not the maximum bid, and the auction continues from there

if you want to buy the item hitting the reserve is how you do it,

why do you want to bid in increments when you know you haven't reached the reserve and won't win the item until the reserve is met?

[maujohwai]

Thanks for your succinct comments.

Say, in an auction with no reserve , the current price is £60, I bid a maximum of £100, and no one else bids. I would deservedly win for about £62. Suppose, however, that there turns out to be a reserve of £80 that has not yet been met: I would pay £80. That's what I see as unfair, but is there another way of looking at it that I'm missing?

The point of bidding in small increments in an auction with a reserve that has not been met would be to avoid hitting the reserve and automatically paying it even if no one else bids anywhere near it. So in the above example where there is a reserve (unless I know what the reserve is, I repeat), instead of bidding £100, I would bid £62, then £64 if necessary, then £66 if necessary, and so on, and I might well win it for less than £80.

(I didn't know that the min reserve is £50, as another member has helpfully pointed out, so I can now see that there'd be no point in doing this below £50.)

[61stephenuk]

Until you hit the reserve the item wont be sold so you would not "might well win it for less than £80" its the reserve price or higher that wins

[pixiesen2012]

you cannot 'win' an auction with a reserve if your bid doesn't reach the reserve, that is the whole point of a seller paying to use a reserve,

if the bids don't reach the reserve the item isn't sold, no matter how many bids under the reserve have been made

if you are willing to pay £80, bid £80 if this is higher than the reserve the bid jumps to the reserve, think of it like someone else had placed a maximum bid

[maujohwai]

I meant to say that I might win for less than the reserve if the seller either lowers it or makes a Second Chance Offer.