I outbid myself and won

[bogush75]

Hello, 

today I lost and won an ebay auction, second guy (that I won with) was me.

And just because I won with myself I have to pay a quid more...  😞

Can anyone explain this?

Thanks

[roger_roger_over_and_nowt]

see :- https://community.ebay.co.uk/t5/Member-To-Member-Support/Won-an-item-via-Auction-also-placed-2nd-bid...

[bogush75]

Thank you,

In my case there is no another bidder with 62.

[*devils.advocate*]

I’m not sure how it works but it’ll have something to do with the bid increments.

Above £50, the increment is £2.

The other bidder placed a bid at £61 (although it would only have shown as £57 at the time) - then you placed a bid at £62 - which placed you in the lead.

I think because you placed another bid, it’s recognised it as £61 + £2.

It shouldn’t - the £62 should suffice - but it’s the only thing I can think of, I’m afraid.

[bogush75]

I don't think so - I placed 62 at 5:37 and it was there on the top for over an hour.

At 7:00 I placed another bid (my max) to be secure. 

[*devils.advocate*]

I placed another bid (my max) to be secure

Just as I, and many others, do.

If you place a bid at (say) £55 - and you are the only bidder - if you want to place a second (protecting) bid despite no other interest, the system will tell you that your new bid must be £57 or more.

Even if you are still the only bidder - the increment level kicks in.

If you've another instance similar to this, try placing another bid and see what it says in the box before submitting (and then obviously hit the back button).

The system will have recognised you as the bidder of £62 and despite being in a winning position, the next bid will have needed to be £63 or more (the rival £61 bid + £2 increment)

If you hadn’t placed another bid, you’d have won the item at £62.

Because you placed another bid (despite being in the top position) you won it at £63.

It’s wrong but I can’t think of any other explanation other than the increments applying.

[bogush75]

I have been selling and buying on ebay for over 20 years and you could not, never, outbid yourself (it is called logic, isn't it?)

With all the new rules & regulations, did they change that detail too?

P.S. "Even if you are still the only bidder - the increment level kicks in. " 

Sure, but if you were the one and only bidder :  £55 wins.

(at least it used to be like that, did they change it and your next bid of 57 would have won (you outbid yourself) ?

[*devils.advocate*]

As I have since (originally) 2004.

They've messed about with the system so much that anything nowadays, IMHO, is possible.

But I do think it has to do with the increments - it's just too much  of a coincidence.

[bogush75]

Good morning,

any specialist know the answer?

[tressygirl]

Others have been seeing this £1 charge,  not sure if this has happened here, but for others showing as a £1 odd inexplicable charge, it was a pre authorisation/ verification of the card used,  and once payment has been processed, the £1 is refunded to you.

Now, as said,  I'm not sure if this is the case here, but others have definitely seen these £1 excess charges, and refunded promptly!

@bogush75 

[bogush75]

Thank you.

So it is "inexplicable charge" ?...

...ok, I will wait for the refund..

[tressygirl]

@bogush75  wrote:     Thank you.

So it is "inexplicable charge" ?...

...ok, I will wait for the refund..

As I said in my post above,  I'm not sure this is the same charge you are seeing as others who have had their £1 refunded.  Just keep an eye on that payment method used for the purchase  see if that £1 reappears !

[sml192]

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@bogush75 wrote:

Thank you.

So it is "inexplicable charge" ?...

...ok, I will wait for the refund..

---

This is nothing to do with the £1 charge that @tressygirl is referring to.  It is to do with the way that bid increments work.  @rainbowtrax provided a detailed explanation of what is happening here in the thread linked to by @roger_roger_over_and_nowt above, in particular this bit:

'You then bid again to increase your maximum. But, if you bid again when your current winning bid is not one full bid increment above the next highest bidder, your bid is increased to exactly one bid increment above that next highest bidder (or to your new maximum if that is still below one bid increment higher).

This has always been the case and is, I believe, the only circumstance where you do effectively bid against yourself.'

I agree that it is a bit of an anomoly in the way that a winning bid is calculated but it has always worked this way and isn't a glitch so, unfortunately, you are not due any refund.

[tressygirl]

Excellent answer  @sml192 and I only thought  later, when I saw  that the £1 which was not a separate charge, so could not be this puzzling verification payment.

@bogush75  the £1 will not be refunded in this case,  soz!

[bogush75]

"a bit of an anomaly"..  🙂   - 100% agree, this "anomaly" works grat for "ebay" (as always)

My £62.00 bid was the winnig bid for over an hour. Nobody bid highier.. sorry, I did 😄

Is there a rule now it has to be "£2 increase" over £50 - never seen this before, I remember £1.

[bogush75]

I don't care about one quid that much, it is just showing how high and greedy ebay "system" became nowadays. 

Eg postage and that little £1 thing (+ few more new "glitches") and they make $$$$$$$$$$$$.😎

Good for them!

[sml192]

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@bogush75 wrote:

Is there a rule now it has to be "£2 increase" over £50 - never seen this before, I remember £1.

---

The required bid increment increases to £2 when the bid price reaches £60:

Bid increments

When someone else places a bid, which is lower than the maximum bid, we'll place a slightly higher bid on your behalf. The amount the bid increases by is known as a bid increment. Bid increments are smaller when the bid price is low, and larger in higher price brackets.

Current price	Bid increment
£0.01 - £0.99	£0.05
£1.00 - £4.99	£0.20
£5.00 - £14.99	£0.50
£15.00 - £59.99	£1.00
£60.00 - £149.99	£2.00
£150.00 - £299.99	£5.00
£300.00 - £599.99	£10.00
£600.00 - £1,499.99	£20.00
£1,500.00 - £2999.99	£50.00
£3,000.00 and up	£100.00

Occasionally you'll see bids increase by less. This means that someone else placed a bid just slightly higher than your automatic bid amount.

[thesmokingrunner]

It does appear that the explanation given by rainbowtrax as mentioned by @sml192 is correct. I've just found another example of a bidder out-bidding themselves.

The auction is currently live. A bidder placed a bid which was higher than the previous high bid but lower than the increment and then placed a 'top-up' bid which resulted in the new highest bid being increased (by 4p in this case) to the next increment above the previous bid. Here's a screenshot:

I really don't understand why eBay would introduce a process whereby someone who places a top-up bid ends up out-bidding themselves. It seems more likely to be an 'undocumented feature' resulting from an update to another part of the site which wasn't fully impact tested before release.

I guess the solution is not to place top-up bids in future.

[rainbowtrax]

It's not a new thing though, this is how it has always worked, not down to any recent updates. The bid increments have never changed and this strange anomaly of "outbidding yourself" has also been the case for over 20 years.

[thesmokingrunner]

Wow - really?

I have rarely placed a top-up bid but I honestly cannot recall ever 'out-bidding' myself. I guess on those occasions my initial bid has always been an increment or higher than the bid I topped.

I have to say, though, that it really just doesn't seem right that someone who places a new highest bid can then effectively outbid themselves because they decide to place a top-up bid. It's certainly something of which I shall be aware in future, so many thanks for the information.