Auto bidding go straight to max bid

[79susans]

I want to bid on item 176796408308.

The auction starts at £50 and there's a reserve price. No other bidders so far.

I decided I'd go for a max bid of £75 - thinking that eBay would automatically bid in increments. However, it immediately placed £75 as the bid. (I retracted the bid as I thought I'd made a mistake somewhere and was going to pay £25 over the original price for no reason).  Why didn't eBay start bidding lower and increase in increments? Is it because there's a reserve price?

[tressygirl]

You may have bid at the same time as this other bidder who now has 2 bids, which means they saw perhaps your bid of £75 which just outbid their first bid, before you retracted it, so they have bid again.

By this reckoning,  they have now placed a bid higher than £75,  but the amount will not show until someone bids higher.

@79susans 

[61stephenuk · Accepted solution]

£75 must be the reserve,when the reserve price is met your bid will show as the reserve,had you bid £85 the bid would still have shown as £75

[79susans]

Hi thanks for the reply. There is no other bidder, just me again bidding lower amounts! I'm still under the reserve price apparently. Going to mull over what my real max might be for this item ...

[tressygirl]

Is it the rug?  There are 2 bids placed,  by the same buyer, so a much higher bid is there than the starting price of £50.

@79susans 

[john1297576]

I would guess by bidding £75 you hit on the reserve.

Now it says reserve not met,and if that is the case you cannot win.