Should my own bid increase the final price?

[dr_atb]

I put a bid of £6.03 on an item that already had a bid. It turns out the existing bid maximum was £6, so I became the winning bid. However, it was quite obvious what my maximum bid was, so I was worried I'd be outbid at the last second.

I decided to put in another, slightly higher, maximum, in case anyone tried £6.53. It turned out that no one else bid anyway. But, as a result of my second bid, the final sale price increased from £6.03 to £6.50.

Should this happen? My £6.03 bid was already winning so, if no one else bid, why would it go up?

I'm not fussed about the money. I'd have paid more than £6.50, if necessary to outbid someone else. But I don't see why the price changed when no one else bid. It's like I bid against myself or something.

(I did try Customer Support, who didn't seem to know why. They said they'd look into it and email me when they had an answer, but I'm still waiting for that.)

[**peaseblossom**]

It completed the bid increment:

http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/buy/bid-increments.html

[red_magpie]

It woud help to let us know th item number - or of you don't want to diaclose what you bought, just copy and paste the full bidding history, including hidden bids.

[dr_atb]

I am aware of bid increments. Had the second bid been my only one, then the price would indeed have gone to £6.50, to be an increment above the other person's bid.

But the page you link to says "When someone else places a bid, which is lower than the maximum bid, we'll place a slightly higher bid on your behalf."

In this case, the first bid was already winning. No one else placed another bid. So, there was no need for an automatic bid.

[dr_atb]

This isn't the whole history, but the relevant bit.

At 8:40 or so, it was showing a price of £5.50. (The automatic bid from 9***5, whose maximum was unknown to me at the time.)

I tried £6.03, which turned out to be just above their maximum. At 8:45, that was showing at the winning bid (though in danger of getting outbid).

As per the above, I realise that £6.50 is the full increment above 9***5's £6 bid. But, since the £6.03 bid was winning, I wasn't expecting that to change unless someone else bid (which didn't happen).

I might have taken the risk of getting outbid, rather than bidding again, if I'd known that another bid would push the price up anyway.

dr_atbFeedback score (727)	£6.50	25 Jun 2025 at 8:47:29pm BST
dr_atbFeedback score (727)	£6.03	25 Jun 2025 at 8:41:30pm BST
9***5Feedback score (110)	£6.00	25 Jun 2025 at 8:03:26pm BST
This is an automatic (proxy) bid placed by eBay on behalf of the bidder.9***5Feedback score (110)	£5.50	25 Jun 2025 at 8:03:26pm BST
3***4Feedback score (9)	£5.00	25 Jun 2025 at 8:03:43pm BST