I've seen everything now.

[dancewithadingo]

I had my eye on an item that ends tomorrow. It had an minimum bid of £100.00 and someone during the last few days bid the requested amount ie one hundred pounds.  He was and still is the only bidder. All of a sudden today he then made a further 49 bids.  Presumably to make sure that he gets the item. I hate to imagine just what his last bid would have had to have been. 

Needless to say I will not be bidding,which presumably is what his game was.

9.

[tressygirl]

Yep,  that is a ploy to put others off,   that is,   to keep placing higher and higher bids,  of course you cannot bid against yourself,  so that highest bid 49 bids later,  wlll not show,  until met , or beaten.

All you can do, is to place the highest amount you are happy to pay as near to the end of the auction as you can, in the hope it is higher than that last bid.

[kempseykate]

They could increase each bid by a very small amount, as you say, Probably to put off the opposition. I would still go ahead and bid the amount you were going to bid  you might win, and if not you force then to pay a bit more than they would have done!

[dancewithadingo]

Good Evening TG

Nice to hear from you. I hate to think what his last bid would be ,bearing in mind that the opening amount required was £100.00.

Blatant manipulation.

[twfan11]

It might not be that high.  I could be wrong but, as long as a bid is higher than one increment above the £100, he could after that initial jump just add 1p each time.   

You should just bid what you normally would have.   

I bet the seller is furious.  

[dancewithadingo]

Good Evening TF

Thanks for that.  Rather pathetic really as the seller is a charity.

[dancewithadingo]

Good Evening KK

He has just made another bid ie his 50th.   The seller is a Hospice. Words fail me.

[tressygirl]

Good Eveing to you also!

I think people who do this either do not know how bidding /  auctions work,  keep bidding thinking their bid will show an increase not understanding they cannot bid agianst themselves,  or as in this case ,a big 49 bids shows this is to put other bidders off,  but as someone said,  it could be being raised by the minimum bid increments,  so the final bid not that much higher.

If you really want the item,  personally,  I would wait until the last few seconds ( mine is generally at around 9 seconds)  then bid the maximum you are happy to bid,  you may still then win.

Good Luck !

[dancewithadingo]

Hi TG

Thank you. I feel sorry for the hospice who will not perhaps get the amount that they should. I will sleep on whether or not to bid.

Best Wishes

Dingo

[eastern-lights]

How many prospective bidders will notice that one bidder has placed all the bids? Not everyone looks at the bidding history. Most (I suggest) will see that the current highest bid is £100 and that it has taken 49 bids to get there. So bidding may not be affected.

[dancewithadingo]

Good Evening EL

Very true,a good point well made.

[jefftopman]

Perhaps he or she wants to make sure the Hospice receives a fair amount for their item?

[magpiecorner1]

Would you have to bid minimum bid increments.  I had an idea in the back of my mind that you can bid a bare minimum, either 1p or 5p?  Which could make his final bid quite low, well at least not far above his £100 bid.

Might be wrong, though.

He is certainly going to give a casual observer the notion that there is a lot of interest.

[dancewithadingo]

Good Morning JM

Thanks for your input.  I doubt that very much, probably just pure greed on his part. If he was that concerned about the hospice then he could send them a cheque etc.

[vinylscot]

Regarding whether or not to make a bid yourself, the existing bids make no difference at all to you.

You should still bid the amount you were intending to bid.

As with any other auction, if your bid is high enough you will win.

If you don't win, at least in this case you have the double consolation of having forced the bidder to pay more, and helping the hospice to raise even more money.

If you don't bid, he wins. That's the point of all his extra bids - to put off other bidders.

I don't believe "extra" bids even need to be one full increment higher (with the possible exception of the first one). I think they are accepted, as long as they are higher than the previous bid, even by only a penny. After all, that's how it would work if you were to coincidentally bid one penny above his highest bid.  As the increment is set at £2.00 at this level, his 50th bid may still be only about £102.50

[theelench]

I think you and others are right that the winning bid only has to be higher than the previous highest bid, not a full increment above.

The sort of glass I buy is often sold as auction listings and I might bid £82, but my winning bid might be something like £76. 54.

I agree with what others have said, I'd bid my max. in the last seconds.  If I win, good,  If not at least the hospice will get a little extra from someone trying to manipulate the auction to get a 'bargain'.

[game_raid]

The bidder has placed automatic bids and is documented on the help page below.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/buying/bidding/automatic-bidding?id=4014

There is nothing sinister or anyone trying to maniuplate the price, the bidder is simply trying not to be outbid so has increased their price multiple times.

As others have advised, bid what you are prepared to and if you lose the charity benefits from the higher price.

[geosacha007]

A few extra bids isn't sinister.  50 is sinister. Bid stacking is a well known ploy to frighten off other bidders.  Whether it works or not, who knows. But on this occasion it is scaring off the OP.

[m25jet]

I reckon you should do as Kempseykate has advised and just bid your maximum anyway.  That way if the person who has placed multiple bids for the item does end up winning then he/she will have to pay quite a bit more for the item that he/she was expecting to have to pay, and it may even result in the buyer refusing to pay if their winning bid is a damn site higher than they anticipated!  In such a scenario the item may end up being relisted for sale again, with the multiple bid buyer having been added to the seller's Blocked Bidders List, in which case you'll get a second shot at placing a bid for, and winning, the item.

Personally I reckon it's either somebody who is new to eBay and doesn't understand the rules with regards to placing bids for an item, or if not then it could be that the bidder is so desperate to get the item that he/she is placing multiple bids in order to deter other people from bidding.  I have, on many occasions, submitted bids on items before where one particular buyer has placed several bids in the manner you've described, yet when the page refreshed at the end of the auction and the "You Won This Item" message flashed up on the page, after making payment for the item I went back to the bidding history and looked at all of the bids, including autobids, and saw that the person who had placed multiple bids had only raised his/her bid by a very negligible amount each time.  This provided a valuable insight into the tactics of some of my opponents who would often bid on items that I was interested in, as I was subsequently able to get a better idea as to how they would bid, and whereabouts their cut-off point was with regards to their maximum bid, which gave me a better idea of how high to bid in order to beat them and win the item.

[dancewithadingo]

Good Evening M25

Thanks for you response. As regards the bidder, he is  'experienced' ie has a feedback score of 1135. He is just trying to frighten people and put them off bidding.

That said he does now have competition someone has pushed the price up to £118.00. With just under two hours to go I am still undecided as to whether or not to bother.  The price is very close to the figure I was willing to pay.

I will give everyone an update when the auction finishes. Thanks to everyone who has contributed.  The twists and turns of eBay, it never ceases to amaze me.