ebay is messing with bid increments.

backbidder

I noticed a couple ebay auctions today and yesterday where the next bid increment was higher than the normal bid increment.

Here are a couple examples -

Kendall auction
Next bid should be $1 higher than current bid, not the $3 it is asking for.

1971 pack auction
Next bid should be $2.50 higher than current bid, not the $5 it is asking for.

Turns out ebay is apparently testing bid increments that are 2x or 3x the current increment in about 5% of auctions, without any notification to ebayers. Here is a ebay community thread on the topic - Thread

Thanks very much ebay.

digicat

Yeah, I noticed that with a 1987 Topps Traded Tiffany set I was looking at. It was at $8.50 and the next possible bid ammount was $10.

zep33

I clicked on a card yesterday with 5 bids by 5 different people and the auction was at 41 cents

markj111

The bidding increment needs to be higher than the eBay standard. I hope they implement it-assuming they announce it first.

aro13

Interesting. I bid on an auction where the top bid was 19.99, and I sniped 21.25. My sniping service said the bid was too low so it was not entered, now I understand why.

WalterSobchak

When you're the only game in town, you can do whatever you want.

rlange5

I wonder if they are doing it to mess with the snipping that goes on with the auctions?

Bob

grote15

Didn't e4bay get successfully sued in court a while back over bid increment issues?

08HALA20

from ebay bid incerements????

See note
nice job ebay!!!
Joe




What determines the amount of the bid increment?
The incremental amount is predetermined based on the current high bid on the item. The following table shows the amount of bid increments.

Current Price
Bid Increment

$ 0.01 - $ 0.99
$ 0.05

$ 1.00 - $ 4.99
$ 0.25

$ 5.00 - $ 24.99
$ 0.50

$ 25.00 - $ 99.99
$ 1.00

$ 100.00 - $ 249.99
$ 2.50

$ 250.00 - $ 499.99
$ 5.00

$ 500.00 - $ 999.99
$ 10.00

$ 1000.00 - $ 2499.99
$ 25.00

$ 2500.00 - $ 4999.99
$ 50.00

$ 5000.00 and up
$ 100.00


Note: Although we specify our usual bid increments in the table above, we may, from time to time, change (increase or decrease) these increments. We may do this on all or parts of our site in order to test new features, optimize the site, improve usability, or for other purposes.

08HALA20

This has got to be illegal! Isn't it.

Accept our proxy bid at one set of rules and change it without notification?

Joe

grote15

To the contrary of what ebay is hoping to achieve with these changes, I think it may actually lower hammer prices as bidders may not be inclined to bid another $30 instead of another $10 or $15 on an item that is say $500.

twiley

<< <i>I wonder if they are doing it to mess with the snipping that goes on with the auctions?

Bob >>



I noticed my snipe wasn't allowed to bid on an item recently

There were 2 bids.

.99 start
Bidder 1 max bid was set at 34.45
Bidder 2 bid 34.52
I had my snipe set to 38.00 and the bid did not go through. The auction said next bid was 40.00 when I checked it just before it ended. my snipe page say bid to low so it never bothered. Now according to their silly bid sheet. I should have won the auction. It was obvious through bid history bidder 2 had their max bid at 34.52 because bidder 1 max was 34.45. The auction ended at 34.52 with bidder 2 winning. My max of 38.00 never went through.

Thanks ebay! Your cutting off your nose despite your face!

gameusedhoop

I can only imagine that ebay will soon roll out their own snipe service and force people to use it for a fee by blocking all other snipe services. Sort of the way paypal works, I could see 25 cents per snipe, and 1% to 1.5% as a fee if you win the item. More $$$ for the ebay pig machine. Remember you heard it here first.

Yankees001

Yeh, Ebay sucks.
Dave

dontippet

<< <i>I can only imagine that ebay will soon roll out their own snipe service and force people to use it for a fee by blocking all other snipe services. Sort of the way paypal works, I could see 25 cents per snipe, and 1% to 1.5% as a fee if you win the item. More $$$ for the ebay pig machine. Remember you heard it here first. >>




Ewwwww. I don't like it, but I can see it coming.

robbiegiggs

Ebay is shady at best. Unfortunately, i'm on it almost every day. I wish there were other options.

diamondman

yes weird things going on with bids, last week had an item that was bid up to 25.88 with a minute to go and the winning bidder (guessing it was a snipe bid) won the auction for 26.00, How did this happen ?I thought the next bid increase would have been like 26.13 or 26.38, but 26.00 went through and won.

whatever ebay is doing it is costing the sellers money. it is just plain stupid, that an auction was at 34.52 that the next bid would have to be 40.00 that is a 16% increase, geez if the item was at 1000.00 the next bid would have had to of been 1160.00. the greedy pigs are not only costing/screwing the sellers, but they are costing their-self money.

off topic a little but,
I think ebay should limit the number of times you can bid on an auction (say something like 10 bids on the same auction) , I hate newbies or anyone bidding like this: have one auction that is bid up to a whopping $10.05 has 14 bids only 2 bidders. bidder #1 feedback (15) has bid 13 times the other bidder 1 time. yippie.

byronscott4ever

<< <i>I can only imagine that ebay will soon roll out their own snipe service and force people to use it for a fee by blocking all other snipe services. Sort of the way paypal works, I could see 25 cents per snipe, and 1% to 1.5% as a fee if you win the item. More $$$ for the ebay pig machine. Remember you heard it here first. >>



I wondered the same thing but doesn't sniping cost them money? It seems that they would want people not using those to bid early and often to drive up the price and then a sniper can come in at the end.

mtcards

I actually think the ebay "pay for" snipe service wouldnt be too bad if they would lower other fees in response (which they would never do). I can see that coming up since ebay is at best a poorly run organization. Disallowing snipes would make bidding go quicker as there would be no advantage to putting in a lower bid or waiting until the last minute.

NickM

This test is disastrous for sellers of inexpensive items.

Doubling or tripling the bid increment will result in some bids not being placed because the next bid increment goes above what the potential buyers are willing to pay.

It's especially bad in a card that multiple people have up for sale if you're one of the unlucky sellers to be subjected to the test. Example: 2 people list the same card, which reguarly goes for $6 plus shipping (assume they ask the same price for shipping). Both start the card at $5. The first one gets the standard bidding increment. He gets a $5 bid, a $5.50 bid, and a $6 bid. The second seller gets the triple bidding increment. No one is willing to pay $6.50 for the card, though he could have had a bidder at up to $6. His card sells for the opening bid of $5.

Nick

BunchOBull

Crushing sniping services, increasing the use of early bidding, and making it financially irresponsible to auction low dollar items forcing more BINs...

Yeah, sounds about par for the course.