THank you LAL you lovely piece o stuff

But then Dick and Harry are watching Tom and Laura...Tom likely decides that he'll sling a few more quid at it, (particularly if it's an antique or unusual piece that the value is difficult to determine and he really wants it,).... so Tom and Laura battle it out a bit. Meanwhile, Dick and Harry watch Tom and Laura battling over a few pounds, so they sneak in at the last minute with a bid, which, Tom and Laura would probably have been prepared to pay, but Dick wins it for the sake of a few pounds/pence. (Dick is probably an antique dealer btw!) 

It will show what the current bid is, but not who the bidder is, except to the seller. So if the current bid is £10 and you put in a bid of £10.50 the current bid will now show to all as £10.50, but no-one but the sellersees fully who's made that bid and no-one not even the seller knows if that is your highest bid or not.

If someone now comes along and puts in a bid and indicates to the system that they will go as high as £20 the 'current' bid will only jump to £11 unless someone else has also put in a 'maimum bid that is greater than the current bid.

i.e. If 2 bidders were to indicate to the system that their maximum bids were £22.50 and £25 then you would see the 'current bid' go to £11.50, then £12, then £12.50 and so on until it reached £23. It would stop there as the '£22.50 maximum' bidder has been outbid and the 'current bid' would not go higher unless someone (other than the '£25 maximum' bidder put in a bid that was higher than £23.

No-one knows your MAXIMUM bid, but there is limited info about who is bidding.

Wot The Fluff sed ^^^^

would it not just bypass the £12, 12.50 etc , and send an outbid notice to the person who bid the lesser amount ? 

Yeah BUT, that's the facts of how it works.....you need STRATEGY if you want to win!

tried to edit to add - the incremented bids would maybe show if you clicked on bid history, but not on the main page, it would just jump from £11.50 to £23 I think.

Well. they keep making slight changes, so whether you would actually see it going through the bidding process is a bit up in the air, but as Saint says, that's the mechanics of how it works.

Have you tried Goofbay .............that hangs on to your maximum bid until the last 2 seconds. You put in your max and forget about it,

gawds sake!

 you put in your highest bid as the amount(max) you are willing to pay.

if some one wants it more than you , they will put in a higher max.(you will lose)

if they don't, then you will  win the auction without ever  having to bid your max.

you can't really cheat the system if you bid what  it's worth to you.

Goofbay doesn't cheat the system - it simply avoids getting into a battle - if someone has bid £10 and thinks he has no opposition (but is willing to go to £20) if you sneak in with a bid at £15 5 seconds from the end with Goofbay - you've won - no bidding war.

i reckon sooz, that most people try to get it as cheap as they can on ebay, and you really can't con the system , it all depends on what you are prepared to pay.

if you want some thing more than  the opther bloke then you  will pay more for it.

it's as simple as that.

you can do the old having two windows open to slap in a bid in the last 7 seconds, but , honestly if you really wanted it, you would have bid  with a max and taken your chances.

Yes, but that'll work exactly the same on e-bay, If someone sneaks in at the last moment with a bid that's higher than everyone else then they've won.

Don't quite get what you're saying is the difference. except that it sounds like no-one gets a second chance. One bid each and that's it.

Is reluctant to say BUT....SHHHHUSHH, amongst friends You can often win by adding a few irrelevant pounds or pence  to your bid. I'm not a big ebayer, but, when I've wanted something, I've never lost it. I'm that annoying bugger who outbid you 'cos I added another random 78 pence to your top bid

lots of people use  bid software to beat the system.

 and it works.

but if you  make your max bid as what you are prepared to pay,  and its more than some one else was prepared top pay, then you will win.

it goes in  small increments to beat the  current bid until it reaches your max, and this applies to all those who  filled out the max bid ticket.

if you watch an auction closely ,  and have two windows open, you can put in a higher max bid  at the last minute, and probs  be successful .

Missing the psychology of thrill of the chase there JB and people wanting a bargain!

i know that supes, i never  put a max  in as  just pounds, always £20.51, or similar.

lol.

alomost everything on ebay is a bargain anyways supes. a few times i've felt bad  at going tp pick some thing up  and handing over the plaltry  amount of dosh that i won  the auction with.

I only got caught out once JB.. Last year, there were a couple of v nice, (to me,) pieces of antique bedroom furniture, that I wanted A LOT, but I didn't want one without the other. Stupid seller had put the closing dates at 9pm and 9.15pm on a Friday night and listed them separately. I was bidding xxx hundred pounds on the first item and whilst driving to a w/e away, my passenger sis was upbidding for me on my phone for the wardrobe, but, what I really, really wanted was the amazing dressing table that went with it, that was worth xxxx hundred pound more. Got pipped to the post on the wardrobe with last second bidders, who, guess what, eventually pulled out of the deal I still wanted that amazing deco, walnut, kidney shaped dressing table sooo much but thought Ahhhh f off, it's Friday night...People can get too greedy!

The wise caught on to the 1p, I'd go for something more random, preferably with a   6, 7 or an 8 in it..trusts that we're never bidding against anyone on here!

See that's not true, I've seen people pay well over the odds for something 'current' that they could buy elsewhere... they get caught up in the 'auction'/ 'i'll beat you mentality

Anyways..Renton, £55 is a silly bid as it happens...no idea what the pipe is worth, but, you showed your hand too early and you put in a figure that was too obvious

The best info/advice has already been given.

Good luck saint.

I spend far too much time and money on ebay.

So i did do done putted in a max bid

However - and its big - i think this alerted others who had placed max bids that theirs was no longer the max bid

And a bidding war has ensued

Ok not a war - someone - ONE person - has automatically raised his/her game and outbid me - via eBay auto bid doo daah thingy-ma-bob

You live - you learn

See, that's what they were saying up there somewhere ^^^^

It's best to wait, until the last moment. But be careful, make sure you have enough time not only to put a bid in, but to confirm it too.  

they cant see your max bid renton, they have to guess at it.

thats why waht  fluffs was saying about the pennies matters.

Don't be silly or naive... it's an antique piece yes? You will bid in a hope for a bargain, and there's one in a xxx chance you will get it, especially when you think, as joe odirninary, you will beat the dealers who have an eye for these things

Anyways, who would want someones pipe with all that saliva etc

^^^ That's positive thinking for you ^^^

I'm always suspicious when that happens. Sellers have been known to bid up their items using a separate account or a friends account. Having said that, if you want the item and have put in an amount you are prepared to pay for it, then I guess it's fair enough :/ 

But we told you that!

Noooo ypu didn't - i was talking sealed/hidden bids

You were talking about the last minute bid scenario

ROXAN - hello there

How goes it with you?

BUT if you bid earlier you risk a bidding war on it.

All maximum bids on eBay are kept secret.

Taps foot and waits for apology.

I never knew that bit of it though and you  - yes you - never sed another max bidder wud be told their max was gazumpped

Its not a bidding war  - its that they were given notice the max had been raised

Sort of . . .

Anyhoo - stop this you villians!!!

I (that's me) have been per-roozing eBay and noticed a Swatch watch.

Its a Sergio Garcia limited edition metallic job.

It was on sale for £180

I bought mine years ago for .... £70

And i have two

That's why you wait until the very last second but you are learning (your second post) all that glitters is not gold and you have to be very selective on eBay not everything is a bargain.

And we're not villains we woz trying to help.

Awwww i know you wuz

See i HAVE been waiting til the last second - try to bid and always, always got outbid

So . . . i realised it was due to "auto-bidding" by eBay to a selected max.

So i set a selected max - it told me i was "the winner" up to the point where someone else must have been told "you have been outbid"

Becos they were no longer in the "winner" category so they must have upped their max bid

THAT part - i did not realise

Fick hed that i am

Unfortunately some people are desperate to win,,,AT ALL COSTS! And so will actually bid beyond their original 'maximum', others are just trying to get a bargain and will put in as low a 'maximum' as possible and hope they can get away with it, but it's a false maximum and are quite willing to go higher if their original 'maximum' turns out to be not high enough. It's really a game of trying to second-guess the other bidder(s).

Why?

KAFFY - thank yoo 4 asking . . .

Well  -  i did do tried heftilyto get one of those watches in the UK only to be told they wuz sold out and it was a limited run - eek!!

THen i did do wented to Toronto and saw 2 of them - i was told they were the last 2 left in the Swatch shop, so ...

I thought "investment" and got both.

Wise old moi

Stick one on eBay Renton with a high reserve