If the seller puts a reserve price on an item then they can get what they want if that reserve is met...otherwise it's a minimum to start/no reserve auction and highest bid wins.
It's no reserve. I think I'm beginning to understand. I placed another bid at $36 and now it says I'm the highest bidder.
Now, all you have to do is hope that there are no snipe bids. They won't post until there are only a few seconds left in the auction.
A good sniping service will place your bid with no more than three seconds left. The person who is manually entering their bid will not have enough time even if they are hovering over the "Enter" button on their keyboard.
Well no... Not to a fellow like me. I don't sit and study these things. The few times that I have seen a coin that I want, I will justify in my mind the most that coin is worth to me. I'll enter that and go on with my life. I'll create a scenario; Coins current bid is $33.00 Coin is worth to me $110.00 I enter a $111.00 maximum bid. The next guy comes along and plugs in $35.00. He is outbid and my bid automatically raises to $37.00.... So on and so forth. The beauty of this is that if nobody else comes along to bid, then I win the coin at $37.00... Even though I was willing to pay $111.00!
When I played on eBay I won a few and lost a few that way...the only way to beat a snipe is to bid/pay more...sometimes just to win, if, anything. You also have to be aware of shill bids...another reason I slowed to a stop on that site.
Only if the other bidders raise the bid to your max amount. And if they exceed your max amount, then forget about it and move on to another one! Only once did I get all twisted up in a bidding war. It was a coin I desperately needed to plug a hole in my Dansco. I got stupid and kept raising my max bid. The coin went far beyond what I deemed it to be worth. Thank heavens I came to my senses... But that hole in my Dansco is still empty! The other side of this though is that I own the most beautiful Barber quarter I have ever laid eyes on for less than half what I was willing to pay for it.
https://www.ebay.com/help/buying/bidding/automatic-bidding?id=4014 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proxy_bid I think when I first joined eBay in 1998 it was different; I seem to remember proxy-bidding being announced as a new feature. I could be wrong, though. In any event, it became the standard behavior at least twenty years ago.
Welp, the real world strategy of bidding on there is wait until the last 5 seconds for just about 95% of auctions you're going to look at. Maybe more. I prefer buy it nows with make an offer as well, but unfortunately, buy it nows tend to have extremely high prices. Usually with profits, shipping and fees factored in at the least. So if you don't want any hassle and you gotta have something and are willing to pay.... the buy it now route is often there. On other stuff people list an auction with a reserve. Now the seller can start it at 0.01 cent and if it only gets bid up to ten cents it doesn't matter. Seller's not obligated to sell because it didn't meet the reserve price they set. The bid stays red until reserve is met, then the dollar amount turns green once surpassed. The reserve price is unknown until someone bids above it. Now we get to the open auction with no reserve that most people prefer. Much riskier for sellers but can attract more buyers. From the buyer's point of view, there's zero point in putting your max bid in with 5 days to go. Or even an hour to go. Seller's want you to (of course), but all it takes is one other person who "has to have said item" for whatever reason vs. you and the bidding war takes off. Some people say they have a max number in their head and that's their stopping point. While others, if allowed days, hours or even minutes to think about where the price is at, will end up justifying in their heads to bid more. I don't want anyone to see my max bid until there's about 4 seconds remaining because I don't want people to be able to sit there and think about going even higher, then making me pay even more because someone inevitably will. This is how it works and how most people play it. You'll often see several bids come in in the last 5 seconds. I just use the app on my phone. If you have something on your watch list, your phone alerts you with 15 min. remaining and 5 min. remaining if you choose to bid. Whether you're in the car at dinner or standing in a corn field. The app works well.
You're not liable for your max bid unless others bid it up to that level. But if they do, that should be OK with you, since your max bid should be what you're actually wiling to pay.
Watch that 5 second last minute bid! Best advice is to put in the most you’re willing to pay and wait.
