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Auto-Bidding

'Auto-Bidding' allows you to enter a maximum bid amount you would be willing to pay for an item without the need of you actually having to place more bids.

How it works
  1. Place a bid on an item with the maximum amount you would be willing to pay.
  2. The system will only use as much of your bid as necessary to keep your high bid position (current bid + bid increment).
  3. If another bidder places a higher maximum bid, you will be outbid and an email will be sent to you notifying that you were outbid. BUT, if no other bidder places a higher maximum bid than you did, you will win the item and it could be at a significant lower price than your maximum bid.

Note: The system will never bid beyond your maximum bid and other bidders and sellers will never know what your maximum bid amount is.

Auto-Bidding saves you time, as you do not have to keep coming back to re-bid after another bid is placed. It protects you from being outbid at the last moment.

Example
  • Item is currently selling at $50 and the bid increment is $1
  • You place a maximum bid amount of $80
  • Item's current bid is now $51 and you are the high bidder
  • Another bidder places a maximum bid of $65
  • The other bidder gets immediately outbid by you
  • The current bid is now $66 and you are still the high bidder

You will stay the high bidder until another bidder places a higher maximum bid amount than you (current bid will be $81), or the item ends. If you get outbid, an email will be sent to notify you. If the item ends whilst you are the high bidder, you win the item at whatever the current bid is.

The table below shows what can happen when an item receives multiple bids. In this example the item start price is $10 and the bid increment is $0.50.

Current
Min Bid
Bidder
Max Bid Entered
Current Bid Becomes
High Bidder
Notes
$10.00
-
-
-
-
  
$10.00
Tom
$15.10
$10.00
Tom
  
$10.50
Jane
$13.50
$14.00
Tom
 Tom's max bid is higher, so stays as high bidder.
$14.50
Susan
$15.10
$15.10
Tom
 Tom bid $15.10 first, so stays as high bidder.
$15.60
Jane
$34.78
$15.60
Jane
 Tom gets outbid by Jane, Jane becomes high bidder.
$16.10
Peter
$31.00
$31.50
Jane
 Jane's max bid is higer, so stays as high bidder.
$32.00
Tom
$34.50
$34.78
Jane
 Jane's max bid is $0.28 more than Tom's, so Jane stays as high bidder.
$35.28
-
-
-
-
  

Cancelled or rejected bids
If a bid is cancelled or rejected whilst you are the under bidder (your max bid is the next highest after the current high bidder), you will become the high bidder.