about ebay, what does it mean when theres only one bidder and they keep bidding higher...

[daydreambeliever]

Im confused about this, sorry I did try to look at the ebay answer centre but for some reason it wont open. I havent used ebay before. I have my eye on a child carrier backpack. There have been four bids, each from the same person. is this fraudulent, does that mean someone is driving up the price? Theres nothing written by the bids/item about a reserve minimum price, but does the bidder sometimes get notified that they havent bid high enough for the minimum price, could that explain it all? I dont want to get taken for a ride....Please can anyone help? Thank you!

Lets call you A. You are prepared to pay £10 for something, but don't want to bid that yet as the bidding's just started at £1.

Someone else (B) decides they're prepared to pay £8.

So you say your highest bid is £10, but that info isn't passed on to anyone.

You (A) bid £1.
B bids £2
A bids £3.

etc.

Both A and Bs bids are put on automatically, up to the max. they've specified.

So eventually B bids his max (8)

A automatically bids £9 and because that's in excess of B's stated maximum, you win the auction.

Hope you get what you want.

No but theres only one bidder!! As in the bidding history goes like this:
bids - 4

person A 10 pounds
person A 15 pounds
person A 20 pounds
person A 30 pounds

So Is person A a freind of the seller, trying to push the price up? Or is person A a bit odd! Has person A been notified, say by email, that their bids are too low for the reserve, (it doesnt say theres areserve though), and so keeps increasing it?

Thanks for trying to help mumblechum. I understand the process of auctioning, just not what is going on with this one?

no A wants the item badly so has put up their bid. sometimes if there is a reserve they up the bid to get the reserve to be met. also they may have just decided they want the item alot more than when they first bid so have upped their bid. confusing isn't it!

Oh I see. Hmm...only problem is I want it badly now. There are only a few hours left on the auction. I am kind of scared of doing this, I guess cos I havent done it before. Shall I go for it....Is it v mean to try and wait until the last hour or so in the hope that person A might be having dinner and not notice my belated entry! Seriously, is that a horrible thing to do?

yes be nice and let the other person win

lol @ 'being nice'

just bid if you want it

mind you if it is already 30 quid that seems a lot for a backpack

new and only £46 quid

Don't just bid in the last hour - bid in the last 20 seconds! But make sure that you put in the highest that you are prepared to pay for it straight away.

The reason why it the bidder looks like she is bidding against herself is because of automatic bidding. Someone else is trying to bid but the automatic maximum of the original bidder keeps trumping the new bidder. It's automatic not some idiot bidder! Good luck.

Just to be clear: The new bidder (person B) is kept hidden unless she is successful in trumping person A's bid. Does that make sense?

Ebay only increases the price up to the next level above the last bid, so even if for example you saw something that started at £1 and you really wanted it and put in £50 it would still only show £1 until someone else had made a bid.