I don’t understand eBay

I was bidding on an item I want, and I’ve gone up to the maximum price I’m willing to pay – but the current highest bidder already had a higher maximum, so he automagically outbid me. That means that all I’ve effectively done is increase the cost of the item by about $10 for some random person I don’t even know. I feel guilty.

Is there a way you can check what a person’s current maximum bid is set to? I couldn’t find it, and if I had know his was higher, I never would have bid. Ho-hum. Bad Nick!

6 comments on “I don’t understand eBay
  1. tamias says:

    No way to do that, at least not so far as I know. It’s sort of the point, I think.

  2. uncleamos says:

    That’s the point of an auction.

    You’ve raised the prive $10, thus bringing the item closer (or up to) the price it is actually valued at by those who might buy it.

  3. Nicolas Ward says:

    And this is why I don’t play many auction games…

  4. uncleamos says:

    If it didn’t happen….auctions probably wouldn’t be viable…

  5. rose_garden says:

    I think the economy would break if people started selling to the lowest bidder instead of the highest bidder.

    The random person who will be paying ten dollars more was willing to pay that much more, so you really shouldn’t worry.

    Well, the seller appreciates it, at any rate. Don’t forget to consider that!

  6. anonymous says:

    The maximum bid you want to place on an item should be denoted as your highest willingness to pay, as somebody pointed out previously. If they set their maximum bid higher than that number, they might get the item, but then face the fact that they paid more than they wanted to. If they set their maximum bid lower than that number, they might not get the item. Thus, they should place their maximum bid at their highest willingness to pay.

    In my opinion, you really shouldn’t feel too guilty about this. His maximum bid reflects the fact that he would have, and could have, paid more than even the $10 you ‘made’ him pay. In any case, he probably still ended up paying less than his maximum bid, which would still save him money.


Nurd Up!