# Still More eBay Madness **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 25, 2003, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/still-more-ebay-madness/164091 "2003-03-25T19:33:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2003, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/still-more-ebay-madness/164091/1 "2003-03-25T19:33:11Z")
[$13K Toad the Wet Sprocket CD](http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2518237765). Note the high bidder’s handle.iwontpayforthis That’s the equivalent of somone posting here as “troll”. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2003, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/still-more-ebay-madness/164091/2 "2003-03-25T19:48:04Z")
:eek: I want that CD now, hmm… methinks I’ll be back up for sale soon. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Padeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@Padeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Padeye)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2003, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/still-more-ebay-madness/164091/3 "2003-03-25T19:51:23Z")
Maybe he’s into irony, will pay for it and gets a 100% positive feedback rating. ---
**Author:** ![Fin\_man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/51bf81/32.png) [@Fin\_man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fin_man)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2003, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/still-more-ebay-madness/164091/4 "2003-03-25T20:04:19Z")
The interesting thing is that with eBay, you enter the maximum you would pay. eBay only “bids” the minimum you would need to pay to get it (up to your max). For this to get the $13k+, two people would have had to bid $13k. Also, the seller only takes cash. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2003, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/still-more-ebay-madness/164091/5 "2003-03-25T20:05:46Z")
How is that possible? There are only 2 bidders and the opening bid was $8. I accidentally bid $350 on a cd recently (thank god you can retract for typos!) and the bid, against one other person, only went up to $5.50 after my mistake bid. Didn’t the first person to bid have to bid a huge number as well? ---
**Author:** ![Vaioman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/ecccb3/32.png) [@Vaioman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vaioman)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2003, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/still-more-ebay-madness/164091/6 "2003-03-25T20:14:12Z")
With ‘proxy’ bids, if you bid $350, you will always have the next highest bid(based on increments[sp?]) until someone bids $351. 350 would have been the highest you paid for it, so when someone bid $5, they increased your bid to $5.50. Surely, someone can be less confusing than me, though 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Fin\_man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/51bf81/32.png) [@Fin\_man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fin_man)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2003, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/still-more-ebay-madness/164091/7 "2003-03-25T20:21:32Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by elfkin477 \* > \*\*How is that possible? There are only 2 bidders and the opening bid was $8. I accidentally bid $350 on a cd recently (thank god you can retract for typos!) and the bid, against one other person, only went up to $5.50 after my mistake bid. Didn’t the first person to bid have to bid a huge number as well? \*\* Vaioman pretty much spelled it out but here is a example. _Assumptions_: Starting about $1. Somebody before you bid $10. eBay would show $1. You come in and bid $2.00. The bid would jump to $2.25 and the first person is the highest bidder. It went to $2.25 since $0.25 is the minimum additional amount at that low price. You re-bid at $5.00. The bid would jump to $5.50 since they bid more and $0.50 is the minimum at that price level. Follow? So, to get to $13,100, **cnmberryman** had to have bid $13,000. But eBay would show the winning bid at $8.00. Later, **iwontpayforthis** came in and bid some amount more than $13,100. That is how the price got to $13,100 in two bids. **iwontpayforthis’s** bid exceeded **cnmberryman’s** bid by the $100. ---
**Author:** ![gallows\_fodder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8c91f0/32.png) [@gallows\_fodder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gallows_fodder)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2003, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/still-more-ebay-madness/164091/8 "2003-03-25T21:26:29Z")
Back to the OP…my ebay handle is **ungracious** , yet I always thank all my sellers for their service and leave glowingly positive feedback when appropriate. (Which is almost always – I’m easy to please.) I took my handle from the St. Ungracious Marching Band. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2003, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/still-more-ebay-madness/164091/9 "2003-03-25T22:28:37Z")
I thought that if Bidder 1 set a max bid of $5.00 and Bidder 2 sets a max bid of $2 the price went to $2 since that is the lowest figure encompassed by both bids. ---
**Author:** ![Fin\_man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/51bf81/32.png) [@Fin\_man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fin_man)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2003, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/still-more-ebay-madness/164091/10 "2003-03-25T22:42:51Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Otto \* > \*\*I thought that if Bidder 1 set a max bid of $5.00 and Bidder 2 sets a max bid of $2 the price went to $2 since that is the lowest figure encompassed by both bids. \*\* No, it would go to just over $2.00 (either $2.25 or $2.50, depending on the increment at the $2.00 level) and Bidder 1 would be the winner. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2003, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/still-more-ebay-madness/164091/11 "2003-03-25T23:04:47Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Otto \* > \*\*I thought that if Bidder 1 set a max bid of $5.00 and Bidder 2 sets a max bid of $2 the price went to $2 since that is the lowest figure encompassed by both bids. \*\* That wouldn’t work since if the auction were to end at that point you would have two simultaneous winners. eBay’s proxy bidding automatically bumps it up to one increment above the losing bid. (Assuming that there is another bid that is equal to or greater than the losing bid plus one increment.) The size of the increments increases as the price goes up. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2003, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/still-more-ebay-madness/164091/12 "2003-03-27T15:00:13Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Ferret Herder \* > \*\*:eek: > > I want that CD now, hmm… methinks I’ll be back up for sale soon. 😛 \*\* Now’s your chance! Both bidders retracted and it’s back down to 8 bucks.