Let's use a hypothetical case. Auction #000001 has a widget being sold. The bidding begins on July 1 1:00:00 and ends on July 5 11:59 PM. Bidder "A" bids $1 on July 1. Bidder "B" bids $10 on July 1. Proxy bidding puts in a bid for $2. Bidder "C" tries to snipe and bids $8 at 11:58:51 PM (9 seconds before the end) but he LOSES to bidder "B" whose bid comes in now at $9 with a date time of July 1. When checking the bids one would expect to see the following list:
B $9 July 1 1:02:00
C $8 July 5 11:58:51
B $2 July 1 1:02:00
A $1 July 1 1:01:00
All this is perfectly FINE.
[Edited] He cannot "hide" his bid and have it show up only at the end of the bidding!!!
QUOTE]
OK, now I understand where Maven is coming from. She understands the concept of proxy bidding, but she is mistaken about how it is posted.
Maven, when you bid, it only appears ONCE in the listing, NOT twice. The fact that bidder B made a bid for $9, with only $2 needed at the time to make him the high bidder, but later an even higher bid pushed it up to the full $9, does not matter. He made his $9 bid on 1 July and that is all that will show. If you had looked at the auction in progress between the time of B's bid and C's snipe near the end, you would see B listed as the high bidder for $2. (Actually you would see it at $1.25, since 25 cents is the proper bid increment for auctions in that price range.) Only the high bidder's price is listed (the amount necessary to beat the second highest bid). As Steve pointed out, no one else's amount appears until the end. BUT WHEN THAT END COMES, you will only see the one bid listed on 1 July as $9. You will NOT see it listed on 1 July for $2 and again on 1 July for $9. You will only see the $9 bid listed as such, because it was only ONE bid.
>>He cannot "hide" his bid and have it show up only at the end of the bidding!!!<<
Oh, yes he can. That is EXACTLY how eBay's proxy bid system works. You have no idea what anyone bids until the auction is over. All you know is when they bid. At the end you find out the max bids of all the losers and who the top bidder is, but you do not get to know his max. But each bid appears only once, when it is made.
Does that clear things up?
