In an auction-style listing, sellers name a starting price and you bid against other buyers. You can watch the item to see how the bidding is going. When the listing ends, the highest bidder wins the item and completes the purchase.
Tip
Remember, a bid is considered a binding contract. That means that when you bid on an item, you"re committing to buy it if you win.
To answer any questions you might have, this article has links to all of our most useful bidding articles.
Automatic biddingLearn about how automatic bidding and bid increments work.
Retracting a bidFind out how and when you can retract a bid for an item.
How reserve prices workThere you"ll find any items you"re currently bidding on, items you bid on but didn"t win, and any Best Offers you"ve made.
If you want to delete your bid history, check the box next to items you want to remove and select Delete.
What is private bidding?
Sellers sometimes create private listings that keep bidders and the buyer anonymous, particularly when selling highly priced items or pharmaceutical products. There will be a note on these listings stating that they"re private, and that only the seller can see your username.
Why did the item I was bidding on disappear?
The seller may have had to end the listing early - although this is something we strongly discourage. Or, if the seller breached one of our policies, we may have had to cancel the listing.
Why am I getting a message to contact the seller when trying to place a bid?
Sellers sometimes set requirements for potential buyers, based on their payment or shipping preferences. For example, if you don"t have a PayPal account or you live in an area that the seller doesn"t ship to, you may not be able to bid on their item.
If that happens, you"ll see a message when trying to place a bid, asking you to contact the seller. Let them know you"d like to bid, and they may change their requirements to allow you to take part.
Why can't I bid in my friend's auction?
It"s important to us that auctions are always fair and honest. Sometimes a member who knows the seller - perhaps a family member or friend - bids on an item to drive up the price. This is known as shill bidding and isn"t allowed on eBay.
As you already know, eBay is a huge online auction where anyone can buy the product they like. Initially, eBay existed only as an auction, and goods were sold to the highest bidder. Nowadays, more and more sellers set fixed prices for their goods, thereby eliminating the possibility of bidding. But the auction functions have not gone away, and you can still place bids on the lots you like, bargain for best products. How to bid on eBay? How to buy a product that suits you? Today we will give answers to these and other questions, and also consider in detail, step by step, in pictures, how to win the fight for the lot as quickly as possible.
In order to be able to place bids, you must register on eBay, and if you have an account, then log in with your username and password.
Next, you need to find the product you like, place a bid, or offer a “blitz” price by purchasing the desired item. As we have already said, many sellers give fixed prices for goods, moving away more and more from the principles of an auction. To some extent this is convenient, but today we’ll talk specifically about the auction and its management.
You can place a bet by clicking the “Place Bid” button. The seller determines the minimum step, that is, the minimum amount by which you can increase the bid in order to beat the offer of the previous buyer. The system itself will tell you what the minimum amount is. In the example presented below, you see that the current price is $320, and the minimum possible subsequent price is $325, then at these auctions the minimum auction step is $5. If the auction is small, then the step can be estimated at a few cents, if an expensive and worthwhile thing, then the step can be from several hundred dollars.
The eBay auction is a little different from the usual form of auction. As you know, at regular auctions you place a bid, and it is for this amount that, if you win, you will have to buy the offered log. eBay is more democratic in this regard. The system saves your time and money. As you can see, the bet field is called “ Your maximum bid" is your maximum bet. That is, when participating in auctions, you simply indicate the maximum amount for which you are willing to buy this or that product, and the system itself negotiates, outbidding competitors’ bids. For example, on at the moment The product costs $200, but you see that you are willing to give no more than $500 for it. In “Your maximum bid,” you bet $500 and wait. Perhaps the bidding will stop at 250, and then you will pay exactly 250, or maybe they will go further and exceed 500, then you will not pay anything. The “Your maximum bid” you specified is not visible to other users, and this is a big plus. If the rates go above your limit, you will receive a notification by mail. You can set a new maximum bid, or not continue bidding.
Each auction has a time limit and bidding continues until someone makes the maximum bid before time runs out.
If, when listing the lot, the Seller used the “Buy it Now” option, as indicated by the icon, and you are satisfied with the price he requested, then you simply click the appropriate button on the page where the auction is taking place and buy the product immediately. In this case, trading will be terminated and all bets made will be cancelled. We can say that this is a “blitz” price for which the seller is ready to part with his goods without bidding.
Having decided to “blitz” an item, you become its owner and receive a notification about this - “Congratulations, you have won the item!” Next, you will receive an invoice from the seller, which contains payment details, terms and conditions for delivery of the product you have chosen.
Another term that you need to know to fully participate in the auction is Reserve Price. The seller can set a price below which he does not agree to sell his lot. Buyers don’t see it, but they can find out whether it has been achieved or not. Information about reaching the minimum price is written in the description of the lot. Of course, you can try to negotiate with the seller directly to purchase the product below the minimum price, but this does not always work. As a rule, auctions end successfully in most cases, therefore, there is no point in the seller rushing and giving away the goods for the first price offered.
How to control your bets oneBay?
The bet control system is quite simple and well-debugged. You will be informed about all actions with the lots on which you placed bids in your email inbox. You can also control auction movements directly from the panel of your personal page on eBay. If your bid is outbid, or you win the auction, then within a few seconds you will be notified by email and will be duplicated in your personal messages on eBay. Trust me, you won't miss anything. There is no need to refresh the page every 10 seconds in the hope that something will change.
How to withdraw a bid from an auctioneBay?
You can withdraw any bet you made, but to do this you will need to indicate the reason for the withdrawal (you made a mistake in the amount, placed on the wrong lot, etc.). We talked about canceling a bid in more detail in our article “How to cancel a bid on eBay: a detailed guide.”
Article on the topic: ""
Sniper programs foreBay.
IN lately So-called sniper programs have gained wide popularity on eBay. What is their role? You buy or download certain software that monitors the selected lots. It looks for the minimum bids for the groups of goods you have selected, and places them a few seconds before the end of the auction. Thus, in 99% of cases, you can buy a product at the lowest price, while your opponent, if he also does not use a sniper, will not have time to outbid your bid, and the product will be purchased. The sniper program compares favorably with the automatic eBay robot, which immediately outbids another person’s bid, thereby inflating the price of the item, provoking other participants to make more and more bids.
That's probably all we wanted to tell you about bidding on eBay. We also invite you to watch the video below, from which you will learn how to shop, what to look for, and supplement your knowledge about betting.
With this article we begin a series of materials dedicated to one of the world's largest electronic trading platforms- eBay auction. Let’s immediately make a reservation that all material will be presented only from the buyer’s point of view and we will not touch upon the topics of selling any goods on eBay, creating and managing seller accounts.
In this article we will look at general questions related to the activities of the auction, let's look a little into its history, talk about general principles the functioning of the auction, the responsibilities of sellers and buyers, we will describe the procedure for registering a new user.
So let's begin.
Attention! At the time of writing this article eBay auction is changing its interface design. Auction pages may display differently on different browsers and monitors with different resolutions. The screenshots of eBay pages presented in this article may differ in design from what you see on your monitor. The general meaning of the content of the pages does not change.
No matter how trivial it may sound, the eBay auction was created as part of the personal website of American programmer Pierre Omidyar. This happened on September 4, 1995. Initially it was called AuctionWeb and was conceived as an Internet platform where something can be sold by posting an ad about it on the Internet. Initially, the online auction did not charge a commission for sales, while for conducting classic auctions the seller had to pay a commission to the auctions, which reached 35% of the cost of the goods being sold. It was the initial free nature that attracted the first users to the new project.
In 1997, the company was renamed eBay. The number of buyers and sellers grew, the company's operating costs increased, so it was decided to charge a small commission from sellers for the opportunity to sell their goods to buyers. For buyers, the service has always been free, and remains so to this day.
The popularity of the eBay auction increased every day, income grew, which allowed the company to gradually buy smaller identical Internet resources, as well as companies that allowed the business to integrate. So in October 2002, eBay acquired the PayPal payment system, which now occupies a dominant position among payment systems both at the auction itself and in other areas e-commerce.
The basis for the popularity of the eBay auction is the absence of any geographical barriers and any time frames. The auction is accessible from anywhere in the world to both buyers and sellers, open 24 hours a day and 7 days a week.
Currently, eBay has 38 localized sites in various countries. These are the USA, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Great Britain, Canada, China, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Ireland, Italy, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, Vietnam.
The main operating principle of the eBay auction is openness. Anyone can buy or sell through an auction legal entity, registered in the system, regardless of the country in which it is located. Any product or service that is not included in the list of prohibited sales at auction can be sold (and bought).
Products can be sold either new or used. Some users view the eBay auction as a kind of transcontinental "flea market", although this is not entirely true. On the one hand, buying, say, some used item of clothing will cause just such associations for someone, but on the other hand, the eBay auction in this matter acts as a “treasury” of interesting things for collectors. And yet, the number of new goods, in almost all categories, prevails over used goods.
Also, the main principle of the auction is honesty on the part of both sellers and buyers. The auction administration absolutely does not welcome any types of fraud on its site and tries to very quickly stop possible attempts.
The buyer always has the opportunity to contact the seller before making a purchase, to discuss or clarify all the nuances and ambiguities.
It’s still worth talking about one of the basic principles separately, because... it is basic and fundamental. To put it simply, the principle sounds like: " Buy-pay!". That is, if you bought something by pressing a button Buy it now or won an auction, then you as a buyer have an obligation to pay for it. You can no longer refuse the deal on your own! Therefore, every purchase on eBay must be treated very carefully and thoughtfully. In case of non-payment for a purchased item or a won auction, eBay has the right to permanently block your account in the system. Moreover, the blocking will be not only by nickname, but also by first and last name, by number bank card, your mailing address, the IP address of your computer and the MAC address of your network card, i.e. the blocking will be very serious and registering again will be extremely problematic.
The pros and cons of shopping on eBay are also pretty clear. An undoubted advantage is that the buyer has access to goods sold in absolutely different countries. The same product can be bought in, say, the USA, England and China. The buyer himself can make a choice where the goods are cheaper, where delivery will be faster and cheaper. The second undoubted advantage is that at auction you can sometimes find very rare and rare items that have not been on sale for a long time. regular stores. Another advantage is that it can often turn out that a product found at an auction (even a new one) costs much less than in a store. For example, on eBay quite often things are sold that are not the right size for someone. At a lower price than in the store, of course. Again, auctions sometimes allow you to buy the necessary thing at a price much lower than the real one.
If we were to list all the advantages and benefits of shopping on eBay, we could probably devote a separate article to this. Therefore, let's focus on the pros and not forget about the cons. They're also pretty obvious. As a rule, these are all the costs of distance shopping, such as the inability to visually assess the quality of the purchased product, sometimes long waits for delivery, and the language barrier between buyer and seller. But nevertheless, with the advent of shopping experience on eBay, many disadvantages are leveled out and buyers simply stop noticing them.
To facilitate the relationship between buyers and sellers, eBay has a system of ratings and feedback. It is traditionally accepted that the parties evaluate each other after the transaction is completed. The seller evaluates the buyer in terms of speed and timeliness of payment, the buyer evaluates the seller according to various criteria, such as the veracity of the product description, speed of order processing and shipping, communication skills, etc. The rating system is open to all eBay users and therefore the buyer always has the opportunity to see what reviews the seller has, how honest and customer-oriented he is.
This concludes the introductory part about the principles of the auction. We will return to them more than once and consider them in more detail and detail.
So what is a seller required to do at an auction? The answers to this question are quite obvious and are based on the principles described in the User Agreement.
Firstly, the seller must be honest with his buyer already at the stage of putting his goods up for sale. Those. the seller must provide the buyer with the most honest information about the product he has put up for sale, its condition, physical or technical specifications, sizes (if these are clothes or shoes), etc. If you purchased an item and its description at auction differs significantly from the real one, this is already a violation on the part of the seller, and in this case you can demand a refund.
Secondly, the seller must immediately indicate the price of the product (or the conditions of the auction) and the cost of its delivery. Changing the prices of goods and the cost of delivery after the fact of purchase is unacceptable.
Thirdly, the seller is obliged to send the goods you purchased within 30 days from the date of payment. In reality, of course, the deadlines are shorter, but nevertheless, this is the main obligation and this is the deadline that appears in the eBay rules.
To be fair, we will also indicate what the seller is not obliged to do. The seller is not obliged to respond to your letters, indicate in the eBay and PayPal systems that the goods have been shipped, provide you with a tracking number, or write you feedback. In this case, it is more his right than his obligation. For the most part, eBay sellers are quite communicative and do all of the above. But nevertheless, if this did not happen, then these facts cannot be regarded as some kind of violation of the rules on the part of the seller.
By and large, buyers on eBay don't have many responsibilities. But those that exist are key and important.
The first is to provide the auction and the seller with true and honest information about yourself. You should not use fictitious names or addresses when registering. This will only complicate your existence at the auction and will only lead to problems in the future.
The second, as we said above, is that the buyer obliged to pay for goods purchased (or won at auction).
In case of non-payment for the purchased goods, the auction will issue a warning to the buyer - a strike. If such actions on the part of the buyer occur repeatedly, then after three warnings the buyer may be permanently blocked from the eBay auction. Registration again will not help here.
Well, the third main obligation (which smoothly follows from the second) is that the buyer is obliged to carefully read the terms of sale of the product, its description, and the description of the methods of delivery of the product. Therefore, we repeat once again, the process of purchasing something on eBay must be approached carefully, thoughtfully and prudently. We will talk about this in more detail in a section dedicated directly to making purchases on eBay.
On the bookmark Find an answer You will see a field to search by keywords. Keywords should naturally be written in English. By entering keyword and pressing the button Search You will receive answers to questions that contain the keyword. Or you can use the links in the section Popular Questions(Popular questions). In addition, you can search for questions in alphabetical order: http://pages.ebay.com/help/index/A.html
If you do not speak English, to read the Help pages, use translator programs such as Google Translate or translators built into the browser. The translation, of course, will not be perfect, but you will be able to understand the general meaning of the document without problems.
The general meaning of the eBay buyer protection program is that the auction itself acts as a guarantor of the integrity of the transaction between the buyer and the seller and guarantees the buyer protection in the event that the seller does not comply with any rules and regulations of the auction, as well as in the event that the buyer does not receives the goods for which he paid.
In order for your purchase to fall under the buyer protection program, a number of conditions must be met:
- The transaction must be completed at auction.
- Payment for the transaction must be made only using the payment systems listed in the Program.
- Payment must be made in one payment.
- At the time of applying for the Buyer Protection Program, no more than 45 days must have passed from the date of payment for the goods.
Subject to these basic conditions, if you do not receive what you bought or if the purchased product differs significantly from its description, you can open a dispute with the seller on eBay, which will occur under the supervision of the auction administration. If you were unable to resolve the dispute directly with the seller, you can escalate it and involve the eBay administration in resolving this issue. Provided that you comply with all the rules, the dispute will be resolved in your favor and you will receive a full refund for your purchase.
Please note that the Buyer Protection Program does not apply to real estate transactions with vehicles, when purchasing services, purchasing goods on half.ebay.com and artists.ebay.com and in a number of other cases described in the Program.
We will talk more about disputes on eBay in the third article. of this cycle - .
So, we have come to the most significant part of this material and will try to describe in detail the registration procedure for the eBay auction.
In order to complete full registration on eBay we will need:
- Current address email, registered to you.
- Current account in payment system PayPal.
We have already discussed how to register in the PayPal payment system in the section dedicated to this payment system.
It is best to create a new email address rather than using existing mailboxes, especially if they are used for social networks. This is important exclusively in security matters, because... exactly those email addresses who appear on social networks in to a greater extent susceptible to hacking. In principle, any email will do, but most best option-specially create a new mailbox in the domain.com zone (the eBay administration has more confidence in them). The most suitable option is the mail services gmail.com, yahoo.com.
As we said above, eBay auction has quite large number localized sites around the world. The question quite reasonably arises: which platform should I register on? One thing to consider here important aspect:
Registration on all eBay sites is end-to-end. Those. You can use your login and password on any site you wish, it will be the same.
Therefore, it is necessary to approach the choice of a registration site based on the principles of ease of further use.
Undoubtedly, Russian-speaking users will immediately decide that the best option is to register on ebay.. But, unfortunately, this is not the case for several reasons. The first is that this site has recently opened and is not yet fully localized. Those. Some of the texts and menu of the site will of course be in Russian, but here are the descriptions of the goods and other important information it will still be in a foreign language. The second reason is also a consequence of the “youth” of the site - in Russian localization there are still many software errors that can lead to errors when making transactions.
Therefore, we still recommend using the American version as a site for initial registration and a site for starting purchases. ebay.com or, as a last resort, English - ebay.co.uk. In these two cases, all notifications that you will receive from the auction will be in English, and the auction interface will naturally also be in English.
In case you know some other foreign language better than English (for example German), then you can, of course, register on the German site ebay.de.
In this article we will look at the registration process on the main auction site - ebay.com
As you know, the eBay site differs from many other marketplaces in that on it goods can be sold not only at fixed price, but also at auctions. Bidders can offer a certain amount for an item, which must be no less than the current value established by the owner of the lot and previous participants. This is a bet - the user “bet” this amount on the purchase of the lot, and he undertakes to purchase the product at this cost if the bet wins (“works”).Why is my bid immediately interrupted, or the proxy bid automatic bidding system
It often happens that the service displays a message that the bet was outbid, even though it was placed a second ago.One might think that these are competing bidders, watching the auction with their eyes open, but in fact everything is explained more simply. The eBay system provides a mechanism for automatically raising bids - “proxy bidding”. Instead of having to place each bid in a minimum increment, users can simply enter the maximum amount they are willing to spend, and the site will automatically bid, freeing them from having to constantly watch the bidding.
For example, if the current bid is $20 and you bid the maximum $100, then the service will automatically bid $21 and if someone else enters the bidding, they will continue bidding for you until they reach the specified threshold. Other participants will only see that their bid is outbid by yours.
Maximum bet, how to find it out
Unfortunately, there are no 100% valid ways to find out someone's maximum bid - otherwise auctions would lose their meaning, especially for sellers. Unlike “ ”, it is impossible to write to the user and find out his maximum bid, since all bidders are hidden, both from the seller and from other bidders.You can only “grope” for the maximum bet by constantly increasing your bet until it becomes the highest. In our example, in a similar practical way, we found out that the highest bid of the previous bidder was $51, which was automatically outbid by the service when we bet the maximum of $56. Of course, there is little benefit from such knowledge, but this is the only way to find out someone’s upper betting threshold.
Programs for automatic bidding on eBay
An alternative way to proxy bidding is to use programs for automatic bidding over time. Such programs are called “snipers” and are usually installed in the final minutes (and even seconds) of the auction in order to avoid unnecessary price increases in the fit of “auction fever.” The use of these programs is not prohibited by eBay rules, but they are all third-party services, in contrast to the proxy bidding built into the site.More detailed analysis and a comparison of these methods of participating in auctions can be read in the article “”.
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Initially, eBay hosted auction sales of various goods. And now this online store retains this function.
The goods presented at the auction can be purchased at very favorable price. Thanks to this, the eBay site is most popular among both buyers and sellers.
Let's move on to the survey on how to win an eBay auction. This is not as easy as it seems, but with the right approach to solving the issue it is quite possible. Let's start with analysis, nuances at the initial stage:
- Before starting bidding, you need to familiarize yourself with the terms of delivery of goods, to which countries the won lot can be delivered, how much delivery costs;
- Read the reviews about the seller, the more reviews the better;
- Be sure to decide on the maximum amount you can offer for the product you are interested in.
If the seller does not deliver to the buyer’s country, you must contact an intermediary company. Find out how much the intermediary’s services will cost and think about whether it will be profitable to purchase the goods this way.
Be sure to review the seller's information before placing a bid. Read the reviews and pay attention to the percentage of positive ones, it should be 95 or higher. Carefully read the characteristics of the product and make sure that they do not change during the auction. If you see changes in the description, there is a possibility.
Rules for placing bids at the auction
After careful analysis and decision making, it is worth moving on to the following steps:
- Decide on the maximum amount you are willing to pay for the item you like;
- An auction on eBay is a second-price system, do not rush to place your first bid, it is better to place it a few minutes, or even seconds, before the end of the auction;
- You should not bet an even amount (5, 10 dollars, etc.), indicate the amount taking into account the step and plus a few cents on top to beat your opponents (10, 05 dollars, etc.);
- There is no need to sharply inflate the price of the lot; the cost of the goods will increase without this;
- Be sure to follow the progress of the auction until the very end.
What does the second price principle mean?
What does the second price principle mean? When placing a bid, the auction can be won not by the largest, but by the second largest, increased by one step. The minimum bet increment is indicated below the price; you cannot place less than this amount.
ProxyBidding program
There is a special program for bidding provided by the eBay website - ProxyBidding. It independently monitors information about changes in rates every 5 minutes, and can also increase them if necessary.
To do this, the user must indicate in this program the maximum amount that he is willing to offer. That is, the program itself bargains for the buyer, and does it much more successfully than a person.
Using this system, if you win, you will need to buy the lot. In this case, it is impossible to cancel the bet. This is its disadvantage. But if you have already decided to participate in the auction, then you must be firmly convinced that this product you need it and you have enough money to pay for it.
What is Snipper (sniper)
Sniper is another program installed on the eBay service to participate in the auction. In general, you can place bids at an auction yourself, i.e. manually and constantly monitor changes or use special programs. In addition to ProxyBidding, which works until the end of the auction, there are also so-called snipers.
The essence of such programs is that they allow you to place bets at the very last moment, a few seconds before the end of trading. It is at such a time that the fate of the lot and its owner is decided.
These programs are used either through their official website or installed on a computer. The most popular among them include:
- Snapper24.com;
- goofbay.com;
- Myibay.com;
- rapidcatch.com;
- Quicksnipe.com etc.
There are several points. It is not very convenient to use programs installed on a computer, because... during trading, it must be constantly on. Some of them may slow down your Internet connection.
How to Win an eBay Auction Using Web Services
Therefore, it is most convenient to use regular web services. But there are several disadvantages here too. Many of these services are not intended for residents of Russia and are paid from $40 per year.
At the same time, if you plan to constantly participate in auctions on eBay, then you should think about it. Since such programs allow you to purchase goods at a fairly favorable price. For example, you specified the maximum amount in the program - $50, and the program bargained for you a lot for $40.
Among the advantages, the most important thing is saving personal time. Since the user will not have to monitor the bids until the very end of the auction. Another advantage is that you can create groups of lots that you want to purchase.
However, if the bid turns out to be winning on one of the goods specified in the group, then bids on other lots will not be placed. It is also important that, if necessary, a few minutes before the end of the auction, you can cancel or change your bid.
How to win an auction on eBay, summary
Thus, there are different ways to win an auction on eBay, but they are not a 100% guarantee of winning. If the lot you bid on wins, you will need to contact the seller and agree on everything.
If for some reason you cannot redeem it, be sure to explain the situation to the seller so that you can return the money. However, try to avoid such situations and be careful when choosing a product.
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