Why Are Bids Out of Sequence on eBay?

When bidding on an eBay item, you might want to check how much other users have bid. You might wonder why some smaller bids seem to have been made and accepted by eBay after a user has placed a higher bid. Although the bids might appear to be out of sequence, this is due to eBay’s “maximum bids” feature. Bids might appear out of sequence due to eBay’s proxy bidding system.

About

Before the auction ends, you won’t be able to see the identities of other bidders, or how much they have bid. Once the auction is over, however, you will be able to see how much other users have bid. When you look at their bid prices compared to the times they submitted their bids, you might notice that smaller bids appear to have been made after larger bids. This occurs when a user has utilized eBay’s proxy bidding system and entered a maximum bid that is higher than other users’ bids.

Proxy Bids

Proxy bids occur when your maximum bid is significantly higher than the previous bid. eBay increases bids in increments of 50 cents to a dollar. If your maximum bid exceeds this, eBay will place bids within the intermediary amounts on your behalf. Placing a maximum bid before the end of an auction can be helpful if you want to limit your spending, or if you aren’t going to be at your computer when the auction ends. When the bid amounts are displayed after the auction’s finish, your maximum bid is shown as your original bid and the proxy bids created by eBay are invisible.

Silent Bids

Silent bids describe bids that are submitted by users seconds before an auction ends. Users who make these kinds of bids usually watch an auction but hold off bidding until the close to prevent the item’s price rising too high early in the auction. A combination of users creating high maximum bids, and consequently proxy bids, and users engaging in silent bidding can cause the bids to appear out of sequence once the auction has finished.

Considerations

By submitting a bid on an eBay item, you are making a contractual agreement to purchase the item if you are the winning bidder. Failing to fulfill this obligation could lead to negative feedback being left on your account and, eventually, eBay deleting your account. If an item you’re bidding on has ended but the page says that the item did not sell, this means the seller placed a reserve price on the item that wasn’t met and therefore they will not sell the item.