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When you find an item you wish to bid for and have noted the
current highest bid, scroll down to the bottom of the listing page and you
will find the box to enter your highest bid amount. When you enter this
price, eBay will keep a note of it, but will only use as much as is necessary
to make your bid the highest one.
Sometimes, you will immediately receive a message on the screen
telling you that you have been outbid. You might find this a bit surprising since
you keyed in a figure that was greater than the current bid which was displayed
on the item listing.
The reason this occurs is because eBay’s system already has a
record from another member who has previously placed a “maximum bid” that was
higher than your own. The eBay proxy bidding robot therefore automatically
placed a bid from the other member which was higher than yours.
So you will need to re-submit your bid with a higher price until
the system gives you a prompt that you are the high bidder.
You can’t necessarily stay in front of your PC constantly
watching the item until the auction comes to an end, so the eBay system
automatically sends you an email if another bidder places a bid which is higher
than your maximum.
You then have the choice of entering another higher bid, or
looking for another item on which to bid.
There are also a number of commercial products available that
will link to your mobile phone with an alert to let you know you have been
outbid or have won a particular auction, so even when you’re out, you can
keep up with your bidding status.
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