Those of you who leave proxy bids in open auctions may not be aware that the size of the proxy bid left may affect the likelihood of you being outbid by the incremental points on the bidding scale. You may not even be aware that a scale exists. The scale is as follows:

CURRENT BID           NEXT BID INCREMENT

£0.01 - £1.00                £0.05

£1.01 - £5.00                £0.20

£5.01 - £15.00              £0.50

£15.01 - £60.00            £1.00

£60.01 - £150.00          £2.00

£150.01 - £300.00        £5.00

£300.01 - £600.00        £10.00

£600.01 - £1500.00      £20.00

£1500.01 - £3000.00     £50.00

£3000.01 and up          £100.00

The significance of this scale to the likelihood of being outbid in an auction may not be immediately obvious so here are a couple of examples.

You assess the maximum price you are prepared to pay for an auction item to be £17.00. Postage & packing for the item is £2.20 so you deduct this amount leaving £14.80 (if you win the £2.20 will be added on to make up the maximum £17.00 you were prepared to pay). You add a few pence for good measure and leave a proxy bid of £14.86.

Because of the Incremental Scale this bid puts you at a tactical disadvantage.

Should the auction advance to the point where your proxy bid is reached the listing screen will display :

Current Bid £14.86.  (bid £15.36 or more)

If the other bidders have put more or less the same valuation on the item as you then you have given them a cheap opportunity to outbid you. If your Proxy Bid had been £15.00 or £15.01 the Scale would have ensured the next increment was a full £1.00 which might be enough to leave you as the winner.

Likewise, when bidding for a car a Proxy Bid of £3000 instead of £2995 then the overbid becomes £50 more expensive.

If the Proxy Bid you intend to bid is nowhere near an Incremental Step, always leave a Proxy Bid of a few pence MORE than an increment. e.g. £22.03. The tactical benefits are two fold:-

1. If, by chance and good luck, a sniper tries £22.01, you win. He probably won't have enough time to bid again.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            
2. More importantly, if you are bidding after other Proxy Bids have been left, you maybe outbid by £23.00. Just-a-minute! That increment should be £23.03. £23.00 is his limit giving you the choice of 1 more bid or let it go. If you had bid £21.99 (people really do bid LESS than the increment!) the following proxy is £22.99 and you are none the wiser where you stand.

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