HOW CAN I BE BID OUT BY A PENNY (with a $1.00 minimum) ?
A: Simple… Someone bid more than 2.00 and you had a proxy bid.
Example…..
Your bid must be at least 2.00 but any amount over 2.00 can be used.
Example: you are the first person to bid on a lot that starts at 3.00 and you decide to bid 15.00 as your max. You enter 15.00 and the auction says “you are winning this lot at 3.00“
You have another 12.00 in proxy that only you know about so if some one bids 12.00 or less you would continue to win this lot.
The next bidder comes and bids but they must enter 5.00 or more as current bid is showing as 3.00 so they they can also add a proxy…
Say the other bidder wants a 15.00 max bid as well (same as you) but they smartly bid 15.01 (just in case the total proxy you have is a round number like 15.00).
If the second bidder entered 15.00 it would declare a tie and the first bidder would still be winning it and the runner up bidder would need to bid 2.00 more at this point (17.00)
….so by entering odd bid amounts (even a penny) you can actually save yourself the price of a coffee if you adopt this strategy.