Stupid eBay Tricks

I picked up a used ADAT XT-20 on eBay to use in the "portastudio" that I'm putting together for min0taur to use. I had another one go for a good bit more than I was willing to pay for this particular brand of obsolete -- but still useful! -- technology.

I was left to wonder at one of the features of eBay's bidding system. If you put in a maximum bid, the system will just bid you up to the minimum level necessary to get above the previous bid. This may be less than the reserve. It appears that you can have a maximum bid that's higher than the reserve, but fail to meet the reserve unless you either enter a larger bid by hand or another bidder pushes you over the reserve.

Am I misunderstanding the way this works, or is it just a bit nutso? It would seem like your bid should enter at the reserve price if your maximum bid is at or over the reserve. And if your maximum bid is less than the reserve, your bid should enter at the maximum.

Stupid eBay Tricks

I picked up a used ADAT XT-20 on eBay to use in the "portastudio" that I'm putting together for min0taur to use. I had another one go for a good bit more than I was willing to pay for this particular brand of obsolete -- but still useful! -- technology.

I was left to wonder at one of the features of eBay's bidding system. If you put in a maximum bid, the system will just bid you up to the minimum level necessary to get above the previous bid. This may be less than the reserve. It appears that you can have a maximum bid that's higher than the reserve, but fail to meet the reserve unless you either enter a larger bid by hand or another bidder pushes you over the reserve.

Am I misunderstanding the way this works, or is it just a bit nutso? It would seem like your bid should enter at the reserve price if your maximum bid is at or over the reserve. And if your maximum bid is less than the reserve, your bid should enter at the maximum.