Question: How do bid increments work?
Answer: If you’ve done any amount of buying on eBay and have a general understanding of how the eBay bidding system works, you’ve probably wondered just how eBay works out the amount of the next “minimum bid” required for a bidder to bid on an auction.
While it may seem to be arbitrary or even magical, it isn’t; the required increment for each new bid is calculated according to a price table of “bid increments” that eBay maintains as a matter of bidding policy. Here’s how the bid increments stack up.
- If the current high bid on the auction is from $0.01 to $0.99, then the next bid must be at least $0.05 higher.
- If the current high bid is $1.00 to $4.99, then the next bid must be at least $0.25 higher.
- If $5.00 to $24.99, at least $0.50 higher.
- If $25.00 to $99.99, at least $1.00 higher.
- If $100.00 to $249.99, at least $2.50 higher.
- If $250.00 to $499.99, at least $5.00 higher.
- If $500.00 to $999.99, at least $10.00 higher.
- If $1,000.00 to $2,499.99, at least $25.00 higher.
- If $5,000.00 or higher, the next bid must be at least $100.00 higher.
Sample Cases
If this seems confusing to you, consider the following examples:- For an auction with a current value of $5.35, any prospective buyer must bid at least $5.85 ($5.35 + $0.50) on the auction to be able to bid.
- For an auction with a current value of $112.36, any prospective buyer must bid at least $114.86 ($112.36 + $2.50) on the auction to be able to bid.
- For an auction with a current value of $5,444.25, any prospective buyer must bid at least $5,544.25 ($5,444.25 + $100.00) on the auction to be able to bid.
