Auto-bid is a feature that lets FoxyHub work on your behalf.
Instead of entering a minimum bid and sitting by your computer to watch as others bid against you, you can specify your price ceiling and FoxyHub will increase your bid by the minimum increment for the auction's value ($1 if it is $1000 or lower; $10 if it is from $1000 to $10,000; or $100 if it is above $10,000
) each time someone bids against you.
When you choose to bid on an item using auto-bid, you enter the maximum that you want to pay in the bid box, check the auto-bid box, optionally check the email reminder box and then click the place bid button. You will then be asked to confirm your bid before it is finally submitted.
In your bidding view, the minimum next bid will be shown as your auto-bid ceiling plus the minimum increment. This is because you can extend your existing auto-bid. You also get a message in the bid history summary that you have an auto-bid running to a specified amount.
Auto-bid is useful if you don't want to bid too much for an item, as you can set your limit in advance.
Where a listing has a reserve that has not yet been met and a bidder's auto-bid ceiling is higher than the reserve, the auto-bid will automatically meet the reserve.
Examples
- Seller A places an MP3 player on auction for $1 with no reserve. Buyer A places an auto-bid for $200. The auction starts at the minimum amount with Buyer A's bid of $1. Buyer B places a bid for $5. FoxyHub updates Buyer A's bid to $6 to put Buyer A back in the lead. If there are no more bids Buyer A will win.
- Seller B places a DVD player on auction for $50 with an $80 reserve. Buyer A bids $50 to lead the auction but does not have a winning bid as the reserve hasn't been met. Buyer B auto-bids with a $90 ceiling. Buyer B's bid automatically jumps to $80 (a normal bid would be $51). Buyer B leads and will win if there are no other bids (the reserve has been met and there is still $10 auto-bid potential remaining).
