Maximum Bidding Examples
Many people are familiar with maximum bidding from websites such as eBay which use it in their auctions. Auctria provides a similar functionality with the Maxmimum Bidding feature set.
Recommended Reading
- See Maximum Bidding for setup; and,
- See Maximum Bidding Rules to learn more about its rules and limitations.
Placing Maximum Bids
When a bidder is placing a bid for an online item, they may have the option to place a Maximum Bid (if the feature set is enabled). The Auctria platform continues to bid for the guest until it reaches the guest's maximum bid value.
Basic Max Bidding
A "Luxury Carribean Cruise" is open for bidding and the Maximum Bidding feature set has been enabled for the event.
Bidder 1
In a traditional Silent (read: paper bidding) auction, the guest would start their bidding at $2,000 and periodically check to see if another guest outbid them. They could still do that for this Online type item, but since they know they are willing to go up to $4,000, they choose to place a Max Bid Amount for the $4,000 as well.
The bidder would enter their initial bid amount (this is required), and they would enter their Max Bid Amount. After entering the amounts, the bidder must click the blue button Bid $2,000.00 with a Max Bid of $4,000.00 to complete their bid. NOTE: The button label will update to match the bid amounts.
A confirmation pop-up window will appear showing the bid amounts.
Once confirmed, the Item Details will update to show the bid for $2000 remains as the high bid (since the bidder placed it); the system will automatically raise the bidder's bid to $4000 if needed.
INFORMATION
The details about the Maximum Bid are only displayed because the bidder is the High Bidder. Any other bidder viewing the page would not see this information.
Bidder 2
Another bidder sees the page and decides to place a bid for $2500 on the item.
This bid will not succeed as it was below the $4,000 Maximum Bid in place for the item (even though the second bidder cannot see this). The system will raise the first bid to $2,500, and the new minimum for the item will become $2,600. The second bid will also trigger the display of an Out Bid popup advising the second bidder they were unsuccessful.
The pop-up window advises there was a Maximum Bid placed as the explanation for the Out Bid notification. The second bidder now has the option to place another bid (and Max Bid) for the cruise, or they can click the Close without bidding button to close the pop-up window.
Bidder 1: My Account
When the first bidder looks at their My Account page they will see the current high bid for the item.
Also to note, existing Maximum Bids will be shown for all items, if they have been placed.
The Maximum Bid amount is only seen by the bidder. It cannot be seen from the dashboard although an indicator icon is displayed beside the current bid value.
Bidder 2 Returns
After thinking about it, and not wanting to lose out, the second bidder decides they are willing to go up to $4500 for the cruise and place that as their Maximum Bid.
This bid succeeds because it is above the $4000 Maximum Bid placed by the first bidder. The second bidder's bid is now at $4100 which was the minimum needed to beat the $4000 Maximum Bid.
Max Bidding With Bid Increments
"Bidder# 31" places a bid for $571.52 on an item when its current bid was $450. At that point the bid was more than the bid increment ($50.00), so was allowed.
The bid was then raised to $550 by "Bidder# 53" bidding this amount (and Bidder# 53 was advised a maximum bid exceeded their current bid), and then Bidder# 53 bid $600 ... this bid caused the maximum bid (by Bidder# 31) to max out at $571.25, but at this level the $600 bid was not enough to win since it needs to be $50 higher than this.
A bid of at least $621.25 is needed to be the high bidder which is $50 higher than the previous high bid to meet the bid increment requirements.
To override this there are a couple of options:
- if Bidder# 53 wants, you could still record a bid for $600 to them via the bidding/sales page and override the warning about the bid increment; or,
- you could reduce the winning bid back to $550 (see Edit Bids) so a $600 bid would be accepted in the future.
There is also a setting under Website Online Bidding Bidding Behavior for Requires bids to be an exact multiple ... If enabled, bidders would not be able to place 'odd' bid amounts but will be required to strictly stick to the bid increments and not just an amount greater than the current bid plus a multiple of the increment value.
Last reviewed: June 2023