Online auction house - etiquette

[lynden11]

Seen a car I’m interested in that’s up for auction in a lot tomorrow. Having submitted a ‘max’ bid several days ago I was contacted tonight by someone from the auction house highlighting that they’ve had several max bids at the same level as mine - if I see it selling at this price then don’t assume it’s to me as it will go to who ever placed that bid first. Also highlighted it’s not too late to increase my bid?!

Is this normal? Or is this a ploy to get me to up my bid unnecessarily?

Thanks

[swampy442]

Wouldnt say its a ploy, there's going to be other interest in the cars so other bids wouldnt be uncommon. Just stick to your budget and dont get drawn into a bidding war, theres lots of other cars out there.

[Trevor555]

People can get so carried away with auction buying.

Presuming you'll be buying the car sold as seen?

By the time you've outbid the others, added the fees etc.. Are you paying close to what a garage would sell for? With some sort of warranty?

That extra grand you might pay to a dealer could just save you a load of headache.

[AyBee]

Add £1?

[lynden11]

Thanks folks.

Just seemed a little underhand to me? Felt to me it undermined the process a little... I’ve made a bid and will be watching it live, seemed a bit unfair to be encouraging higher bids before the auction has even begun!

[randlemarcus]

lynden11 said:

Thanks folks.

Just seemed a little underhand to me? Felt to me it undermined the process a little... I’ve made a bid and will be watching it live, seemed a bit unfair to be encouraging higher bids before the auction has even begun!

Are you bidding a nice round number? I try to randomise my bids on eBay to be a tiny bit over that pleasing number, especially if its a psychological barrier. So £103.42, rather than £100. Works surprisingly often.

[bassanclan]

It may be a tactic to get the bidding up to the reserve

[lynden11]

My bids within the range of their estimate for the car so I’d assumed that would be above the reserve.

System only lets you bid in £500 increments so probably no huge surprise to have multiple bids at same value.

[Summit_Detailing]

If the cars that have gone through BCA over the last few days are anything to go by the majority are making a fair chunk over the CAP clean values - No doubt due to dealers suddenly waking up and realising they need stock if they are planning on opening properly next week.

Good luck!

Cheers,

Chris