AuctionNinja | Knowledge

Bidding

What is extended bidding?

The AuctionNinja platform features extended bidding (a.k.a. "soft closing"). The AuctionNinja system will automatically extend the closing time of a lot (auction item) whenever a bid is placed within the last five minutes of its scheduled closing. This may occur multiple times on any given lot depending on the bidder interest in that lot. Once all interest and bidding in a lot ceases the clock will run out and the lot will close.

This is the fairest way to prevent “bid sniping” (someone submitting a high bid in the last seconds of any given lot’s closing in order to win said lot) and to give all bidders an opportunity to increase their bids if they wish. It is also the closest way to mimic a live, in-person auction, when the auctioneer gives bidders opportunities to increase their bids if someone jumps into the bidding at the last moment before hammering the winning bid. 

Sometimes I'm immediately outbid. Why?

Because all maximum bids are "masked" (hidden from other bidders), you do not know what any other bidder's maximum bid may be or when they placed it. Sometimes you will be outbid as soon as you enter your bid. This only occurs when another bidder had a higher maximum bid than yours already "on the board". Your bid set in motion BRG's automatic bidding system which raised the other buyer's bid above yours. The other bidder may have placed their max bid days, hours, or mere moments before you placed yours. 

However, if you place a bid and there are no competing bids against your bid, the system WILL NOT immediately go to your maximum bid. In fact, if you are the only bidder by the time the lot closes, you will win the lot for the lowest possible dollar amount (based on whatever the opening bid was for that item), not your max bid. So if you place a max bid of $25 on a lot with an opening bid of $1 and there are no other bidders vying for that lot, you will win it for $1. NOTE: This only happens when there are no competing bids.

Why was I outbid by an amount less than the next minimum increment?

Occasionally our bidders are outbid by an amount lower than the minimum bid increment (see bid increments in our Terms & Conditions). All bidders may place their max bid at anytime.  As a result, you may be outbid by what seems to be an incorrect increment.  The AuctionNinja system will not default to strict increments like a traditional auction if an "odd" maximum bid was left prior to meeting the bid price which would engage the next bid increment. 

For example, let's say you place your maximum bid of $100 on a painting but another buyer wins the lot for $101. As stated in the bidding increments, you know the next bid should have been $105, not $101. The system will accept the $101 bid because that max bid of $101 was placed before the auction got to that next increment level.

Here's how: It's 4 p.m. on closing day and the painting is currently at $15. At 5:10 p.m. you place a maximum bid of $100. There are a few bidders at play and so by the time 5:45 comes around, the current bid is at $78 with you as the highest bidder.  At 7:05 p.m. a new bidder joins in and places his maximum bid of $101. Since this new bidder's bid of $101 is above the minimum increment at the time she placed the bid, it is accepted by the system. Since there were no additional bids placed before the countdown clock ran out, the $101 bidder wins the lot because it is higher than your $100.

My max bid was the same as the winning bid (tie bid), yet someone else won it. Why?

In the case of a tie bid, the hammer will always fall to the first bidder. For example, the current bid is $50 (placed by someone else). What you don't know is that their max bid (which is masked from other bidders) is $200. You join the bidding and and place a maximum bid of $200 and are immediately outbid in favor of the other bidder. Even though two people have the same max bid, only one person can win the lot. That is automatically determined by bidding order -- the person who placed that maximum bid first.