From: lowen@pari.edu   
      
   Mike wrote:   
   > That's because my bid *is* $11 - until someone bids more than $11!   I   
   > set the price at $11 until someone bids more than $11.    If their bid   
   > is less than $1000, I set the price because I still have the highest bid.   
      
   When you bid a maximum of $1,000, whose bid amount set the actual bid eBay   
   recorded?  Did you directly bid $11?  Or did eBay bid $11 for you (that's   
   why they call it proxy bidding) on your behalf based on the bid of the   
   other bidder(s)?   
      
   Suppose you have the following bid history (eBay item# 200033487432):   
           lamar.owen( 391)        US $120.00      Oct-12-06 10:17:40 PDT   
           max-belve( 78)  US $120.00      Oct-12-06 15:09:32 PDT   
           chit3( 69)      US $110.11      Oct-12-06 13:44:38 PDT   
           max-belve( 78)  US $80.00       Oct-05-06 16:49:35 PDT   
      
   Whose bid caused me to pay $120 instead of $81?  And why aren't my proxy   
   bids for $81 and $111 recorded?  The chit3 and second max-belve bids   
   occurred after I entered a max bid of $120; had chit3 not bid, and   
   max-belve not bid the second time, what price would have been set, and why?   
   After all, I did not bid $81; I bid $120 as a maximum, and eBay proxied my   
   bid, making sure it was higher than the second bidder (except in the last   
   bid by max-belve, which didn't win simply because I bid it first; that's   
   how eBay breaks ties).  Oh, and if eBay hadn't needed to use my max bid   
   (say that I had bid $149 instead) then that max bid would not have appeared   
   in the bid history, even though the max bid is the actual bid I made; eBay,   
   with my permission, proxy bidded the actual bids, based on the second   
   bidder, and the amount eBay bid was only related to my max bid by a 'less   
   than' inequality.  The amount you pay in a regular eBay auction, assuming   
   you have high bid, is set by the amount the second bidder was willing to   
   pay, not by your max, even though your max bid is what won the auction.   
      
   > That's because it *is* silly.   
      
   No, it is reality; the winning price you pay on eBay, assuming you have high   
   max bid, is based on the second highest max bid placed and has no   
   relationship to the amount of your own max bid, other than the fact that   
   your max bid outbid everyone else.  Last post by me on this very off-topic   
   thread.   
      
   What I really want to know is if the hi-res board worked!  It reminds me of   
   the model 4 I had with a Radio Shack model 4 hi-res board, SmartWatch, and   
   XDROM all installed, and briefly I had a model III hi-res board on the   
   backside, just because I could.   
   --   
   Lamar Owen   
   Director of Information Technology   
   Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute, Rosman, NC   
   www.pari.edu   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)