Bidspotter Max/Auto Bid Facility – How Does It Work?

It is not always convenient to be at your screen watching an item(s) that you are interested in, so Bidspotter have designed a Max/Auto Bid facility, that allows you to place your bid without being involved “real-time” during the closing of an auction.

How Does Max/Auto Bidding Work ?

You simply place what your maximum bid in the bidding window of the relevant lot(s) (where it says Auto bid).

If the lot(s) you are interested in have a reserve associated with it/them (you can establish this by looking for the “Reserve Not Yet Met” statement above the bidding pane), your Max-Auto bid will automatically be placed by the machine and show in the Current Bid window of the bidding pane. This will involve a big jump, straight to your maximum bid, there is no incremental bidding.

If the lot(s) you are interested in do not have a reserve(s) associated with it/them, then the machine will bid either the opening bid (if at the time there was no bid on screen) or the next bidding increment if there are current bids, so as to keep you in the lead, but only until your max/auto bid is reached and no more.

It is very important to understand that your Max/Auto bid will be placed automatically where a reserve has been set and will potentially be binding.

Our personal recommendation is that you are actively participating real time during the closing of an auction, however here are some working examples which you might find of use…

1. There is a reserve set, the opening bid is set at £1,000 (but so far there are no bids), the increments are set at £500, you set your maximum bid at £20,000: as soon as you press the button to confirm your autobid, the machine goes straight to £20,000. The result is the same if there are existing bids.
2. There is no reserve set, the opening bid is set at £1,000 (but so far there are no bids), the increments are set at £500, you set your maximum bid at £20,000: as soon as you press the button to confirm your autobid, the machine will bid £1,000 for you. It will then, if another bid is received at £1,500 from another registrant, autobid for you £2,000, and so one up to £20,000.

The first question you always have to ask yourself therefore is ‘is there a reserve set on this item?’

The second question you have to ask yourself is ‘what is the effect of the answer to question 1 on my autobid, and am I happy with this?’

We are always happy to answer questions/queries you have about our auctions, so please do not hesitate to contact us.

01902 672323 – Office

07885 436021 – Philip Stokes

07813 102014 – Paul Brindley