eMoviePoster.com

People who have bid in our eMoviePoster.com auctions over the past eleven years likely know full well how the "proxy bid" system works (and it is very similar to, but not exactly the same as eBay's "proxy bid" system). But if you are relatively new to our auctions, please read the below for a "refresher course" in how our "proxy bid" system works:

A proxy bid is a bid that works almost exactly the same way as bidding on eBay. You bid your maximum, and the auction software will bid on your behalf. So, if another bidder is currently bidding $25 and you place a maximum bid of $100, you will have the high bid at $27. If another bidder comes in at $60, you will then have the high bid at $63. So as you can see, it works just like eBay does.

The HUGE difference between our site and eBay is that our auctions have time-extended bidding, which means you can never get "shut out" by "snipe bids", and the HUGE difference between our site and other private auctions is that we went to considerable expense to ensure that even WE can't see you proxy bids, so in OUR auctions you don't have to worry that your limit bids won't be kept 100% confidential!

By the way, you can always see what your maximum bids are, even though your current high bid may be far lower than your secret maximum. When you're logged in to the auction site, on the menu below our logo, click on "My Account". On that page (just below the menu) is a link that reads "Bids". Click on that and it will show you all the bids that you have placed as well as what your maximum bid is.

There is one unusual situation that comes up every so often by sheer luck, and when it does, and the bidder is a new bidder, they invariably e-mail us about it. We received the below e-mail from a customer about a specific item he bid on that went straight to his maximum bid as follows:

"I placed a limit bid of $80 on an item when it was displaying a bid of $62. There was a high bid of $62 so I would expect my bid to show up as $65 (one bid over the current bid). Instead it went straight to $80. I'm new to this, but can't find an explanation for why my bid didn't just raise the current high bid by the minimum increment (in this case $3) - which is what happened in the case of the other items I bid on."

We replied with this detailed explanation:

"This is Bruce, the owner. What happened is easy to understand once you know how the system works.

First, go to that item's auction page and click on the "Bid History" link at upper right. That will take you to a page that shows you every single bid that was entered (there is NO other auction that shows you every bid including the bidders' IDs).

Now look by at this bid history. When you look at the place on the bid history where you first placed the $80 bid, you can see that bidder #1 had previously entered a bid of $77 (in the same way that you entered a bid of $80 later). At the time he entered the $77 bid, the current high bid was $30, so it became his bid at $32, with his secret maximum of $77. After that, bidder #2 bid $35 and $40, which made it bidder #1's bid at $42. Then bidder #3 bid $52 and $62, which made it bidder #1's bid at $65.

It was at this point that you placed your $80 bid, and since bidder #1's secret maximum bid was $77, you were immediately raised to your limit of $80 (had his secret maximum bid been $76, it would have been your bid at $79, because of the $3 increment).

Again referring to the page, since that time bidder #1 came back and bid $113, which made it his bid at $83 (since your maximum was $80), and since that time, you have bid three more times and it is now your bid at $118.

HERE IS WHAT IS MOST IMPORTANT FOR YOU TO KNOW! I can see from that page (as everyone else can) that you are the high bidder at $118, because that is one bid increment ($5) over bidder #1's $113 bid, but no one (even including me!) can tell if you have a secret high bid over $118. That will only be discovered if someone places a higher bid, and if $113 is your highest bid, then they will outbid you, but if you have a higher bid than $118, then you will outbid them.

Hopefully all of the above is clear and understandable to you, but if not, please reply with any questions.

Also, it is important that you know (if you don't know already) that our auctions are not like eBay with a fixed end time. When the auction is set to close, 5 minutes must go by without a bid for the auction to end (this prevents people from being outbid at the last second, with no chance to re-bid). This is called "time extended bidding".

So if you really want the poster, watch the auction as it is ending and you will always have a total of 5 minutes to place another bid if someone outbids your current high bid.

Thanks and best of luck to you on winning the poster.
Bruce"

And here is a wonderful comic strip we commissioned (from the master cartoonist, Erik Andressen) that illustrates just how helpful "time-extended" bidding is in getting posters you want!