eBay Tests Increasing Auction Bid Increments For Low Priced Items
UPDATE 4-7-25
eBay continues testing changes to auctions bid increments, much to buyers' dismay - but at least they have finally put a note on the policy page disclosing the test for those who happen to look there.
UPDATE 3-20-25
eBay community staff have confirmed this is an intentional test being conducted by the Product Team.
Some eBay users report issues with eBay auction bid increments raising the question once again - is it a glitch, a test, or an unannounced change?
The issue was reported in the Buyer section of the eBay community forum.
What's up with eBay bid increments right now?
Ok ... have I lost my mind? Did they make a change?...I'm looking at and bidding on a handful of auctions that are below $25 (should be 50c increment) and some below $5 (should be 25c increment) and they are forcing $1 increments!?!? WHATS UP MAN!?!?
...Here is a pic of trying to place a bid, note $1 increment. Some of those auctions i placed bids, you should see $1 bid increment in bid history.
The buyer provided a few listings as examples of where they are seeing this bidding issue:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/316489526831
https://www.ebay.com/itm/267184752246
https://www.ebay.com/itm/267184748861
https://www.ebay.com/itm/267184745358
They also happen to be an experienced seller, so they are very familiar with how bidding on eBay auctions usually works, as described in this eBay policy page showing lower price items having smaller increments.
Other users responded, saying they were still seeing the normal lower bid increments and suggesting to use the question mark at the bottom right of the page to pop open a window with an option to report technical issues.
I checked all 4 of the examples they provided in both FireFox and Chrome, as well as a variety of other listings across multiple other categories, and they all showed me the incorrect $1 bid increments for lower priced items.
That suggests the issue may be account specific - either a glitch only impacting certain accounts or a test or early phased rollout of unannounced changes to how bidding on eBay auctions works.
The original poster gave a great explanation of why this is an important issue, even if it may seem that the individual financial impact may be relatively small.
Some of the items I bid on last night will sell $5-$10...
Being low value items, a $3 bid ($1 increment) may win, where a $2.25 bid (25c increment) would've also won, forcing me to pay an extra 75c due to a glitch.
Because fundamentally, no matter if the glitch costs anyone any money or not, and no matter how small the difference is now.... it is a fundamental glitch that needs to be addressed by eBay.
It just so happens to be occuring on low value items. What stops this glitch from occuring on higher value items on higher increments? Fundamentally costs people more money and I direct you back to point #1 as well. What if the bid increment on a $250 item was $25 instead of $5, or a $500 item being $50 not $10.
Are you experiencing this issue with eBay auction bid increments? Let us know in the comments below!
much too complicated now for a few pounds a year in sales
They just "killed the golden goose". I imported my 1500+ eBay items to there since it was free. Turned out just to be a lot of work for (maybe) 3 sales a month.
The total fees were higher there before this new $20 a month cost structure, even though they claimed otherwise. When one factors in the 3.49% + 49 cent PayPal processing fees so one can get paid, there went a good chunk of profit.
Now they have boosted their commission to 11%, and still claim that the cost to sell there is less than eBay's. And remember that this does not include payment processing. WHY?? Makes no sense at all.
On eBay, for $27.95 a month, I sell over 100 items there every 30-31 days. Makes ZERO SENSE to pay a site $20 to make just a couple of sales. Since they now allow 50 "free listings", I have trimmed my offerings back to just below that amount. Also had to raise all my prices accordingly to absorb the extra selling costs.
The people who run the show here obviously didn't realize that eBay sellers who imported their listings gave the site a great depth of product, which would attract more buyers. Now that will be gone, because NO ONE will pay them $20 monthly for little to no sales.
The site also has technical issues that they refuse to fix. It was a decent resource to enable the occasional sale, but they will soon be stacked onto the eCommerce trash heap of companies that THOUGHT they could compete with Amazon and eBay. Etsy may also suffer the same fate soon, as many sellers are also leaving their site due to high fees, website issues, and poor management.
Basic eComm rule here: When you do not carry any inventory, and sellers are solely responsible for supplying your site with the goods offered, DON'T BITE THE HAND WHICH FEEDS YOU!!!