Example
An example of how it works
Let's look at an example of a group of people where everyone has placed their bids.
- StarTux $100
- hkenneth $300
- LanceDH $1000
The obvious winner is LanceDH, because his bid is the highest. If the auction ended at this moment, he would receive the item and his bank account would be debited the $300 (plus a small increment) necessary to beat the second placed. The clou about this is that his bid will be hidden from other players; all they get to see at this moment are the $300 LanceDH is currently winning for and they could try to overbid. Now this happens:
- StarTux bids $700
In an attempt to win the auction, StarTux raises. He does not know that more than $1000 would be necessary to accomplish this, so he fails. All that changes is that LanceDH's price will rise up to $700, which is ok since he has already agreed to pay up to $1000. Next up:
- hkenneth bids $1000
LanceDH and hkenneth are now on the same amount, but LanceDH was there first, so he continues to win for $1000.
wouldn't it be possible for people to just bet right under the winner's highest bid making it so that the winner pays the maximum even though they don't want to pay that much?
<<reply 707372="">>
Note that their full bid is hidden, only the amount needed to "win" the bid is shown to other players. They'd have to guess (and guess well) the selected player's actual bid to do what you suggest.
@pokeinstein
If they already bidded that much, then they're obviously willing to pay that much.