How Proxy Bidding Works

The key insight: you don't pay your max

This is the part most first-time bidders miss. When you place a proxy bid, you're not committing to pay that amount. You're telling the system the most you'd be willing to pay if it came to that.

The system only bids on your behalf when someone else challenges you — and only by one increment at a time. You only pay your maximum if another bidder is genuinely willing to pay nearly the same amount.

Worked example

Three bidders compete for a lot with a starting price of $100. Here's how proxy bidding plays out:

Notice three things:

• Bob's max ($299) never publicly displays. SusanSales and BidderBill only see the current price.
• The system doesn't jump straight to $299 — it bids one increment at a time, only when challenged.
• If a fourth bidder had entered $300+, Bob's proxy would have been exhausted and he'd have received an outbid notification — with the option to raise his max if he wanted.

How to place a proxy bid

1. Open the lot you want to bid on.
2. In the bid form, enter the maximum amount you'd be willing to pay if you had to.
3. Submit. Your proxy is now active.

That's it. From this point, the system bids on your behalf any time another bidder challenges you — until you win, you're outbid, or the lot closes.

You can raise your maximum at any time before the lot closes. (If you've already been outbid, you'll need to enter a new max higher than the current high bid.)

Bid increments

Bid increments are fixed and determined by the current price. The system uses these increments when advancing proxy bids:

So if the current price is $40 and you have an active $200 proxy, your next defensive bid will be $45 (the $5 increment) — not jumping straight to $200.

Soft close and proxy bids

MVES auctions close one lot every two minutes. But if a bid is placed within the final two minutes of any lot, that lot's closing time automatically extends another two minutes. The extension repeats as long as new bids keep coming in.

This prevents last-second sniping and gives every bidder a fair chance to respond.

Confidentiality

Your maximum bid is private:

• Other bidders never see it. They only see the current bid price.
• MVES staff don't see it during the auction. The system manages proxy bids automatically; we don't have visibility into pre-set maximums while bidding is active.
• It doesn't appear publicly even after the auction closes. Only the final winning amount is visible in bid history.

This means there is no penalty for entering an honest, aggressive maximum. Nobody is watching it to decide how much to push against you.

Tie-breaking

If two bidders enter the same maximum, the bidder who placed their proxy bid first holds the lead. The later bidder is shown as outbid even though their maximum matches.

This rewards earlier commitment. If you know your maximum, there's a small structural reason to enter it sooner rather than later.

Two common myths

If you're outbid

If another bidder's maximum exceeds yours, you'll receive an email notification with a link back to the lot. From there you can:

• Raise your maximum if the lot is still worth more to you than the new current price.
• Walk away. Your original max was your honest ceiling — there's no obligation to chase further.

If outbid notifications aren't arriving, see our email troubleshooting guide — check your spam folder and your account notification settings first.

Strategic tips

• Enter a real maximum, not a starting price. The system protects you from overpaying. Underbidding just means losing to someone willing to bid one increment higher.
• Submit early. Soft close handles late bids, but you can't rely on browser or internet reliability in the final 10 seconds. Submit your max well in advance.
• Don't worry about timing. A proxy bid placed days early is just as competitive as one placed in the final minute. The system tracks your max, not when you set it.
• Re-evaluate if outbid. If you've been outbid and the price has risen above your original max but still under what the lot is genuinely worth to you, raise it. If not, walk away cleanly.
• Pick a max that gives room. If the current price is $48 and you set a max of $50, the system has only $2 of room to work with. Set a max with meaningful headroom above your floor.

Quick Bid vs. proxy bid

The bid form may show two options:

• Quick Bid places a single bid for the next minimum increment. Use this when you want to make a one-time bump and decide later whether to continue.
• Maximum Bid (proxy bid) sets your ceiling and lets the system bid for you automatically. Use this when you know your highest acceptable price.

Most experienced bidders use maximum bid as their default and reserve Quick Bid for last-minute responses to specific competing bidders.