When there is a reserve bid, how do I place a bid not knowing what it is?

[Anonymous]

I have placed a bid of over $100 for an item but the actual bid displayed shows only $68.00 as the bid and still says reserve not met.

[leb17]

Hi..

This link should explain:

http://pages.ebay.ca/help/buy/reserve-price.html

[scifan57]

You just place a bid for the maximum you are prepared to pay. If it isn't enough the words reserve not met will appear. Your displayed high bid in this case will be the starting price if you are the first bidder or one bid increment above the next highest bid. Go to the bid history for the listing and click on show automatic bids to see the complete bidding history for the item.If your bid is more than the reserve,the displayed high bid jumps to the reserve price and the words reserve met appear. Bidding then progress like normal for the rest of the listing.

[rainbow71113]

Okay, now I have a problem with this, sure it says in that link that the reserve gets met.  I sold a special poster on auction with a reserve of $100.  I had a single bidder bid 7 times trying to get to the reserve and it STILL only showed the $39 level all the way until the end of the listing.  At the end I asked her what her highest bid was and she said it was $150 and was surprised that I "wanted more than that for the reserve"  I wound up relisting it as a buy it now for $100 and she bought it in seconds.  From what I've seen a reserve doesn't get met unless another buyer challenges the first one and also puts a bid over the reserve.  I had called ebay at the time and they couldn't explain why this happened but it's the reason I don't bother with reserve listings anymore.

[rainbow71113]

you can contact the seller and ask them, tell them what the amount was that you were bidding and see if it's their reserve or not.  let us know here what you find out, I'm very curious!!