How does bidding on Japanese auction sites work?
Like many web auctions in other countries, Japanese auction sites use an automated proxy bidder system. Proxy systems accept your highest bid, then bid up to that limit for you without your intervention, automatically bidding only as high as necessary to put your bid on top until they reach your maximum. Each auction has a bid increment, or the minimum amount that a new bid must top the old bid in order to be accepted. The bid increment goes up as the current price of an item goes up. Here’s an example of how proxy bidding works: Opening bid: 1000 yen Your Maximum bid: 1700 yen Bid increment: 100 yen When we enter your bid of 1700 yen, the auction will show us as the current high bidder with a bid of 1000 yen. If another bidder comes along and bids 1300 yen on the auction, the proxy system will immediately raise our bid to 1400 yen (the bid increment above our competitor’s bid) and we will still be the winner. However, if our competitor bids 1900 yen, the auction will now show him as t
