eBay reserve price question...

Wertz

I'm currently looking at an auction for an item I'm intent on buying....the item has a reserve price, a BIN price, 9.99 start and no bids.
The BIN is more than I want to pay, but I intend to bid up to around 70% of that price (where I figure the reserve is hovering).
My question is this; if I am the first bidder in the auction and enter a max bid that breaks the reserve price, does my bid automatically go to the incremental level above the reserve?
Say the BIN is 400.00, I figure reseve is aroud 320-340...if I was to bid 330 as an initial bid (and it beats the reserve) does the price and my bid automatically go up to 330? If not how does it work? Also what if I bid say 300, ie under the reserve but close to it....does my bid then only shows as 9.99 (original start price)?
Thanks for any replies and advice...

jor el

As far as I know, the reserve doesn't make any of your bids show up (like another bidder would). So if you're the only bidder right now and you enter 300 max and the reserve is 250, then the only amount showing will be the start bid. Your bids won't increase till another bidder starts bidding. Otherwise it would be very easy to use a dummy account to discover the reserve, or bid and retract to do the same.

At the end of the auction, if none of the bidders have reached the reserve then the seller can choose to sell or not. He doesn't have top go through with it. I think he can offer the winner a chance to buy at the reserve, but doesn't have to accept bids below.

A Dub in Glasgo

If your max bid is more than the reserve, the auction price will sit at the reserve price with the reserve met tag.

Wertz

Ah, that's what I needed to know. Thanks.

Jor El; hadn't considered the fake bidding thing to reveal reserve, makes sense.
ta for the help folks.