Hi Don!

Your examples are most esoteric, and I'd love to have you try them out. I'm not too sure about either of your scenarios, especially #2. Not that I doubt you, but I would be very interesting in seeing for myself. I can't bid on my own auctions, so why don't you and a confederate bid on my auction linked below and let's try it out. When we're done I'll all cancel both of your bids and no harm is done. Like this:

1. Don bids $15.56, bid will show as $3.99

2. Don's confederate bids $15.06 and does not bid again. Bid will show Don as high bidder at $15.56, right?

3. Don then increases his bid to $20.00. You say the high bid showing will increase to $16.00? I'm not so sure, that would mean Don's bid is increased for a reason other then being "bumped" by another bidder. Let's try it and see.

Continuing;

4. Don's confederate now bids $20.00, which ties him with Don, with Don showing as the high bidder because he placed his $20.00 bid first.

5. Don now bids $25.00. You say the high bid showing will increase to $20.50? I don't think so, because that means that Don's bid is increased for a reason other than as a response to a competing bid. He's in 1st place, the price does not need to go up to keep him in first place.

eBay's pages explaining proxy bidding make the following statements (**emphasis mine):

"our system will act as a proxy bidder in their absence, executing their
bid for them and **trying to keep the bid price as low as possible".**

and

"This system stands in for you and bids for you against other bidders until either **you have won the item at or below the price you set or until another bidder bids higher than the amount you set."**

If what you say, Don, is true, then eBay's statements are incorrect vis a vis the way their software actually works, and it would be fun to see how they would explain the discrepancy.

So, please do the experiment and carefully log the results. Don't worry about the effect on my auction, that chip hardly ever gets bids anyway.