has this ever happened to anyone?

I put a bid on an auction (say it was 5,000 yen as a starting bid) and I put my max as 10,000 yen. After I enter it, the auction is already up to 10,000 yen (and i'm looking at the history... i'm the only bidder). Anyone have an explanation?

I know that on certain auctions a seller can set a limit sort of like ebay. Basically..I think you haven't met the seller's reserve. There have been a few auctions that I've bid on that start at 2, 000 yen. I put in a bid for 2, 500 and it stayed at 2, 500..was confused so I bid again...then 2,700 and so forth.

Translate the fine print on babelfish on the auction page or where you bid. Should say something about a reserve.

Could be reserve, could also be a BIN. YJA's BIN works differently from the one on eBay: on the 'bay it's just a one shot option to buy that is removed after any bids are entered. On YJA it functions like a maximum bid, so if the item is bid up to that level the auction ends and the person with the bid that went over the BIN amount gets it. In this case, reserve sounds like the correct answer, though (since I'm assuming the auction is still going).

ok, thanks for the info. it appears that i've made a very costly mistake

Bummer... sorry to hear that. Hopefully you really liked what you were bidding on?

I had that BIN thing happen to me thinking it was like Ebay, though luckily it wasn't too expensive and still way worth it. I am glad for this clarification however, as I thought it was Celga who decided to buy the item since my bid was higher, not a practice of YJA. I hope you're still happy with your toy!

well... it's still allowing me to up my bid and i could still be outbid. willing to pay what it's at now (but always hoping for a better deal). we'll see