Starting bid logic flawed

I’m not a fan of the way starting bids work now.

The first person to bid on an item has that full bid placed on record. So if the first bidder bids $500, $500 is the first bid recorded for an auction. This isn’t fair to the first bidder because their maximum bid it used right away with no competition.

Some sort of baseline bid needs to be established on new auctions. The lister needs to be able to set his/her own auction starting price and if the bidder forgets or chooses not to select a starting price, the system should default to $1 for a starting price on all auctions. The existing overall bidding logic of the theme is solid, but it just needs a baseline to start each auction in order to be fair.

Here are some examples to illustrate what I’m talking about:

Let’s assume the lister sets his/her starting price at $100. When the first bidder places a bid, the system forces the bidder to bid something greater than $100. Let’s say the bidder bids $500 (as we did in my first example). Now the first bid will be shown as $101… and bidder #1 will have a maximum bid on file of $500, and will not be outbid until another bidder comes along and bids more than $500.

Now let’s look at an example where the lister DOES NOT set a starting price. The system will set a default baseline of $1. When the first bidder places a bid, let’s say $500 again, the system will record and show $2 as the first bid. And the first bidder will be guaranteed the top spot until another bidder comes along and places a bid higher than $500.

Does anyone else agree with this? And if so…. Mark… can we get this built into the next update you release?

Thanks,
Kevin