Hi, I am a first time bidder.

[dmemeda-8lvkeq1]

I'm a first time bidder.  The vendor had put a bid of $7.50 to start.  I bid $18.  Now I've been told I won with a bid of $7.50.  It doesn't make sense and doesn't seem fair to the vendor.

does anyone have an explanation of what happened, please?

[enigmabear]

It would seem there were no other bidders? if yours was the one and only bid and the starting bid was $7.50, then it will sell for $7.50, even if you had bid $1000 and nobody else bid 

[kopenhagen5]

The seller started the auction at 7.50 because that is the minimum they are happy to sell at.

And if there are no other bidders bidding against you, you win it at the opening bid.

If I had bid 10, the auction will have jumped to 10.50 and you would still have been the high bidder until someone bids over your 18.

[pennyforum14]

eBay uses proxy bidding, in other words when you enter a bid, the figure you enter is the maximum you will spend.  The system only uses as much of that as it needs to to keep you in front of the bidding.  It appears yours was the first bid, so you immediately went to the top of the bidding with a bid of $7.50.  As is turns out, no-one else made a further bid, so you won the auction at that price.  It is perfectly fair, and most sellers will start the bidding at a price they are willing to sell for as there is always the possibility that they will only get one bid.

[davidc4430]

on top of what others have said, if another bidder came along after you and bid $50 you would have been out bid and the new bidders bid would be about $18.50 one more bid than your highest bid. so even though the new bidder was happy to bid to $50 he'd win at $18.50 if no other bids came in before the end of bidding.

[twyngwyn]

http://pages.ebay.com.au/help/buy/bidding-overview.html

[k1ooo-slr-sales]

welcome to eBay and to these discussion boards.

Your attitude is very commendable and says a lot about you as a person.  Don't feel bad that you got the item for less than you were willing to pay.  The seller knew not to follow eBay's recommendation to start the auction at 99 cents and they started at the minimum they were prepared to accept for the item.

I will ask this one thing of you as a new member to eBay . . . . when you receive your item and you go to leave feedback please do not judge the length of time the item takes to get to you as something the seller has control over.  Judge the seller on whether they posted your item within their stated handling time.

Come back and ask any questions you may have about eBay.

[padi*0409]

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@k1ooo-slr-sales wrote:

When you receive your item and you go to leave feedback please do not judge the length of time the item takes to get to you as something the seller has control over.  Judge the seller on whether they posted your item within their stated handling time.

Come back and ask any questions you may have about eBay.

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Great post slr, my underlined bit is something that eBay should (but do not) make crystal clear for the sake of all sellers.

[k1ooo-slr-sales]

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@dmemeda-8lvkeq1 wrote:

I'm a first time bidder.  The vendor had put a bid of $7.50 to start.  I bid $18.  Now I've been told I won with a bid of $7.50.  It doesn't make sense and doesn't seem fair to the vendor.

does anyone have an explanation of what happened, please?

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dmemeda-8lvkeq1, you may find this thread below a good read.  Many buyers and sellers contributed great advice for buyers some time back.  Some of the information may be dated, as eBay often changes how it's site operates, but the thread will help you if you are new to buying on eBay.  Please do not reply to any of the posts as that would bump the thread to the top of the thread list.  I am only posting the link here so you don't have to go looking/searching for it.

http://community.ebay.com.au/t5/Buying/Help-and-advice-for-buyers/td-p/1391531

[padi*0409]

Done it again slr, that was one of the best threads on the boards for new / inexperienced buyers ever..........with of course the contributions by other experienced members.