Bidding Intervals

[Keropi]

What is considered a weird bidding amount to a Japanese seller?

I would prefer not to annoy Japanese sellers with what's considered "weird" bidding intervals.

If something like 37300 yen is considered "odd", should it be in 500 yen intervals at least? What intervals should I skip up to?

I think once I bid something like 32700 yen, was told that it was an "odd" bidding amount and that I should place a bid of at least 32750 yen. A 32750 yen bid was accepted, but 32750 yen seems to like a weirder interval to me than 32700 yen.

[graymouser]

You know, I have no idea and have often wondered about that myself. I'm not sure if I would necessarily change my bidding habits based on the information, but I'm really curious about it.

[zerospace]

You know, I've wondered about this myself...

[pastatdude]

I always bid weird amounts, to throw everyone else off. Heh.

[cutiebunny]

I had always assumed that nice, round figures that ended in "50" or "00" were acceptable during these auctions. I did not know that the system accepted bids that were a tad more odd.

I wonder if that policy was aimed towards the countless US users who bid through deputies. We're so used to imputting odd amounts on E-bay that we generally don't think twice that such a figure might be odd and more complicated for a Japanese seller to deal with.

[klet]

I would stick with intervals ending with 00 or 50, since coins lower than 50 yen aren't really used in Japan anymore (5 yen pieces are used as good luck charms).

If you look at Japanese books, you'll usually notice that two prices are included. One is the "pre-tax" price, and it almost always has strange increments. The second is the price with tax, which will always end in a 0 (usually 50 or 00, but I've seen some 70 and 90). This is because you always have to pay sales tax, so they calculate the original book price so that the price with tax will come out to a number ending in 0.

[Titania]

I would stick with intervals ending with 00 or 50, since coins lower than 50 yen aren't really used in Japan anymore (5 yen pieces are used as good luck charms).

Odd. I use 1, 5 and 10 yen coins frequently in Japan, since they're often given as change after a purchase. ^_^

One thing that might affect the interval is what values can be submitted electronically from the bank, since payment's typically a bank transfer. Maybe the banks don't like values other than 00 or 05.

[Kujaku]

The biggest complaint I had were bidding in 1 yen ex. 7051 yen (which I did often lol). So now I end mine in 50 yen increments