When you see an auction-style listing offering two or more identical items, this is called a Multiple Item Auction (also known as a Dutch Auction). This means the seller is offering multiple, identical items for sale. Unlike a regular eBay auction, Multiple Item Auctions can have many winners.

• When you bid on a Multiple Item Auction, you specify the number of items you're interested in and the price you're willing to pay per item.

  Important: For Multiple Item Auction listings, you cannot use eBay's automatic bidding system to enter a maximum (or “proxy”) bid. (For more information, see Bidding on eBay.) Winning bidders will pay a price equal to the lowest winning bid. Winning bids are selected in order of bid price per item. For example, a bid for 5 units at $12 per unit is ranked above a bid for 10 units at $11 per unit. If two bids have the same price per item, the earlier bid is given priority. If the only bidder in a Multiple Item Auction bids on the full quantity the seller is offering at an amount over the opening bid, that seller will be the winning bidder for all items at the price bid per item.

• You cannot lower your “total bid value” (your bid price per item times the number of items on which you’re bidding) if you raise your bid in this type of Multiple Item Auction.

  Example:

  For a listing with 10 available items and 4bidders:

  • Bidder A bid for 2 items at $4 each

  • Bidder B bid for 8 items at $5 each.

  • Bidder C bid for 3 items at $6 each.

  • Bidder D bid for 2 items at $7 each

  In this case, the lowest successful bid is $5 and the bidders list will look like this:

Therefore, the outcome of this listing is:

• Bidder D wins 2 items at $5 each.

  • Bidder C wins 3 items at $5 each.

  • Bidder B wins 5 items at $5 each.

  • Bidder A wins no items.

• The ranking of the bids affects the allocation of the items. Winning bidders have the right to refuse partial quantities. This means that if you win some, but not all, of the quantity you bid for, you don't have to buy any of them. In the above example, Bidder B bid on 8 items, but won only 5 of them. Bidder B can refuse to complete the purchase, because Bidder B did not win the quantity he or she bid on. If Bidder B refuses the purchase, the seller may offer items to Bidder A.

• Bids are displayed when you click on the "Bidders list" link. Bids that are not currently winning show their bid prices, but bids that are winning show the price that they would pay if the auction ended immediately. This means that, in the Bid History, all winning bids show the same price per unit – the lowest winning bid. To place a winning bid (a bid that wins at least some units), you need to exceed this price.