The
reserve is the minimum price that must be met for an auctioned item to have a valid winning bid when it closes.If the highest bid does not meet or exceed the reserve price by the time the item reaches status:
CLOSED, no winner is declared. Purpose
- Protects sellers from selling below a minimum acceptable value
- Ensures auctions can start at a low
startingBidwhile still enforcing a threshold for winning
🧠 Behavior
- If the final bid is below the reserve, the auction closes without a winner
- The reserve is not visible to other bidders (unless revealed by the client)
🧰 Example: Standard Reserve Logic
startingBid: $5,000
reserve: $10,000
- Highest bid when the item closes: $9,500 → ❌ No winner
- If someone bids $10,000 or more → ✅ Winning bid
⚙️ reserveAutoBidMethod
This setting determines how max bids interact with the
reserve.🔧 Modes
Mode | Description |
STANDARD (default) | Bids must explicitly meet or exceed the reserve to be valid |
MAX_BID_BELOW_RESERVE_IS_MET | If a bidder places a max bid that reaches or exceeds the reserve, the system may raise their bid automatically to meet the reserve (or their max) — even if they initially bid below it |
🧪 Example: MAX_BID_BELOW_RESERVE_IS_MET
reserve: $10,000
- User places a max bid of $12,000
- Current bid is $7,500
- ➡️ System raises the user’s bid to $10,000 automatically to meet the reserve
- ✅ Reserve is now considered met
If the user's max bid is below the reserve (e.g. $9,500), and no higher bids exist, the system may still raise the bid to $9,500 to reflect the user's full willingness — even if the reserve isn't met.
🚫 Important Notes
reserveAutoBidMethodis set once when the sale is created and cannot be changed afterward
- The feature is only triggered through max bids (
BidType = MAX)
- There is no impact on regular bidding behavior