Bidding
How auctions work on Trevul: bid increments, anti-sniping, Max Auto-Bid, and reserve prices. If you don't see your answer here, write to support@trevul.com.
Bid increments
Each new bid must clear the current high bid by at least a minimum increment. The increment scales with the price so bids stay meaningful whether the item is $5 or $5,000:
| Current high bid | Minimum increment |
|---|---|
| Up to $1.00 | $0.05 |
| $1.00 – $4.99 | $0.25 |
| $5.00 – $24.99 | $0.50 |
| $25 – $99.99 | $1.00 |
| $100 – $249.99 | $2.50 |
| $250 – $499.99 | $5.00 |
| $500 – $999.99 | $10.00 |
| $1,000 – $2,499.99 | $25.00 |
| $2,500 – $4,999.99 | $50.00 |
| $5,000 – $9,999.99 | $100.00 |
| $10,000 and up | $250.00 |
The minimum next bid is shown directly under the bid form on every listing — you don't have to look it up.
Max Auto-Bid
Instead of placing a single fixed bid, you can set a Max Auto-Bid — the most you're willing to pay. Trevul will bid on your behalf in minimum increments, only as needed to keep you the high bidder, up to (but never above) your cap.
Example: the current high bid is $40 and you set a Max Auto-Bid of $100. Trevul places a bid for you at $41 (the next minimum). If someone else bids $50, Trevul rebids for you at $51. If they bid $101, you're outbid — you only pay your cap, not a penny more. If no one challenges you past $41, you win at $41 even though you were willing to go to $100.
Your cap is private. Other bidders only ever see the resolved visible bid, not your maximum.
Once set, your Max Auto-Bid is binding. You may raise your cap; you may not lower or retract it. Like any bid on Trevul, if you win you owe the resolved price (which may be less than your cap). See our Terms of Service, §6 for the full bidding contract.
Anti-sniping
If a bid lands within the final hour of an auction, the close time is pushed forward by one hour. This keeps last-second bidding from deciding the outcome — anyone willing to outbid still has time to respond, even on a slow connection. The clock can extend multiple times if bidding continues into the final hour.
Reserve auctions
Some sellers set a reserve price — the minimum amount they're willing to accept. The amount itself is hidden; you'll see one of two badges on the listing:
- Reserve not met — bids so far are below the seller's reserve. Even if you're the high bidder when the auction closes, no sale will happen.
- Reserve met — bidding has cleared the reserve. The auction will close as a normal sale to the high bidder.
If the auction ends with bids but the reserve isn't met, the listing closes as Ended (no sale) and your card is not charged.
Reserve auctions interact with Max Auto-Bid the same way regular ones do — your cap protects you up to its limit, and it doesn't matter whether the reserve is met or not while you're bidding. The reserve check happens at close time.
Buy It Now
Some auction listings include a Buy It Now price — you can skip the auction and purchase the item immediately at that price. What happens to Buy It Now once bidding starts depends on whether the listing has a reserve:
- No reserve — Buy It Now disappears as soon as the first bid lands; after that the auction runs to its scheduled close.
- With a reserve — Buy It Now stays available until bidding meets the hidden reserve. If you Buy It Now while the high bid is still below the reserve, the item is yours and the outstanding below-reserve bids are cancelled (those bidders are notified). Once the reserve is met, Buy It Now goes away and the auction finishes normally.
Pure Buy-It-Now listings (no auction component) work like a regular online store: click, pay, ship.
Retracting a bid
You can retract a bid you placed, but only when there's at least 12 hours left on the auction. Closer than that and the button is disabled — late-window retractions distort the close for everyone else who's been watching.
When you retract, you have to pick a reason. Four options:
- Entered the wrong amount — fat-fingered an extra zero, etc.
- Item description changed — the seller edited the listing (photos count as a change) after you bid.
- Can't contact the seller — you messaged with a question and got no response.
- Other — free-text required.
Retracting cancels every bid AND Max Auto-Bid you placed on that listing. The visible high bid drops to whoever's left in the pool. Trevul logs every retraction; patterns of abuse (retract-after- sniping, etc.) get caught.
Why can't I bid on this listing?
Common gates the bid form will show you:
- Email not verified — finish the email verification step.
- No payment method on file — add a card or PayPal at Account → Payment methods.
- No shipping address on file — set one at Account → Shipping address. We need somewhere to ship the win.
- Staff account — Trevul team members can't bid without explicit override (keeps the marketplace honest).
- Seller doesn't ship to your state — phytosanitary exclusion; the listing's 🚫 badge lists which states.
- You're already the high bidder — manually re-bidding against yourself just raises your own commitment without changing the visible price. Use Max Auto-Bid instead if you want to raise your cap.
- Payment-method mismatch — the seller only accepts PayPal but you only saved a Stripe card (or vice versa). The form points at the right setup page.
- SafeStart caps — new accounts have bid-size and total-exposure caps. See Levels & points → SafeStart.