Mercari Japan introduced a auction format in early 2025. Contrary to first impressions, the auction format is not a carbon copy of Yahoo Auctions. On Mercari Auctions:
- Auctions do not have a fixed end-time if there are no bids. The end time is only set once someone makes a bid.
- Only IP addresses Mercari detects as being in Japan will see the end time.
- Auto-extension only kicks in with less than one minute left and resets the time remaining to 1 minute.
- There is NO auto bidding built-in to the system. The price you bid becomes the price of the item. If you are familiar with real-life auctions, this is the same system. Let’s take this example:
- The item’s current bid price is 20000 yen.
- You bid 25000 yen.
- The item’s current bid price is now 25000 yen.
- If there are no other bids, the item will sell for 25000 yen.
- All further bids will be from 25100 yen, or whatever the system decides is the current increment.
- The listing price for auctions that have not started (i.e. have no bids) is not an attainable price. The very first bid must be for 100 yen more than the initial listing price.
- Due to the lack of auto-bidding, ALL Mercari Auction bids incur my extra “more than one bid” surcharge to simplify overhead.
- I will bid incrementally up to your max bid.
- I will watch the auction until the end.
- If I have a coupon and think we stand a chance at winning the auction for a tiny bit more, I may choose to increase the bid a tiny amount beyond your max bid at no extra cost to you. This is at my discretion, so please do not rely on it.
- Like Yahoo Auctions, other bidders usually wait until the final minutes to make a bid. So please do not assume a lack of activity means you are likely to win. For the best chance, please choose a strong max bid or try to be online when the auction is scheduled to end.
- Auctions with a lot of likes and no bids may simply mean others are waiting for the seller to drop the price. If we make a bid, this may compel others to bid as well - usually at the last minute.