Bidding increments for online auctions

To avoid any confusion in an online auction, bids increase by a set ‘increment’ each time. The bidding increments are:

10	200	800	3,000	11,000	42,000
20	220	850	3,200	12,000	45,000
30	240	900	3,500	13,000	48,000
40	260	950	3,800	14,000	50,000
50	280	1,000	4,000	15,000	55,000
60	300	1,100	4,200	16,000	60,000
70	320	1,200	4,500	17,000	65,000
80	350	1,300	4,800	18,000	70,000
90	380	1,400	5,000	19,000	75,000
100	400	1,500	5,500	20,000	80,000
110	420	1,600	6,000	22,000	85,000
120	450	1,700	6,500	24,000	90,000
130	480	1,800	7,000	26,000	95,000
140	500	1,900	7,500	28,000	100,000
150	550	2,000	8,000	30,000	110,000
160	600	2,200	8,500	32,000	120,000
170	650	2,400	9,000	35,000	130,000
180	700	2,600	9,500	38,000	140,000
190	750	2,800	10,000	40,000	Etc.

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Although at first it might seem like a random arrangement of numbers, if you look closer you will see a pattern emerging in the numbers after 100. They increase roughly by 10% each time and the pattern repeats itself as more zeros are added:

Anything beginning with a one (100, 1,000, 10,000 etc.) goes up in ‘1s’ (100 – 110 - 120 or 13,000 - 14,000 - 15,000 etc.)
Anything beginning with a two (200, 2,000, 20,000) goes up in ‘2s’ (200 – 220 – 240 – 260 or 2,400 – 2,600 – 2,800)
Anything beginning with three or a four (300, 400, 3,000, 4,000) goes up in ‘0 - 2 – 5 – 8’ (300 – 320 – 350 – 380 or 4,000 – 4,200 – 4,500 – 4,800)
From then on, between five and nine the numbers go up in ‘5s’ (500 – 550 – 600 – 650 or 7,000 – 7,500 – 8,000 – 8,500)
After that, it is back to one and the pattern repeats itself.

These are the standard bidding increments that are adopted by most auction houses across the world – a universal auction language.

Needless to say, you don’t need to know the increments by heart when bidding. The bidding dropdown on the auction and lot pages will always display the next 40 increments.