To avoid any confusion in an 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.

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 increments that are used in most auctions across the world – a universal auction language. But sometimes, the auctioneer will increase the bids in smaller increments if they feel it will encourage more bidding. This is also known as ‘splitting the bids’.

Needless to say, you don’t need to know the increments by heart when bidding.

The auctioneer will always let you know what the next bid increase will be. But if you are ever in any doubt then just ask.