You can bid either way, but the auction is prefixed as to how it takes a bid. Read the adds very carefully. They use alot of leader items to get higher bids. Such as 26 MP3 players. then they will show a picture of an IPOD. They will only be selling one ipod and 22 pieces of junk. Be careful. They do at times have good prices but that is usually becuase they have been selling that product for along time and the demand for it is gone.