The lowest bid exceeded the $40,000 budget city officials had set aside for the project.

Go Daddy called off the auction several weeks later, despite reports that bids exceeded the asking price of $1.5 billion to $2 billion.

That bid exceeded Viacom's outstanding offer of $85 a share in cash and the rest in stock.

Northrop's bid exceeded Martin Marietta's by $7 a share, or about $170 million.

Sometimes the auctioneer sets a minimum amount by which the next bid must exceed the current highest bid.

Increment - The minimum amount by which a new bid must exceed the previous one.

The bid may even exceed the value of the resource that is contested over.

Although the shares had a face value of 50,000 yen ($324 at yesterday's exchange rate), the top bid exceeded $15,000 a share.

The bid far exceeded the auction house's estimate of $60,000 to $80,000.

Extending from $11,923,163 to $12,765,078, all four bids exceeded the engineer estimate of $8,067,000.