topic Re: underbidding on sniping in Member To Member Support

underbidding on sniping

derekexmoor — Sun, 01 Feb 2026 16:50:09 GMT

Hi, has anyone discovered underbidding on sniping, where someone sets out to make an underbid which pushes up the winning bid to a much higher amount, but the underbidder never intends to buy the item ?

Re: underbidding on sniping

tobiasd4 — Sun, 01 Feb 2026 17:04:00 GMT

No one knows what a bidders max bid is.

Bidding at last seconds is risky as it means you can't bid again if not high enough.

Put you max bid in earlier, if you lose, someone was willing to pay more.

Re: underbidding on sniping

papso22 — Sun, 01 Feb 2026 19:11:31 GMT

It happens, but it could be genuine rather than dodgy. You can't tell just because the seller relists.

Re: underbidding on sniping

john1297576 — Sun, 01 Feb 2026 19:19:40 GMT

You would have difficulty in proving this, unless a seller had the same underbidder on all their items. Even then they could use several different IDs, and only ebay could see it was the same person, but seem reluctant to spend time on investigating.

Re: underbidding on sniping

derekexmoor — Mon, 02 Feb 2026 09:37:36 GMT

Hi, that's the problem. I imagine that ebay are not interested in
investigating.
In my case I won the item with my maximum bid of £126, bidding with 6
seconds left and the bid at that point was £46.
Someone else must have bid £125 just *after* I bid. Nothing showed on my
screen other than that I had won.
Seems an amazing coincidence but there is sniping software that could be
capable of doing this.
I'm still happy that I won the item.

Re: underbidding on sniping

tobiasd4 — Mon, 02 Feb 2026 10:11:40 GMT

Nothing dodgy,

it is the highest bid that wins, not the last.

Re: underbidding on sniping

derekexmoor — Mon, 02 Feb 2026 12:30:36 GMT

Hi, thank you for your reply but with respect it's not correct.

In more than 20 years of bidding, almost all of the huge number of items
I've won have been at a price below or well below the 'maximum bid' I
submitted.

I've never used sniping *software* but ebay allows it, I suspect they
don't have a way of preventing it:
this is from their site: last-minute bidding software.

"Many websites and software packages offer automated bids based on the
end time of an eBay auction. They try to bid automatically before the
auction ends, and *some try to sync with eBay servers* to make sure
their bids are the winners."

The software somehow looks at the bids submitted and in the last second
it 'tops' the highest bid; as long as it's below their bidder's
specified maximum.

Such software probably tracks the bids from a few seconds before the
end, then keeps bidding until the maximum bid of all other bidders is
exceeded slightly, that's normal software sniping.
But then what if in the last second it could withdraw/cancel their last bid.
It's theoretically possible to do.

This would be of huge benefit to sellers.

Re: underbidding on sniping

tobiasd4 — Mon, 02 Feb 2026 13:07:59 GMT

That's not how snipe bidding works.

The person using the sniper sets their maximum bid,

software then places that bid just before auction ends,

but as I said, if snipe bid is below someone elses max bid, sniper won't win.

You can manually put a snipe bid in at the end, but may not be accepted if internet connection is slow.

If you are winning items at or below your max bid, then you should be happy.

Re: underbidding on sniping

*vyolla* — Mon, 02 Feb 2026 13:21:48 GMT

@derekexmoor wrote:
Hi, that's the problem. I imagine that ebay are not interested in
investigating.
In my case I won the item with my maximum bid of £126, bidding with 6
seconds left and the bid at that point was £46.
Someone else must have bid £125 just *after* I bid. Nothing showed on my
screen other than that I had won.
Seems an amazing coincidence but there is sniping software that could be
capable of doing this.
I'm still happy that I won the item.

Doesn't sound dodgy to me.

If you considered the item to be worth a £126 bid then it isn't surprising that somebody else bid just under that amount.

Re: underbidding on sniping

derekexmoor — Mon, 02 Feb 2026 14:24:36 GMT

Hi, I'm surprised that the sniping software is so elementary.
Why would anyone pay for that ?
It could easily be as I suggested.
What happens when two or more people are using software on an item ?

Re: underbidding on sniping

jckl1957 — Mon, 02 Feb 2026 14:33:57 GMT

The highest bidder wins.

Re: underbidding on sniping

derekexmoor — Wed, 04 Feb 2026 12:04:36 GMT

That's not true, it is *not* the highest bid
it is the last bid that ebay 'recognises' at the time the Auction ends.

I remember one auction, when I confirmed my 'maximum bid' at 6 seconds
to go, as I always do. I have a fast broadband connection.
ebay then 'went into a spin' for want of a better term, as usual the
screen jumping around and only when the auction has ended do you get
final information.
In that particular auction, it was won by a much *lower* bid that my
maximum.
I was upset but there was nothing I could do.

ebay's process in the final second is entirely obscure, and potentially
could be manipulated by software.

Returning to the Auction which prompted me to write, after I won I
looked at the 'history of all the bids', that ebay provides for a short
time.
The bid shown before mine was £46, the next bid was mine £126.
There was no indication of how the bidding increased in between !

Re: underbidding on sniping

*vyolla* — Wed, 04 Feb 2026 13:05:12 GMT

@derekexmoor wrote:
That's not true, it is *not* the highest bid
it is the last bid that ebay 'recognises' at the time the Auction ends.

It will always be the highest bid that wins. It's not manipulated by software; that's an interesting conspiracy theory but not a true one, there'd be no point in blocking bids for a higher amount, massive lack of logic there.

If a higher bid is placed but doesn't get through for some reason then it's a failed bid. It happens sometimes, slow or dropped broadband or the screen locks.