topic Re: Why have auctions started to finish about 15 seconds early in Technical Issues

Why have auctions started to finish about 15 seconds early

pegoak8 — Sun, 25 Jan 2026 19:04:41 GMT

this has happened to me a couple of times, I've been waiting to bid in the last few seconds then the auction finishes about 15 seconds early.

Re: Why have auctions started to finish about 15 seconds early

eburtonlab — Sun, 25 Jan 2026 19:44:07 GMT

@pegoak8

If your auction countdown is not behaving correctly, check to make sure your computer's time and time zone are set correctly, and the date and time are synchronized with an internet time server such as time.windows.com or time.gov.

Check your computer's time here:

https://time.is/

If your computer's time is too fast or too slow, that can prevent you from bidding at the end of an auction. Either your computer will think the auction is over when it is not, preventing you from bidding, or else you will think you have more time left when the auction is about to end. Neither situation helps you. Set your computer's time to automatically synchronize to prevent this from happening.

Re: Why have auctions started to finish about 15 seconds early

papso22 — Sun, 25 Jan 2026 19:45:00 GMT

They haven't.

It might be an issue with the clock on your device, or server lag.

Re: Why have auctions started to finish about 15 seconds early

pegoak8 — Sun, 25 Jan 2026 19:48:36 GMT

Sent from my Galaxy
Many thanks for that, I'll give that a try 👍

Re: Why have auctions started to finish about 15 seconds early

marnotom! — Sun, 25 Jan 2026 19:58:28 GMT

Why not just put in a bid for the maximum amount you're prepared to pay fifteen minutes or even longer before the auction closes? Auctions are won by the highest bidder, not necessarily the last bidder. Let the chips fall where they may; if someone outbids your proxy bid, well, they were willing to pay more than you, weren't they?

Re: Why have auctions started to finish about 15 seconds early

insidethe93 — Mon, 26 Jan 2026 10:07:28 GMT

Yes proxy bidding works for me - it saves my nerves.

Some auctions end very late at night, or you might be out or away from the computer, or something unexpected comes up to disrupt your plan to bid.

When bidding on several items from the same seller whose auctions end only minutes apart, I find using eBay's proxy bidding system is handy.

Re: Why have auctions started to finish about 15 seconds early

claire_leonhart — Mon, 26 Jan 2026 11:23:54 GMT

Because you can beat them on time, if they don't know you are bidding price stays low, and when they want to put more the time is out.

Re: Why have auctions started to finish about 15 seconds early

claire_leonhart — Mon, 26 Jan 2026 11:24:56 GMT

I have that same problem as well, it is not a clock issue, because if you push bid, you have another timing, usually correct one, and the list goes few seconds behind, so I check both and bid slightly before, it is maybe a refresh list page issue.

Re: Why have auctions started to finish about 15 seconds early

pegoak8 — Mon, 26 Jan 2026 12:00:36 GMT

Thanks for that, I will give it a go.

Sent from my Galaxy

Re: Why have auctions started to finish about 15 seconds early

marnotom! — Mon, 26 Jan 2026 15:37:45 GMT

@claire_leonhart wrote:

Because you can beat them on time, if they don't know you are bidding price stays low, and when they want to put more the time is out.

The last-second bidders don’t know my maximum bid, though. I’ve beaten several last-second bidders with a bid I’ve put in with ten to fifteen minutes remaining in the auction simply because my maximum bid was higher than theirs.

Re: Why have auctions started to finish about 15 seconds early

claire_leonhart — Mon, 26 Jan 2026 16:15:37 GMT

Yes, I do that as well, but it depends how popular is the item, you have to judge how is the best strategy to not get the price too high, few people bid higher I saw.

Re: Why have auctions started to finish about 15 seconds early

fotherbale — Tue, 27 Jan 2026 21:20:51 GMT

@marnotom! wrote:
The last-second bidders don’t know my maximum bid, though. I’ve beaten several last-second bidders with a bid I’ve put in with ten to fifteen minutes remaining in the auction simply because my maximum bid was higher than theirs.

If nobody else beats your proxy bid, it can often be an indication that your proxy bid was more than the item was worth 😉

I have noted over the years that more often than not, proxy bids get beaten in the dying seconds, and the only way that I have been able to see to succeed with an earlier proxy bid is to leave a bid which is way more than the listing is worth, so I always bid my maximum in the last few seconds. If the proxy was willing to pay more than I am, so be it - I am not willing to pay more than I think something is worth just to have the satisfaction of beating everyone else!

Re: Why have auctions started to finish about 15 seconds early

insidethe93 — Tue, 27 Jan 2026 22:49:25 GMT

fotherbale wrote: "If the proxy was willing to pay more than I am, so be it - I am not willing to pay more than I think something is worth just to have the satisfaction of beating everyone else!"

An item's value is often subjective, and thus of different value to different bidders e.g. part of a set and a bidder wants to complete the set; it's a particular colour/pattern that would match just right with a bidder's decor; it'd make the perfect gift for an urgently imminent occasion.

(Two personal examples: I once was tasked to replace breakages in my family's china sets and to increase the number of place settings. So seeing a particular design meant more to me than those bidders just wanting any nice china set. Last week I wanted a craft die that can be used fine on its own but with two similar ones allows elements to be combined and increase versatility. So to me the die was valuable as "part of a set" due to its dimensions and design of the curved edges, yet to others probably it was just a nice die of a generic style that has plenty available on eBay.)

And it's eBay, not somewhere like Sotheby's or Bonhams where you tend to have wealthy bidders with cash to splash. Here other bidders will be like me (mostly anyway) - financially unable and rationally unwilling to overbid "just to have the satisfaction of beating everyone else".

Re: Why have auctions started to finish about 15 seconds early

claire_leonhart — Wed, 28 Jan 2026 09:14:59 GMT

I agree on the type of items and people needs. In the early days i never won a bid, but they were collectors, almost brand new items and there were lots of competitions, rather then me just want one piece of the set or for my personal pleasure/decorations, compared to people all over the World looking for it. Then I started to win some in the last years and my first automated bid I encountered unfortunately it was last year. I lost it because I didn't know about this and I was wondering how someone can bid so fast in the last moments, and the time run out, plus with buyer protection fee I noticed my bid was less, maybe I could beat it and still today I can't find the item in that condition, I have to buy several, try and in case sell them, because most people tell me new and then it isn't quite right. That one could be and I was willing to buid a few more, unfortunately has gone. I learnt it on my skin, now I make it work for me as well.

Re: Why have auctions started to finish about 15 seconds early

insidethe93 — Wed, 28 Jan 2026 10:24:29 GMT

fotherbale wrote: "I have noted over the years that more often than not, proxy bids get beaten in the dying seconds, and the only way that I have been able to see to succeed with an earlier proxy bid is to leave a bid which is way more than the listing is worth,..."

Should be "more than the listing is worth _to fotherbale_" - few items if any have a single absolute value.

The proxy system must work satisfactorily for enough bidders that it gets used. In the last 3+ years I've lost only 6 auctions mostly using proxy bidding.

(Of those 6 losses, 2 I was relieved to lose costwise, when I was a newbie. One I lost to a proxy bid, with £250 visible for a day or so, no one decided to beat it. My 6th loss was last week and unsurprising as I bid half-heartedly, as I bid £70+ for an item type that when new retails at about £40 but I'd won four auctions [by proxy bidding] on similar items the previous week and don't truly need to own more than that.)

Re: Why have auctions started to finish about 15 seconds early

plpmr — Wed, 28 Jan 2026 10:43:30 GMT

"is to leave a bid which is way more than the listing is worth"

Also known as atomic bidding and it only takes two bidders to bid that way for one to end up winning at a cost that is prohibitive.

Re: Why have auctions started to finish about 15 seconds early

insidethe93 — Wed, 28 Jan 2026 13:19:50 GMT

An item's worth is whatever someone's prepared to pay. Arguable but seems that way in practice.

News reports say "thieves burgled a jewellery store, stole goods worth £1 million". £1 million's the total of the price tags that someone decided i.e. cost + overheads + profit margin. Ditto restaurants, furniture stores, generally anywhere, where minimum prices use the same formula. What differs will be amount of the profit margin.

In auctions it seems that, win or lose, bidders can feel a bit ripped off or that it's unfair; both those feelings may be due to not having total control i.e. not having full knowledge of other bidders' intentions. No one likes to feel they're not in control so it feels a bit risky.

Thus some of those who lose auctions feel very alert to any perceived injustice such as a possible glitch, as shown by the OP's original question.

Add to all that the fact that to win, one must bid a compromise of what's a "fair price" and what's affordable to oneself depending on how much one wants the item (the two are not necessarily the same £amount) PLUS A BIT £MORE. Most bidders will have a good idea of what's a "fair price" for that item, but the person who wins isn't the one who bids a "fair price" but who bids the highest amount. That's why, with multiple bidders, items tend to get sold for more than what a listing is worth, and that means "worth" changes to whatever amount is bid the highest.

Re: Why have auctions started to finish about 15 seconds early

res.dj — Sun, 03 May 2026 19:58:54 GMT

This forces the price up dummy

Re: Why have auctions started to finish about 15 seconds early

president_slush — Sun, 03 May 2026 22:48:24 GMT

It's been doing this for ages, maybe 2 years or more. At one time ebay used to work, but now it doesn't. One of many issues with the site. There's been a few forum posts about the countdown clock and the usual advice is to set the time on your computer to the right time zone. I have absolutely no idea how to do this or even if that is the root cause of the issue. My solution is to make sure I place a bid in good time. I know that the traditional ploy in winning ebay auctions is to try to place a decisive bid in the closing seconds of an auction finishing, but I really don't think that has as much importance anymore - that is considering that what you bid has only a passing resemblance to the final price on auction close, fees taken into consideration, and ebay itself can't even decide who has won once the time is up, and takes a few seconds to have a think about it whilst advising bidders to refresh the page and come back later.

what a load of rubbish!

Re: Why have auctions started to finish about 15 seconds early

eburtonlab — Mon, 04 May 2026 14:53:02 GMT

There's been a few forum posts about the countdown clock and the usual advice is to set the time on your computer to the right time zone.

Time and time zone, not just the time zone. Time zone errors will cause the auction time ending shown in search results to be off by a number of hours. Time errors will cause problems bidding at the end of the auction if your device's time is not synchronized to an internet time server.

I have absolutely no idea how to do this

In Windows, try right clicking on the clock in your task bar, choose "Adjust date/time", then use the options to set time and time zone automatically. For other operating systems use Google to search your own operating system version along with the keywords "set time automatically".