Is the competing highest bidder informed of my bid at the Submit stage or Confirm button?

[gaguda]

I have a suspicion that the competing highest bidder is informed of my bid at the Submit stage and not the Confirm button, encouraging them to react and raise the price?

With two items won recently, looking at bid history I have outbid the previous highest value (shown as an automatic bid?) then another competing bid has arrived showing **** 45 seconds on the clock, say. However, my bid was only confirmed as submitted as ****47 seconds on the clock, submitted 2 seconds later. I am not trying to confuse people, but my higher and later bid should only have outbid the competitor’s one 2 seconds earlier and not their previous one.

Has anyone else noticed this or had a similar experience?

(I understand the bidding process and stages, so no need to roll out the standard answers, thanks.)

Many thanks if there is a helpful person out there.

[pixiesen2012]

whats the item number?

[gaguda]

Thank you both for replying so swiftly. This is my first query so please be gentle, but the logic is puzzling me. As you say, if you examine the item hidden bid history this may clarify my description.
The item number today:
124457009637

[pixiesen2012]

it's a case of ebays servers not keeping up with each other

because the bids were placed with only 2 seconds between them it looks weird, your bid outbid their earlier bid so they then placed another bid to try and out bid you, but it wasn't high enough so it pushed your bid to another increment higher, your bid was the highest, so you won, the underbidder was not shown your maximum bid

[gaguda]

Thank you, I am glad you agree it looked odd.
I have looked again with your explanation about server delay and that could well be the solution, rather than my conspiracy theory. However, 2 seconds is a long time for most IT.
The question boils down to - If I place a bid, does it show on the item listing when Submitted or when Confirmed some seconds later?
You may know, but of course I can always perform a test with two laptops if not. Now I have started I want to be certain.
Again, I appreciate your time.

[john1297576]

Without seeing the bid history I cannot understand what you mean. In simple terms the highest bidder always wins. Are you sure that the latest bid is not also an automatic bid, or a snipe in the last seconds. Give item number so that bidding can be seen or a screen shot.

[tsmgmd]

Nobody knows just how much you have bid.

However another bidder will get a message to say they have been outbid with a invitation to place a higher bid.

My simple solution is to enter the maximum amount you wish to bid.

Then wait for the email either asking you to pay or saying you didn't win.

[pixiesen2012]

I have no idea what you are saying with the 2 seconds here and there,

but I can tell you no one is shown your maximum bid,

the only times your max is shown is when you are outbid

have you clicked the 'show automatic bids' option to see when each bid was placed?