Appalling new eBay bidding "glitch", more seconds added, & allows snipers to out bid a winning bid

[sam_in_barbate]

I have been buying & selling on eBay for over 15 years, & have watched whilst little by little eBay tweek elements which have worked perfectly, but this new little trick up the sleeve of eBay when bidding, takes the biscuit.

You find an item you want to bid on, you cancel everything in your day to make sure that you will be home, finger poised over the bidding button, & where I (for example) bid 4-5 seconds before the end of auction, this has been my chosen method for 15 years.

I first saw what I thought was a glitch a couple of weeks back, & where, over the course of 2 weeks, I had been outbid by other snipers, this AFTER I thought I had won the item, for, the seconds clock was timing down, 4 seconds before end of auction I place the winning bid, THEN the clock having almost hit 0 switches back & adds a new 5 or 6 seconds which count down again. I watched as my winning bid was then sniped & over the last 2 weeks lost all 3 items.

This has just happened a scant minute or two back on a fabulous item I had been watching for over a week. With 4 seconds to go I place what should have been the winning bid, then out of the blue more seconds were added to the clock, thank be to all the Gods, on this occasion I had added a far larger figure to my maximum bid, & did manage to win the item but at TWICE I repeat TWICE my original winning bid. Clearly, eBay are allowing watchers/winning bidders to think they have one clock which is slightly ahead of the actual end of auction, & allowing other bidders the chance to up the bid.

Yes, I am now regularly appalled by eBay's shenanigans, but this takes the biscuit, if there was an official body to whom I could report this I would..

[litp*records]

I've seen this too.  It says something like "Please wait - we are calculating the winner"  for 10 seconds or so.  Fortunately I won on that occasion!

Anyway, I used to be like OP and always bid in the final seconds. Never used software (no fun).  But lately it's just too stressful, so I bid the max I want to pay early on in the auction.  If someone outbids me, so be it (they've saved me money too).  Not worth spending too much time thinking about it

[hill-walker]

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@elitegiftsltd wrote:

No, just move the bids back 10 seconds. No change in price or fees. 

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Nope, I have to disagree with you there. I've seen it many times, at real life auctions, where people get caught up in the last moment excitement, and if beaten, will stick in another bid, higher than they had ever intended to go. I have to confess that I've done it myself, to secure some "must have" item.

I've heard it many times on here too... "I missed out, but would have bid higher if I'd know/had time". OP themself has said something similar.

Either way, it sure as eggs wouldn't create lower bids. If every bid simply extended the auction finish time a little more, it would ensure that everybody that wanted to bid had time to, and would do away with last-second sniping altogether, as there could never be a last second, until everyone had actually stopped bidding.

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[sam_in_barbate]

I do not know how much bidding you do on eBay, but I must have bid on, & in the most part won over 30,000 items over the last 15 years.

An auction clock run down should be accurate. Four times over the last fortnight I have confirmed a bid at 3-4 seconds before the end of auction, when you click confirm the small pop-up window closes, to then see the clock showing 5-6 seconds, if that is reading something into it then lock me up & throw away the key.

[more-ackers]

@sam_in_barbate I am confused. The evidence for purchases on your ID show that you do not bid at the last minute. Indeed, you bid often hours before the end time.

Leds me to assume you have another ID you use to bid on the more, "must have" items

[zoomingmouse]

Have you tried having 2 windows open side by side.

I've not experienced, or perhaps just not noticed your exact problem, but with the clock countdown stopping having the 2nd window allowed me to time by confirm bid accurately.

[more-ackers]

I don't understand the entire issue.

If a buyer is using a snipe tool then that is governed by the time the auction is scheduled to finish so the "additional" time would have no consequence.

If the person is "sniping" manually then they would be working to the scheduled end time and would be hard pressed to get in another bid to read the current high bid and then enter a higher amount within the 5-6 seconds and presumably they would not rely on the additional time so would be always aiming for the scheduled finish time.

The crux of this thread is we have a snipe bidder complaining that they are being out sniped.

[sam_in_barbate]

I do wish people would bother to read what I wrote, & I have never complained about being out sniped, I am seeing seconds run down at end of auction which is not accurate..

I place a bid at 3-4 seconds before end of auction, I click confirm, small pop-up confirmation window closes, to now show 5-6 seconds remaining where there should be 1-2 seconds (max) remaining. I have never complained about losing a bid, but when the auction clock can not be trusted I think I have the right to do so.

[sam_in_barbate]

HI,

This is a terrific idea, I used to do this when bidding on multiple items from the same seller & where their items were set only a few seconds apart. & a huge thankyou for being willing to help unlike the narrow minded charmers who think I am whining because I have simply lost an auction ")

[zoomingmouse]

Hi, you're welcome... it's the old skool way of doing it 😁

[sam_in_barbate]

I don't know what planet your eBay exists on, I buy almost nothing from this account, I have bought 6 items from this account since July, all bar one item purched on this account have been buy-it-now. Only the last item won yesterday, & where the clock showed the incorrect time was bought at auction, & I won that only because I had the forsight to place a far higher bid than normal & I almost had kittens, watching what I thought was my winning bid double after another bidded.

[more-ackers]

I have never complained about being out sniped,

@sam_in_barbate  in your original post, para 3, line 4: "I watched as my winning bid was then sniped & over the last 2 weeks lost all 3 items."

[more-ackers]

I almost had kittens, watching what I thought was my winning bid double after another bidded.

So you did not get the item for half the price you were prepared to pay. Thats auctions for you.

[sam_in_barbate]

hahahahah, Oh thankyou for making me laugh out loud, I had feared this was becoming one of those threads where people were going to start getting seriously offensive ") 

Odd thing, I just studied the bidding history of this last item I won, & there is no sign of any seconds glitch, all appears above board, so next time I bid I am going to video it,

Auction ended 18:13:02

My winning bid 18:12:53

The bid that by all counts could not have been made 18:12:59

This makes me think that it is something to do with the clock I see when bidding? For there is no way in a month of Sundays that I would have bid 9 seconds before the end of auction "(( It just is not in my DNA

[sam_in_barbate]

Hhhmph, we have a hair splitter folks. These items were won when my clock --- you know, the one you see on bidding?? had run down to 0, THEN & out of the blue the clock began to run down from 4 or 5 seconds

[gallovidian]

I don't believe you have seen any attempt at offensiveness, although it is possible that the rest of us have, On discussion boards you get disagreed with sometimes.

It is possible that some sort of glitch is occurring. But I wouldn't discuss the possibility that the problem lies in your computer or your connection.Nobody has mentioned the ability, as well as the perhaps temporarily highest bids being displayed, the listing page gives you the abu=ility to see all bids. I would suspect that when you see the announcement of eBay determining the winner, it is often because two bids are of the same amount/

It is also puzzling to know the point of bidding four or five seconds before the listing's end. You can't beat a proxy bid higher than already displayed, only the human ability to see and react to your bid when it is displayed, bid higher and confirm. Fifteen seconds or so will usually prevent that. Possibly not invariably, if someone indecisive and with Wild Bill's reflexes is watching, or not even him if the displaying of bids, i.e. yours, is slow. One the other hand, if someone  else equals but doesn't exceed your fifteen-second bid, you win by being the first.

I sometimes use the Auctionsniper sniping website, which I can highly recommend. It is inexpensive, with fees payable only when you win, and it is physically close to eBay and connected to them with a permanent and state of the art commercial connection.  I have seen no glitch affecting a bid made that way.

Losing an auction by a fraction-of-a-minute bid is likely to be rare, and seems a lot better than being frequently appalled. That sounds pretty gruelling.

[blancoseuropa]

Happened twice to me now, 1 st item i missed out on, when, where ebay added another 10 seconds, then 2nd item, 10 seconds again.  Fortunately i had no compettition this time other the seller who was probably shill bidding on his/her own item with 1 bid from a few days previous. Glad i'm not going mad. Its clearly ebay, maximising their profits, by ''taking out'' snipers ....the irony.

[blancoseuropa]

Good idea, for stress levels. Ive done similar, but its an appalling practice by ebay, and clearly to get rid of snipers who theoretically lose ebay money by not entering an all our bidding war.

[blancoseuropa]

If you win an item, by placing bid with say 2 seconds to go, whilst this 10 delayed clock scam is in operation, the bidding will still show you bid 10 seconds before the end (as happend to myself), even if you win. Its a balatant scam, to eradicate snipers, not sure you would dispute this tactic, when its clearly happened to many in the last couple of months. No coincidence, that many people have only been done by this just recently. As in ive been on ebay for 20 years, and only the last 3 auctions ive bid on has this scam occured. Only the left, would disagree.

[blancoseuropa]

No, the crux of the the thread, is that ebay are illegally stopping perfectly legal manual snipers, potentially winning items, by adding more time on the clock to maximise bidding war and profit.  Do you work for ebay.?

[blancoseuropa]

Same here, won an auction with ''3'' seconds to go....ebay clock tells me i won with ''10'' seconds to go....i think not lol. There's always one troll disputing the blatantly obvious.