Was about to bid in the last 10 seconds, but minimum price showed up in the background and I lost

[andrew_bw]

I don't know if this is bug or if it's a new feature introduced by eBay. I was going to make a first bid for an item in the last 10 seconds of an auction. I submitted a bid that was considerably higher than the current minimum price and reviewed it in the last 10 seconds. A couple of seconds later (and before I could confirm my bid) I noticed in the background what I thought was a new minimum bid price that was a few pounds above my maximum bid. I went to enter a new bid but it was too late—the auction was over. However, when I checked the final bid price it was £23 lower than my maximum bid. So I lost out because of what I believe was a glitch or a new eBay protocol to prevent last second bidding. So what gives? I'm extremely annoyed!

[m25jet]

Personally I've pretty much given up on bidding on auctions now, and haven't bid on any for quite a few years.  However, from previous experience, it could have been that eBay was suggesting a new maximum bid, regardless of whether you wanted to go that high.  If that is indeed what happened then it would appear that you lost the auction due to eBay's unwanted interfering.   Alternatively it could, as you say, have been a site glitch.

Either way you've still lost out on the item, but in the event that the winning bidder turns out to be a non-paying timewaster then if you were the second highest bidder the seller may offer you the chance to buy the item.  Alternatively if the winner does turn out to be a non-paying timewaster and the seller doesn't make you a Second Chance Offer via the auction you lost, then he/she may relist the item again via a completely new listing, thereby giving you a second chance to win the item.  Just make sure that you bid higher next time if you get a second chance to place a bid for the same item in a new auction!

[sml192]

The bidding history will only show the winning bid.  It won't show the winning bidders maximum bid so you have no way of knowing whether your bid would have been sufficient to win.

[andrew_bw]

Yes, I know that, so it must have been a glitch or deviousness on the part of eBay in programming an undisclosed routine to distract last second bidders, such that they lose out. I'm certain that I saw a higher bid price in the background in small print and that threw me, such that I stalled and didn't confirm my bid and in those last few seconds was unable to put in a higher bid. Very crafty and wrong if eBay have done that. If you were in a physical auction house, it'd be quite easy for a bidder to signal a new bid just as auctioneer is about to bring down the hammer. In my opinion it is completely fair for a bidder to make a bid within the last couple of seconds... that's always been the nature of bidding.

[andrew_bw]

I would agree with your first paragraph on the basis of interference, even though I hadn't made a bid at all on the item at that point. All I'd done was entered a bid for review. I can't accept your reply as a solution though, even though it's a good hypothesis. I would need to know for sure if eBay had published officially that it had put such alerts into place. Then I would accept it as a solution. To be honest, it would be a good policy if the auction was in, say, the last 30 seconds of its end, because you'd have the chance to bid again with a conservative bid before the end of the auction, rather than put in a ridiculousy high bid and have the price bump up to an unrealistic value, if another bidder had done the same. I've always placed my initial bid within the last 5 seconds of the end of the auction, because it keeps the price down. Those who bid several days before the end of the auction cause the price to go higher than it should, especially because competitive bidders don't like to lose and just don't know when to stop.

[ett1954]

Why would eBay interfere with bidding to prevent late bidders from winning?

This would have the effect of reducing eBay's fee take from the sale.

One thing you can be sure of on here is that eBay do not intentionally do anything to reduce their income from a sale; quite the converse.  Even glitches only tend to have an economical benefit to eBay.

[sml192]

It would not be in eBay's interest to prevent last minute bidders. 

Ebay do send an alert if an unconfirmed bid is no longer sufficient to beat whatever the current bid actually is (Note the current bid you see may not be accurate if there are several late bids as the system can't keep up).

That may have been what you saw.  If not it was either a glitch or you misread. 

[nigel_paul_wright7557]

The countdown clock on your ebay webpage is often a bit different to the countdown clock on ebays website.

This is because they are independent to reduce internet bandwidth.

[m25jet]

Although I no longer bother with auctions, in the days when I used to do so I would get ready to commit to bidding the absolute maximum amount that I would be willing to pay for the item, then submit the bid as close to the end of the auction as I could get it so as to minimise the chances of somebody else being able to submit a higher bid after my own bid had registered.   I found it to be a very effective strategy, often managing to register my bid within two seconds of the end of the auction, and in many cases the price that I won the item for was significantly lower than the amount that I'd confirmed as my maximum bid.  I never used to bid early on in any auction that I submitted a bid on, as that way other bidders could have potentially bid the auction up to a such a high price that it wouldn't have been worthwhile trying to have a second shot at winning the auction in the event that I had been outbid.  The strategy I used to use of "Bid once, bid late, bid your absolute maximum" always worked well for me, helping me to blow the competition out of the water and win the auction, but then again I always have been ruthlessly competitive!  However, unlike some other bidders, I only bid the once, right in the dying seconds of the auction.  I would never place a bid on the same auction twice.

[president_slush]

For a lot of ebay bidders, myself included, this strategy no longer works as the countdown clock fluctuates all over the place.  On another thread it has been suggested that ebay is running on 'internet time' which is different to GMT, and we all need to reset our clocks to this internet clock, but honestly I have no idea how to do that or have the inclination to change my computer time just for the sake of ebay.  But it has got worse....

Tonight I bid on something which was counting down the last few seconds.  The end time stated in the listing was a full 4 minutes away, but timer was closing on zero regardless.  I placed my bid and saw another three bids come in and topple it, but I let it stand and lost the auction.  But then when I checked the bidding history the final winning bid was less than the bid I had placed.  My bid showed-up on the list as the second in line, and it was less than the amount I entered.

Now then, what I think has happened is ebay has anticipated it's 'buyer protection fee' and calculated a bid less this fee - but hasn't actually informed bidders that this is happening.  This is misleading.  What they should do, which is what happens in real life auctions, is inform bidders that the final bid price is subject to a buyer's premium, payable at the end of the auction.  How ebay is going about things is totally wrong and makes the site look unprofessional.  Do their programmers do any kind of testing before they make changes to the site and go live?  Actually don't answer that as we have all seen these sort of things happen plenty of times before.  They never learn.  

[sml192]

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@president_slush wrote:

But then when I checked the bidding history the final winning bid was less than the bid I had placed.  My bid showed-up on the list as the second in line, and it was less than the amount I entered.

Yes, this is currently causing a lot of confusion.  When a buyer places a bid the bid amount is inclusive of the Buyer Protection Fee whereas the amounts shown in the bidding history exclude the Buyer Protection Fee. 

[eburtonlab]

For a lot of ebay bidders, myself included, this strategy no longer works as the countdown clock fluctuates all over the place. On another thread it has been suggested that ebay is running on 'internet time' which is different to GMT, and we all need to reset our clocks to this internet clock, but honestly I have no idea how to do that

If your countdown clock is fluctuating, google your operating system version and synchronize clock for instructions to automatically synchronize your device's clock to standard time.

[ed_58611]

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@president_slush wrote:

"the countdown clock fluctuates all over the place...

Tonight I bid on something which was counting down the last few seconds"

If your device is out of synch with eBay you run the risk of either bidding too soon and yourself being sniped, or missing out on the auction altogether because it has already ended.

[insidethe93]

In case readers don't know, in your account settings you need to set the option so that you'll receive Second Chance offers.

[insidethe93]

andrew_bw wrote: ...I've always placed my initial bid within the last 5 seconds of the end of the auction, because it keeps the price down. Those who bid several days before the end of the auction cause the price to go higher than it should, especially because competitive bidders don't like to lose and just don't know when to stop.

Until eBay introduced BPF and the maths it makes me feel I should do, auctions was an area where I felt eBay had got it right, considering the different types of bidder and wide range of items. Depending on when I become aware of an item, I've done both - bid my maximum and left it, and also bid at the last moment (usually on searching my preferred catgories, auction and sort by 'ending soonest').

I don't understand how early bidders make a price go higher than it should - please would you explain your thinking for me please? Not sure if you're saying auction duration should be just 10 seconds? But anyway, isn't it the case of bidders being entitled to bid up to what they're prepared to pay - hence the auction format?

You wrote: "competitive bidders don't like to lose and just don't know when to stop". A few times I've had to keep bidding, not because I'm competitive or don't like to lose - only those who can afford to splash the cash would do that, in which case wouldn't that be classed as bidding up to the maximum you can afford?  In such cases I keep on bidding because I actually really want the item, often bidding more than I originally expected to, and I'll stop bidding if it becomes so expensive that cost outweighs my desire to have the item. Isn't all this why auctions were invented? isn't that the nature of auctions? why shouldn't the seller allow people to compete and reap the reward of a higher price?