Winning bid changed

[pather46]

I bid on an item and won it. I watched the bidding until I won. My winning bid was £32.77 plus postage.

The system said it was going to determine who won. It then said I won and I had to pay £37.00 plus postage.

How did the cost suddenly go up. The ebay assistant was more than useless.

Can anybody help please

[roger_roger_over_and_nowt]

Can you post the item number and what did you enter as your max bid ?.

[bittyboy101]

I've had this a few times since 2023...

Before the "We are determining the winning bidder" you would just bid and the auction would simply end saying "You won the auction" or "You didn't win the auction  You were outbid"

My guess is eBay have done something to block people using 3rd party auction sniper sites to snipe auctions during the last 5 seconds - I am guilty of this too ! - It seemed like it was the only way to beat the opposition and secure the item ! - Recently though eBay have now clamped down on this and they now have specialist 'bot detection software' to detect and block any auction sniping sites/software, but some last second bids still get through if the bidder snipes by manually bidding during the last 15-20 seconds of auction...

It will most probably be a smart manual bidder who bid on your item during the last 20 seconds and eBay's bot detection software let it through due to it being a late human bid - hence when you refreshed the page you then saw the updated winning bid price because this now included a LATE BID ! and your maximum bid amount that you originally entered was just enough to outbid this last minute bidder so you still won the auction but at the higher price... if the late bidder had entered £36.81 and you had originally bid £40.01 - eBay automatically bid up to your max bid amount and if this is exceeded then you get an outbid email/message to inform you.

Hope this helps.  

[barry.110]

Could the difference be VAT being added?

If the seller is abroad then I believe EBay have to add VAT, even if the seller is currently in the UK but registered their account abroad or through the .com site then EBay add on VAT.

[myriad*seller]

That would be £39.31 ish if VAT was added

Sounds like someone sniped in the last few seconds and the bid did not register immediately

If you provide the item number we can look at the bidding history, but I bet you will see someone bid in the last 5 seconds and pushed your bid up, but the website did not register it so you could view that until the auction ended. 

[vintique*violet]

Yes I think you are correct on this, it has happened to me also - if you click on the bids , each one is viewable and it usually is a smart & fast fingered bidder that pushes it up further towards your maximum bid, if their bid is not over your maximum then you win at the price it has been pushed to. 

[sml192]

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@bittyboy101 wrote:

My guess is eBay have done something to block people using 3rd party auction sniper sites to snipe auctions during the last 5 seconds - I am guilty of this too ! - It seemed like it was the only way to beat the opposition and secure the item ! - Recently though eBay have now clamped down on this and they now have specialist 'bot detection software' to detect and block any auction sniping sites/software, but some last second bids still get through if the bidder snipes by manually bidding during the last 15-20 seconds of auction.

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Why would eBay want to block last second bids?  It would be of absolutely no benefit to them and there is nothing unfair about bidding in last few seconds whether done manually or automatically using a 3rd party snipe tool.   An eBay auction both starts and finishes at a set time and anyone is entitled to bid at any point during that timeframe. 

[bittyboy101]

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@sml192 wrote:

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@bittyboy101 wrote:

My guess is eBay have done something to block people using 3rd party auction sniper sites to snipe auctions during the last 5 seconds - I am guilty of this too ! - It seemed like it was the only way to beat the opposition and secure the item ! - Recently though eBay have now clamped down on this and they now have specialist 'bot detection software' to detect and block any auction sniping sites/software, but some last second bids still get through if the bidder snipes by manually bidding during the last 15-20 seconds of auction.

---

Why would eBay want to block last second bids?  It would be of absolutely no benefit to them and there is nothing unfair about bidding in last few seconds whether done manually or automatically using a 3rd party snipe tool.   An eBay auction both starts and finishes at a set time and anyone is entitled to bid at any point during that timeframe. 

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They still do it - I only learnt this at the cost of losing a £120 item because my snipe bid got blocked by eBay whilst I was out ! 

I came home expecting to pay for the item I wanted only to see that I was out bid on my earlier bid and my fail safe snipe bid was nowhere to be seen ! 😞  

Then it dawned on me that eBay had blocked it as according to the sniper site the bid of £150 was placed 3 seconds before the auction had ended, yet the auction ended at just £128.01 ! and I lost the item as my original first manual bid was just £120.00 😞 😞

[sml192]

That is strange.  I have never heard of eBay blocking automatic snipe bids and they even have a help page which clearly states that it is allowed.  

https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/buying/bidding/bid-sniping?id=4224

What you need to know

Bid sniping – including the use of software that places bids for you – is allowed on eBay, but it doesn't guarantee you'll win an auction.

[thesmokingrunner]

The apparent fact that your £150 snipe bid 3 seconds before the end of the auction wasn't accepted could just as easily be down to a clock synchronisation issue between the snipe site and eBay, bittyboy101.

A snipe bid is just an automated bid; technically it's not a bot. Do you actually have any conclusive proof that eBay blocks bids from snipe sites or are you just assuming that because your bid wasn't registered before the end of the auction eBay blocks snipe bids?

Just wondered...

[myriad*seller]

It's doesn't stop me manually sniping, and how can it tell an auto bid from a genuine bid?

It can't! 

Bids fail for a number of reasons, not because eBay blocks them 

[bittyboy101]

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@sml192 wrote:

That is strange.  I have never heard of eBay blocking automatic snipe bids and they even have a help page which clearly states that it is allowed.  

https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/buying/bidding/bid-sniping?id=4224

What you need to know

Bid sniping – including the use of software that places bids for you – is allowed on eBay, but it doesn't guarantee you'll win an auction.

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https://community.ebay.co.uk/t5/Member-To-Member-Support-DO-NOT/Bidding-scheduler-blocked/qaq-p/6415... 

[bittyboy101]

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@thesmokingrunner wrote:

The apparent fact that your £150 snipe bid 3 seconds before the end of the auction wasn't accepted could just as easily be down to a clock synchronisation issue between the snipe site and eBay, bittyboy101.

A snipe bid is just an automated bid; technically it's not a bot. Do you actually have any conclusive proof that eBay blocks bids from snipe sites or are you just assuming that because your bid wasn't registered before the end of the auction eBay blocks snipe bids?

Just wondered...

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To be fair I also tried bidding 5 sec before an auction ended - No sign of my bid - It didn't register.

I then tried bidding 10 sec before an auction ended - Still no sign of my bid - It didn't register.

I then tried bidding 15 seconds before an auction ended - My bid showed up 4 seconds after I had bid.

So it appears that eBay may sometimes block any bid that comes under the 15 second remaining time on their auctions - Why ?... too many people moaning about being sniped the last moment... OR... the auctions are ending at a too low price = less money for eBay as the over all bid value is less then it could have been if  more people had time to bid it up !   

I have many times sniped 0.99p auctions and won a £30 item for just £1,20 lol 😁

Sellers have been really great and honored the deal but I felt really bad about this so offered to send them some more money (just to ease my guilt !) but they have always said "There's no need for you to send anymore money, you won it on auction and that's all you need to pay"     

[bittyboy101]

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@myriad*seller wrote:

It's doesn't stop me manually sniping, and how can it tell an auto bid from a genuine bid?

It can't! 

Bids fail for a number of reasons, not because eBay blocks them 

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True, but also a slow computer or a slow internet connection can also make you lose time and miss the deadline of the auction if your bid gets delayed somehow from when you bid to when your bid reaches eBay...

[eburtonlab]

Bidding ends a set number of days after the auction started down to the exact second. Bids are accepted so long as a bid for a valid amount is received by eBay's server before the auction ends, even if those bids are not displayed on individual bidders' pages around the world until a few seconds later.

eBay does not extend bidding. Once you have bid your maximum, bid extensions can not help you, only hurt you.

For some unknown reason eBay no longer displays the ending time to the second at the top of the bid history page, but if there are any bids you should be able to calculate the actual ending time by examining the starting time of the auction at the bottom of the page. Auctions always begin and end at the same time down to the exact second, unless the auction is ended early by the seller. All bidders have the same time to place valid bids, and no one gets any extra time. eBay time stamps every bid as it is received by eBay, and the times are displayed to the second in the bid history if you use a desktop browser.

If you think you have encountered an auction where a bid was accepted after the end of the auction, examine the starting time closely and compare it to the time the bid was received and you should find that the bid was received before the auction actually ended. If not, please post an item number so that others can see it.

If you bid the maximum amount you are willing to pay (taking into account any shipping or taxes) then the only way you can lose is if someone is willing to bid more than you were and actually does so, or if someone bid the same exact amount, earlier.

No one can count on having the last bid, and bidders should assume that other bids will be placed at the end of the auction too late to be reacted to, and set their bids accordingly. Note that the countdown displayed on your device and the bids you see are not updated in real time, and just because you did not see any other bids when your clock reaches zero does not mean that eBay did not receive other bids at the last moment.

You have not won until the page refreshes and you see a note indicating that you have been declared the winner and you see a link to pay or your payment is take automatically. A note indicating you are the high bidder issued while the auction is still ongoing is not the same as being declared the winner by eBay after the auction has ended.

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 clock is fast or slow by a few seconds, that can prevent you from submitting a bid in the last few seconds of an auction. Either your computer will think the auction is over when it is not, or you will think you have additional time to bid when the auction has ended; neither situation helps you.

[thesmokingrunner]

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@bittyboy101 wrote:

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@myriad*seller wrote:

It's doesn't stop me manually sniping, and how can it tell an auto bid from a genuine bid?

It can't! 

Bids fail for a number of reasons, not because eBay blocks them 

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True, but also a slow computer or a slow internet connection can also make you lose time and miss the deadline of the auction if your bid gets delayed somehow from when you bid to when your bid reaches eBay...

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@bittyboy101  You appear to have answered your own question with the above response.

In your previous reply to me you state that you've not had bids accepted when bidding 5 or 10 seconds before the end of an auction and a bid you placed 15 seconds before the end of an auction took 4 seconds to process, and this apparently convinces you that eBay sometimes (not always - only sometimes) blocks snipe bids placed in the last 15 seconds of an auction. And yet in your reply to myriad*seller you agree that a slow computer or internet connection could cause a bid to miss the auction deadline.

Slow computer, network disruption, lagging connection, spike in network traffic, non-synchronised clocks  - they can all cause a delay in a bid being placed and result in it not being registered. The idea that snipe bids are blocked - and then only occasionally - is fanciful, to say the least.

And let's face it - if eBay cannot even code the search functionality or calculate EDDs correctly, do you really believe they have the ability to write and implement sophisticated code that would identify and block last-second bids from snipe sites but not from individual bidders?

[insidethe93]

Bidding in the last few seconds might not be tactical and thus not strictly sniping.

I quite often use 'saved searches' or do a new search and set parameters to 'UK', 'auction' and 'ending soonest'. Occasionally it requires rapid thinking when it shows an item I'd like and only a few seconds left. Neither "thinking" nor "rapid" are my strong suits and my internet connection's not fast, but more than once I've won the auction at 10 seconds maybe a second or two less. It's always where there's no bid yet which, as regards thinking, is somehow easier to bid on.

I doubt I'm the only person to do this.

[bittyboy101]

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@thesmokingrunner wrote:

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@bittyboy101 wrote:

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@myriad*seller wrote:

It's doesn't stop me manually sniping, and how can it tell an auto bid from a genuine bid?

It can't! 

Bids fail for a number of reasons, not because eBay blocks them 

---

True, but also a slow computer or a slow internet connection can also make you lose time and miss the deadline of the auction if your bid gets delayed somehow from when you bid to when your bid reaches eBay...

---

@bittyboy101  You appear to have answered your own question with the above response.

In your previous reply to me you state that you've not had bids accepted when bidding 5 or 10 seconds before the end of an auction and a bid you placed 15 seconds before the end of an auction took 4 seconds to process, and this apparently convinces you that eBay sometimes (not always - only sometimes) blocks snipe bids placed in the last 15 seconds of an auction. And yet in your reply to myriad*seller you agree that a slow computer or internet connection could cause a bid to miss the auction deadline.

Slow computer, network disruption, lagging connection, spike in network traffic, non-synchronised clocks  - they can all cause a delay in a bid being placed and result in it not being registered. The idea that snipe bids are blocked - and then only occasionally - is fanciful, to say the least.

And let's face it - if eBay cannot even code the search functionality or calculate EDDs correctly, do you really believe they have the ability to write and implement sophisticated code that would identify and block last-second bids from snipe sites but not from individual bidders?

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Whatever the explanation is, Sometimes online bids fail to register or register too late - There is a broad spectrum as to why this happens, but judging by how slow the eBay website is lately when it comes to search pages loading, I would say that it could be an initial server problem, i.e too much traffic and not enough web resources to process and handle the share volume of demand.

Whilst, it is also other factors that must be taken into consideration such as weak/slow internet connections, virus scanning software which also have to be taken into account, which could also cause bids and messages to be delayed before they actually reach eBay.

So I am not saying this is entirely eBay's fault, Only sometimes I have tried to manually snipe an auction during the last 5-10 seconds and my bid failed to register on eBay... but when I bid during the last 15-20 seconds it did !, which tells me if eBay are genuinely not blocking last 10 second bids then the only other explanation is that there is a slight delay of a few seconds from when you bid on your computer to when this information/command leaves your computer and then reaches eBay...       

[bittyboy101]

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@insidethe93 wrote:

Bidding in the last few seconds might not be tactical and thus not strictly sniping.

I quite often use 'saved searches' or do a new search and set parameters to 'UK', 'auction' and 'ending soonest'. Occasionally it requires rapid thinking when it shows an item I'd like and only a few seconds left. Neither "thinking" nor "rapid" are my strong suits and my internet connection's not fast, but more than once I've won the auction at 10 seconds maybe a second or two less. It's always where there's no bid yet which, as regards thinking, is somehow easier to bid on.

I doubt I'm the only person to do this.

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Yes that makes sense and could be quite possible.

[eburtonlab]

judging by how slow the eBay website is lately when it comes to search pages loading

Slow loading search results can be caused by an ad blocking filter in certain situations. Try temporarily disabling your ad blocker if you use one to see if that speeds up your search results.

If it does, the problem may be with a set of filters known as an "Anti-Circumvention" filter in Ad Block or "ABP Filters" in Ad Block Plus. If you disable those or the equivalent filters in other ad blockers, you may be able to continue blocking ads on eBay without slowing down your search results.