Outbid over a minute after auction ended - help?

[zatja-0]

Hi all, I'm fairly new to EBay and just now was outbid at 1:31:18 my local time for an auction that was supposed to have ended at 1:30.

I received the warning email at 1:31:18 when the "winning" bid came in, but was watching the auction and assumed the item was mine after we passed the 1:30, then the 1:31:00 threshold.  (Read up on snipers and how auctions can continue into the 59 seconds past the closing time.)

The auction then closed at 1:31:23.  

Can someone please advise me on how this works? This was disappointing and seems unfair. 

Thank you so much!

J.

[femmefan1946]

Could you post the item number? this will allow us to see the timing of the auction.

Snipe bidding can arrive seconds, even nano-seconds after manual bids and after early bids.

Which is why the usual advice is to bid once, bid your true maximum, and usually bid late.

[zatja-0]

Thanks so much for your reply! The item no. is 124195510086.

Appreciate your feedback very much - I feel cheated!

J

[eburtonlab]

The winning bid was placed five seconds before the auction ended.

You can check yourself, by using a desktop browser to go to the bid history page:

https://www.ebay.ca/bfl/viewbids/124195510086?item=124195510086&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2565

Bidders should expect bidding at the end of the auction when there is not enough time to react and place another bid.

If you decide in advance the maximum amount you are willing to spend, including shipping and taxes, and add a few cents to avoid a round number that might result in a tie, and then bid the appropriate amount once as late in the auction as you are comfortable with, then the only way you can lose is if someone else is willing to bid more than your maximum amount.

[zatja-0]

Thank you so much, I did go back and I see where I went wrong. I really appreciate the advice. Sounds like a good strategy!!!

[needsmorerobots]

I can agree (through my experience) the way to ruin snipe bidding is to bid late and bid the max amount you are willing to pay. True snipe bidders will not be able to recover fast enough to get a 2nd or 3rd bid in before auction ends.

[wv4551]

Can you help me.   I bid on a 24 hour auction site, not Ebay, which was listed at 6:27 pm.   I placed my bid at 6:26 and another person bid at 6:27.....who wins?  I would think that I would as it was within the 24 hours and the other person would be 1 minute over am I right to say so or does the other person win.   You were very helpful with another person answering a question that is why I am reaching out, thanks in advance.

[pjcdn2005]

If the other person was able to bid I would guess that the suction was still on when they bid.  If the auction had already ended you probably would not be able to see their bid.   I'm just guessing of course since I'm not familiar with the site you are referring to.

[busybeas_books]

Many online auctions have a 'soft close' time, which means if they get a bid realy close to the posted closing time, they will keep the auction going for a set time (2 minutes? 5 minutes? depends on site) after that bid, allowing other bidders to jump in. I've seen some items get dozens of bids after the set closing time.

[marnotom!]

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@wv4551 wrote:

Can you help me.   I bid on a 24 hour auction site, not Ebay, which was listed at 6:27 pm.   I placed my bid at 6:26 and another person bid at 6:27.....who wins?  I would think that I would as it was within the 24 hours and the other person would be 1 minute over am I right to say so or does the other person win.   You were very helpful with another person answering a question that is why I am reaching out, thanks in advance.

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Without knowing the site in question, @wv4551, it's pretty much impossible for @femmefan1946 or anybody else to provide an answer.  Not all online auctions work the same way as eBay ones do.  Does this particular site have a forum or email address where you can post or send questions like this?