i placed maxximum bid but still during last 5 seconds someone else won ? how is it possible,

[shiraz1231]

Can somebody educate me how this can happen ?

[mcrlmn]

It's called sniping:

http://www.ebay.com/gds/Sniping-The-Best-kept-secret-on-Ebay-/10000000002571474/g.html

[ypdc_dennis]

Someone places a higher bid than you in the last few seconds.

If you already entered the highest bid amount that you were willing to pay -- then you know the winning bidder overpaid.

[newcoyote · Accepted solution]

Yeah, you got sniped. It is done with a third party application. You enter the item number and the highest bid you are willing to pay, usually far higher than what you figure the next highest bidder will be. You can set it to place that bid in as few as two seconds prior to the auction ending. So if the high bid is say $50. The last minute someone bids $60 and your snipe is set to $100, you're going to win it at $61. It is actually fairly common. Not much of a secret anymore.