second window opens to confirm before bid is placed?

lost a bid (i'm new to bidding on ebay) because I didn't see anywhere in 'how to bid', or anywhere for that matter, that a second window would open to confirm my bid. that took up WAY too much time, and so the bid was lost, by about 3 seconds. what gives? how can you place last second bids? also, the last 20 seconds of the countdown was really glitchy- it would go: 20, 18, 15, 14, 9 etc.... any tips?

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second window opens to confirm before bid is placed?

 

Hello 'nikkidelia2',

New to ebay?  Excellent!  Welcome!  Nice to have you along! Smiley Happy

And you lost a bid.  Until we get the hang of it, most of us lose out to a last-second sniper,

or even our own thick fat fingers not being as fast as we anticipated.

 

The best "how to bid" information you will get anywhere is ebay's own explanation page,

written in plain simple language that only takes a couple minutes to read. 

This one about automatic bidding even has a little diagram:

http://pages.ebay.ca/help/buy/automatic-bidding.html

 

On the right is this one about bid increments, -- that's really important to know because if you

are not familiar with ebay auctions, how the amounts go up can seem confusing at first:

http://pages.ebay.ca/help/buy/bid-increments.html#how

 

And this one, of course, about getting outbid, and how not to get outsniped in the last few

minutes:

http://pages.ebay.ca/help/buy/outbid.html

 

The reason that ebay has people place a bid, and then in a second window confirm that bid,

is so that users will be absolutely sure they really truly mean it.

It's surprisingly easy to contemplate entering a bid, type the numbers, and if your mouse is

hovering over the Bid button ..., -- imagine if you entered that bid when you had not yet fully committed?

The two-step process prevents you from entering a bid and then having to pay for an item when

you were still in the 'thinking about it' stage.

 

Now you know.   When you are in the last hour of an auction, in that second 'confirmation' window

that pops up you will see the countdown by minute and second displayed in a deep orange colour.

It's super easy that way.

 

So when you're in the last few minutes of the auction, -

Beside the item you type the amount and click Place bid.  Then you watch the countdown, poised over

that Confirm button ready to strike, and when you're ready, . . . Zot!   You'll never lose out again.

 

 

Happy shopping!  Smiley Very Happy

 

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