Can people use outside websites/sources to help win auctions? Is there a way to confirm/report this?

[tjclw]

I recently was outbid on an item and I was just wondering how it just so happened to go to $1 over my maximum bid in the last second of the auction? The current bid was only at $20 and I was wondering if anyone knew how this happened because maximum bids are kept private. Do you think the other buyer used a secondary site to help them win? I feel very ripped off considering I was sitting at home winning with $20 an then the last second it over doubled to $1 over my max bid. Oh and there were only 5 bids, so they didn't go up by $1 until they passed me (especially because this would be impossible in the last second).

[nubian_treasures]

There is no secondary site. The other bidder bid their maximum and ebay used enough of their maximum to keep them one increment above the last highest bid.

Here's information on getting outbid which would explains things better.

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

By the way, bidding at the last seconds is very common. It's called sniping and it is a legal way of bidding on ebay.

Additionally, you were not ripped off because you lost the bid. You didn't lose any money so therefore, you were not ripped off.

[femmefan1946]

In addition there are sites like eSnipe which will for a fee bid electronically for you at the last moment.

DH finds this useful because he bids often in Australasian auctions which close in the wee hours of the morning our time but mid-afternoon Australia time.

Bid once, bid your maximum and bid late.

If you get outbid, the guy suckered himself into paying too much, eh?

[edwinfok]

I recenty have a lot of bidders that do the last minuite bidding on the items that I do want. It is very frustrating because it is not really fair to the buyer who really wants to purchase the item in the 1st place. What is suprising is some of the buyers has 6 and more bid retractions in the past 6 months. I sometimes do wonder what their true intentions are when it comes to bidding the last sec on an item.