When I have a lead time of 3 seconds and am the confirmed high bidder, how can I lose a bid over thirty seconds later when the auction should have already ended. What happened?

WELCOME to the forum.

... How about an auction number?

I don't have a clue without seeing the auction number. If you will post it, someone will have a look!

I have the same question. I lost a bid tonight on an item with no bids on it until AS submitted my bid at 5 sec. I got an email saying that I was the high bidder with 0 minutes remaining. My bid was $20.00. I lost to a bid of $20.50. The bid number was 4007803556. This is the second time this has happened. I'm not sure if $.50 was even an acceptable bid increment. It seems odd that before my $20.00 bid the starting bid was $5.95. Something does not seem right, or else I just don't understand how things work.

Hiya Hub,
There were no other bids prior to yours? then you were outsniped fair and square I would say. With the winning bid coming in at the same time as yours, the other bidder was just willing to pay more than you.

With sniping you have to remember to bid the MAX amount you are willing to pay and make that amount an odd amount (ie $20.57 rather than $20).

50 cents is definately a legit increment for $5.00 to $24.99.

Welcome to the forum too

Having a look at the winning bidders history shows that they are a regular sniper, I know that doesnt help, but there is definately nothing fishy going on

Hub, the other bidder, ppetto, sniped the item at the same time as your snipe arrived. His snipe was higher than yours so he (could be she!) won. Simple as that.

This is what happens when two or more people bid on an Auction towards the close, it comes down to who bids the highest. So, to coin a well-worn phrase, always bid your max!

Also, when two bids arrive at the same time then eBAY rules state that the highest bid will win, no matter what the increment so you can win by just 1 penny/cent!

R2

hey guys ... long time AS member, first time Forum user .... under "lost bids" i had a strange one happen the other night and cannot figure it out ... auction ended w/5 bids ... i sniped w/5 sec ... winner was a buyer who had not bid before ... his first and only bid was the 5th ... it was the same amount as my snipe ... and the end screen said he won "because his bid was placed earlier" even though it was the same amount ... the seller had nothing to do with it because the final bid did not meet the reserve ... how can someone bid early, have the highest bid, have it NOT show up on the bid history, until the end of the auction ... i'm sure there is a logical explanation, but even my ebay friends that are very computer savy cannot figure this out

At the risk of starting another rampage from soneone who might SWEAR that the winning bid did not appear until after the auction ended, I can tell you that the winning bid DID appear in the bidding history while the auction was going on; you simply overlooked it. We get this scenarion rather frequently and it pretty much always ends the same way.

In your case, since there was a reserve in play which was not met, it may have been even easier to overlook the bid, especially since losing bid amounts are not posted until the very end.

This is a reminder to always bid unusual amounts, such as $45.56, to minimize the chance than an earlier bid of the same amount will beat you. I don't even use one or two cents more than the dollar; I go for unusual amounts, as above.

ok chatter .... i know i'm missing something, but again .... 5 bids ... mine was 4 and his was 5 .... he "placed" his bid about when the auction "started" (according to the bid data) ... not ended ... but it didn't show up until after my bid placed (5 sec lead), and probably before the auction ended ... of course we don't know when REALLY because his "bid" date was 9 days earlier ... 3 separate OTHER bidders had 1, 2 and 3 .... and our amounts were exactly the same .... $101.99 ... again, i'm a long time ebayer and AS'er ... the dates on the 5 bids showed that he placed his bid first .. but it didn't show until last .. the issue is "his and my bids are the same amounts, $101.99 ... but his bid tops mine because it was placed earlier" ... but didn't "show" until after my bid at the end ... why ???

Maybe they work for eBay.

I'd suggest you pose your question to eBay,
but we already know what their answer would be. (Can't happen.)

Were there any bid retractions?

How about an auction number?

Show the forum the Auction number and all will be revealed - sounds like a Proxy bid scenario to me...

R2

ok guys .. item # is 4162676494 .... how do you make a "proxy" bid ??? ... everyone take a look and let me know what you think ... many thanks to all who can contribute

The following table has been reorganized and sorted into date order.  First
bid placed is line #1.  That should make it easier to follow the auction.
Two additional columns have been calculated and added.  They are the current 
bid and high bidder, as displayed on eBay after each bid is placed.        v2.1.08
* = Winning bid. 
 
                        Max                        Current Winning
 #    Bidder            Bid      Day & Time         Bid  &  Bidder
                       (US $)
  1   vike100         *101.99   15-Apr  16:36:57    49.99   vike100         
  2   nancyjamie        50.99   15-Apr  18:05:34    51.99   vike100         
  3   ritastorybook     54.00   16-Apr  07:56:06    55.00   vike100         
  4   deer741           56.00   25-Apr  14:09:51    57.00   vike100         
  5   bq_karen         101.99   25-Apr  16:29:27   101.99   vike100         
        End                     25-Apr  16:30:00              

Here is my *guess*.   Lines 1, 2, and 3 are the three bids you saw. Bid 4 was placed and hour and a half before auction end and was the bid you didn't see. (Were you watching then?)

quote:

---

how do you make a "proxy" bid ???

---

Since you are a long time eBayer, I assume you're being sarcastic... but just in case... ALL bids are proxy bids. Max amounts are not shown... only the amount it takes to stay in the lead.
    >Click Here< to learn about 'proxy' bidding.

Date of Bid Bid Amount User ID

Apr-15-04 16:36:57 PDT US $101.99 vike100
Apr-25-04 16:29:27 PDT US $101.99 bq_karen
Apr-25-04 14:09:51 PDT US $56.00 deer741
Apr-16-04 07:56:06 PDT US $54.00 ritastorybook
Apr-15-04 18:05:34 PDT US $50.99 nancyjamie

BQ, a proxy bid is simply a standard eBay bid, made at some point during the auction. It is called a proxy bid because your full amount is not revealed, just the amount necessary to keep you one increment above the next highest bidder. This is the term that eBay itself uses.

In your case, it was a most unlikely scenario, because you appeared to have bid the exact same amount--to the penny--as a previous high bidder, something that is very rare indeed. (I would recommend using middle range amounts, such as .37 or 63 cents.) Because the other bid came first, it triumphed.

Prior to your snipe, the winning bid would have shown as something in the fifties, since vike's high bid would have kept it one increment above the fiftysomething amounts bid by others. But your last second snipe automatically made his full amount kick in, and raised the final price to the $101.99 mark. But since he had already bid it, he won.

This is the only scenario where bidding late is a disadvantage. But the chances of it are SO slim (how likely is it that two people will bid the exact same dollar and cent amount on an item at this range?), that 99.9% of the time the high bid wins, regardless of when it was posted. We snipers place late to prevent a higher counterbid in reaction.

I know it stings, since ou bid the same amount, but you stated that the reserve price wa not met. When an item is listed, I have found that about half the time, if I e-mail the seller, he is willing to reveal the reserve price to me. You have nothing to lose and it may help you to select a bid amount.

Oh, also...

The winning bidder often bids like this. (Their real max (high dollar amount) and very early in auctions)

... and WELCOME to the forum!!
... better late than never for the welcome.

you guys are great !!! thanks so much .. the answer of course was that i (oddly enough)picked the same random $ amount that the first bidder did .... i watched the auction and don't remember that his name showed the whole time as the "current high bidder" but it would have had to ... right !!!

this has never happened to me before ....

puppy raiser, thanks for laying it out for me ... but please know that i don't have to know the "word" proxy to know what it is ... i never had to STUDY ebay i.e. "learn the lingo" to get with the program ... but hats off to you for taking the time to lay it out so well and for offering the "welcome"

AND to "chatter" for spelling it out, starting with "in your case" ... that pretty well crystalized it ... good news is that the $101.99 was my absolute max amount willing to spend

all is well ... thanks to everyone .. this has been a positive experience

If it's any consolation, vike100 is pulling hair, and wondering how you knew their bid amount.