I had a two item bid goup. The lead time was 8 seconds for one, and 30 seconds for the other. Of course since they were the same type item from the same seller, I set qty. amount as 1. This was the first time I had used the bid groups service. Setting bid groups is confusing to me. I found the instructions hard to understand, as I'm not good with computers. I finally got the bid group set, (which was a surprise to me, that it actually worked) and won, one of the items . The final bid for the first one was $11,00. The final bid for the one I won, was $18.26. Why did I end up paying more for the one I won? I thought that by using the bid groups, I would win the cheaper of the two. Did having a 30 second lead time on one of the items have anything to do with it? The closing time between the items was about a min. I know the tutorial said if the items closed very close to the same time to put a 30 second lead time difference between them. Thank you for any answers you can give me.
quote:I thought that by using the bid groups, I would win the cheaper of the two.
You're dreaming. I wish it worked that way, but doesn't (and can't). Bid groups are for winning the number you want. If you had won the first, AS would not have bid on the second, no matter what the price was.
quote:if the items closed very close to the same time to put a 30 second lead time difference between them.
The auctions need to END at least 30 seconds apart (could be less, but not a guarantee). After bidding on the first item, AS had to determine whether you had won before bidding on the second item. Sometimes that can take as long as 30 seconds. You can use your normal lead times. Example: If your normal lead time is 8 seconds. Two auctions end 1 minute apart. That gives you 52 seconds between end of auction 1 till your bid on auction 2. That's more than 30 seconds so you should be OK.
When AS put my bid in for the $11.00 item. Why wasn't the end price more for that item. If his max. bid was $20.00, and my max.bid, by AS is $19.00, should'nt the end price have been $19.50? That's the way it is when you do a straight bid. The end price always rises to the last max. bid amount. Why is there a difference when useing bid groups? Thanks again.
The number that I lost is, 3592411947. Why would AS not have been able to bid in time, when the lead time on this item was 8 seconds. And the one I won was 30 seconds. Would'nt the 8 second one have been bid on first? I checked the items lost. Evidently, there was no bid put in on the one I lost, as you mentioned. Thanks
Which item did you put your $19 bid in on? You can set a different bid amount for each item in your bid group. When you import the snipes, it automatically enters the current minimum bid amount in the "Amount" blank for each auction -- you can change it, of course, but changing it for one auction in the group does NOT change it for the whole group.
Each snipe in a bid group is still a separate auction, and you set them up individually. The only thing that makes them a bid group is that fact that, once you've won the number of items you want, the rest of the auctions in that group will be cancelled. But I can bid $15 on the first one, and $45 on the second, and $5 on the third...
The auction with the 8 second lead time was not during a busy time of day, or on a busy day of the week. I would think your bid SHOULD have been placed on time, however there are spikes of traffic into eBay.
A 'Not In Time' means AS placed your bid, but eBay was unable to accept and process it in those 8 seconds before the auction ended. For the second auction, AS placed your bid a full 30 seconds before end, so had much more time to process and record your bid before the auction ended.
Note that normally 8 seconds is plenty of lead time to place a bid. In fact, that's the amount I use (except on Saturday and Sunday evenings).
This is the Item number I won, 3592411997. I bid $19.26 on both items. Was it just that AS screwed up, and did'nt place a bid for the $11.00 item? Thanks
Thank you all for your welcome, and for answeing my posts. If someone could answer my last two posts. I'd appreciate it, and want bother you anymore. (smile)
I wish it worked that way, but doesn't (and can't). Bid groups are for winning the number you want. If you had won the first, AS would not have bid on the second, no matter what the price was. 
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