Hello Everyone,
While this 'horror story' sounds bad, let me explain what really happened in this case (I looked up the auction) but will keep the usernames and item numbers private.
We did place the bid early, but the auction ended at exactly 6PM, a very busy time and we compensated for this by bidding early to make sure we did not miss this item. Sounds horrible, right? Better to bid early then have the bid not be placed. Well let me show how this effects the result with facts:
Bidding History:
User B $313.49 17:59:55
siweb $308.49 17:59:17
User A $265.00 17:59:28
User A $209.01 17:59:18
Taking into account the proxy system, this is what transpired (*most people can not read these histories correctly and jump to incorrect conclusions):
Auction ends at 18:00:00
Time - High Bidder - Current Bid
17:59:18 - User A - $209.01
17:59:17 - siweb - $211.51 (the increment is $2 siweb actually bid $308.49 but $211.51 is the next increment over User A)
17:59:28 - siweb - $270.00 (User A bid again - $265, pushing siwebs proxy bid up to $270)
17:59:55 - User B - $313.49 (siweb max bid was $308.49, this bid is just the next increment via the proxy system on eBay) *
User B wins the item.
As we say all along, the highest bid wins.. not the last. Sniping only avoids bidding wars.
So let's reflect. What does this tell us? That even if we had placed our bid at 17:59:59 of $308.49 for siweb, User B would have won the item with his snipe!!! * What amount did User B actually snipe? We will never know as the amount shown will only ever be the next lower bid plus the bid increment. For all we know his snipe was $500. There is 100% no way that we lost this item by placing the snipe early. In fact, when the winner (User B above) placed his snipe the max bid at the time was $270.
* What people ALWAYS overlook is that your max bid is hidden, eBay only shows the next bid increment (because of the eBay Proxy Bid system).
We have been doing this for years, I honestly do not think I have ever seen an item * NOT WON because we sniped early. Items are lost because someone else is willing to pay more.
* correction - there is one confirmed case out of the millions of snipes we place where a user has lost the item due to an early snipe.
Thank you,
Bill