Reply to "winning snipes coming in after mine, but posted earlier time"

quote:

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maybe... sort of.

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Lets try this another way.

The winning price or bid is not the highest max. The winning price is (usually) one bid increment above the next to highest max.

An auction has a starting price of $1.00

• Bidder A places a max bid at eBay for $10. eBay shows Bidder A in the lead, price is $1 (opening bid amount)
• Bidder B comes along and sees the current price is $1 and places a bid for $5. eBay now shows Bidder A still in the lead, current price is $5.50 (one bid increment above B's max)
• Bidder C joins in and places a max bid of $12. eBay now shows bidder C taking the lead, price $10.50 (one bid increment above A's max)

So you (hopefully) see that the current price displayed on eBay can be, but often isn't the real max of the current top bidder.

The proxy concept can be confusing until suddenly you 'get it' and the light is turned on. Go back to the link about proxy bidding I gave and check it out again. Near the top left corner of the page there is a link to a test auction where you can play with bidding to see how it REALLY works. Make several bids and/or start over a few times.

Let me see if I can find that last auction...