bid placed before my accepted snipe won the item--why?

You got nailed by a proxy bidder. At the time your snipe went in, the current price was $12 ($11.50 3rd bidder + .50 increment). You bid $21, but zarjr had a proxy bid of $21.50 or more. Your snipe caused more of zarjr's proxy bid to be used, but probably not all of it.

The bid history is not based on time, but based on bid amounts. In case of tie, 1st tied bidder wins.

Because this comes up often, the following was posted by Steve (forum member) on 4/30/03 at 7:30 AM:
eBay Bid Increments

Current price
$0.01 - $0.99 = $0.05
1.00 - 4.99 = 0.25
5.00 - 24.99 = 0.50
25.00 - 99.99 = 1.00
100.00 - 249.99 = 2.50
250.00 - 499.99 = 5.00
500.00 - 999.99 = 10.00
1000.00 - 2499.99 = 25.00
2500.00 - 4999.99 = 50.00
5000.00 and up = 100.00


Make sense?

To put it simply Vince, you were outbid. The bid two hours earlier was higher than yours. Getting your snipe in last does not matter if an earlier bid is higher. That is why a sniper always bids his absloute max.