How does Ebay arbitrate between simultaneous snipes?

Ebay will accept both snipes. Ebay’s increment and proxy software will determine the winner. In case of a tie, the first snipe in wins.

AS will place both snipes concurrently. They have 3 or 4 servers placing redundant snipes to better insure all snipes are placed.

Highest bid still wins.

Assuming both bids are for the same amount, you may as well consider it a 'flip of the coin'.

The short answer is I don't know, but it doesn't really matter. The 'first' is determined more by web traffic and eBay delays and processing time than which is actually sent first.

The two bids are sent so close together, they may as well be considered sent at the same time. Web traffic and the internal workings and processing times at eBay are a variable that can not be predicted, and the second bid sent may actually finish processing first. Both bids may be recorded at eBay if they arrive close enough together. Which one was first is left up to eBay.

Did you know AS snipes for you from more than one server? It's been a while since an example has come up, but we've seen as many as 3 bids recorded during the same second, from the same sniper. Since they were all AS snipe bids by the same ID, we know they were all for the same amount. This happens when the second (and sometimes third) bid arrives at eBay before the first is fully recorded and entered into the bid history. eBay still found a way to put them in some kind of order, and one MUST be first, if only by a few microseconds. I've also seen bids recorded from different snipers where one should have gotten a 'Bid to Low' because of the current price and increments. Both were in the bid history because the arrival times were so close together. One was a bid placed by AS, the other, we don't know.

Always add a few odd cents to even bid amounts... Don't bid $20... Make that $20.13, or 20.07 instead.

AS support may pop in and give a straight answer to your question... I'm guessing they won't, but I've been surprised before.

WELCOME to the forum!

Peter B., welcome to our A S forum!

It's like posting on the forum. I started mine first, but Rick finished first.

We'd send both bids at the 5 second mark. Or within milliseconds of that.

Then the randomness of the internet and eBay would kick in and one of the two would be processed by eBay before the other. eBay has many computers answering the bid requests sent to it and use what is called a load balancer device to spread the traffic evenly among their computers. So it's most likely that the 2 bids would be handled by 2 different computers at eBay. Then depending on which was least busy, and which bid got there first one of the two bids would be accepted first by eBay.

Thanks to all who replied! I realize this may be a rare case, but it was very instructive for me to learn the ins and outs of AS.

I hope that someday I'll be a knowledgable contributing member of the forum. Until then I remain an appreciative Newbie.
Peter

quote:

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I hope that someday I'll be a knowledgable contributing member of the forum.

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If you know how to spell “w-e-l-c-o-m-e”, you’re there.

Welcome, Peter. You appear to be a class act.