Hi All,
I did my first AS snipe last week and won an auction so I'm an admitted newbie at this and appreciate your patience and help.
In the auction last week, everything worked as I understood it would.
However, today, on item 140143675711, I placed my maximum bid with AS and was outbid in the last seconds. And that's fine. Win some, lose some, some are rained out. But this time, the process was different than I understood it would be and I need some help understanding what I'm looking at.
In today's auction, AS submitted my maximum bid of $16,679, even though the then-current high bid was only $14,200. AS submitted the bid with 11 seconds left instead of the 7 seconds I specified. And after the auction closed, AS came back with the message "This item is not an auction and can't be sniped."
I searched this board for that message, but the only references were to problems on "Buy It Now" items, which was not the case here.
The only difference that I can see between this item and the one last week is that it was designated as a "Private listing" so it was harder to see when there was a repeat-bidder. Before, the bidders' usernames were cloaked with "Bidder no. 1", "Bidder no. 2", etc. but it wasn't designated as a "private listing."
Also, the eBay page that lists the bids says "Only actual bids (not automatic bids generated up to a bidder's maximum) are shown" which was not the case in the earlier auction.
I understand the verification process that eBay requires for bids over $15,000, and I've complied with those requirements, so that shouldn't be the problem.
I'm just trying to understand the mechanics and the process. Specifically:
1. With $14,200 as the high bid with 46 seconds left, why did AS jump my bid to my maximum $16,679 instead of $14,300?
2. Why did AS place my bid with 11 seconds instead of the 7 seconds I specified?
3. What does "This item is not an auction and can't be sniped" mean, as it clearly was not a "Buy It Now" or a "Make Best Offer" listing? How would I identify an "auction" that isn't actually an "auction" in advance so as not to expect AS to snipe it for me?
I appreciate your help.
Many thanks,
Bob Bridges
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