Out Bid - Trying to Understand Why

EVO, welcome to the forum!

The bidding history can be very confusing. First, the bids are not displayed in day/time order, they are displayed in amount order. Next you must understand proxy bidding.

The winning price and the current price on eBay are often NOT the highest max. eBay uses only as much of your bid as is necessary to get/stay in the lead. This is called Proxy Bidding.

>Click Here< to learn about 'Proxy Bidding' on eBay.

Go ahead click the above link, I'll wait...

Lets suppose there is an auction with an opening price of 9.99. Someone known as bobs sees the item and bids $10 on it. Since they are the only bidder so far, eBay will show the current price to be 9.99. (opening amount) Even though they bid $10.00, it only requires 9.99 to be in the lead, so that is the current price.

Some devilboy comes along and places a bid for $33.99. Even though their bid was very high, eBay only displays a current price of 10.50. (one bid increment above bobs max of 10.00.) At this time, in only takes $10.50 to get/stay in the lead, so their true max is hidden and nobody knows that max except for the bidder... and eBay of course. devilboy is now the current high bidder and the current price displayed on eBay is 10.50.

A third bidder who goes by newdreams joins in. They see the current price on eBay as 10.50 and place a $14 max bid. eBay does their proxy thing and automatically raise the current price to $14.50 and shows devilboy still in the lead. Remember him? he was the one that bid almost $34. That $33.99 max still applies, but it now only requires $14.50 to get/stay in the lead. (14.50 is one bid increment above newdreams max of 14.00) eBay would show devilboy in the lead and a current price of 14.50.

Now bobs (the first bidder) comes back and 'holy smokes!' sees the price has gone to 14.50. He raises his trivial $10 max to $17.00. eBay again does their proxy thing and raises the current price to $17.50. Evil devilboy! eBay now shows devilboy (second bidder) STILL in the lead with a current price of $17.50 (one bid increment above bobs new max).

Here is the entire auction. Pay particular attention to the last two columns.

The following table has been reorganized and sorted into date order.  First
bid placed is line #1.  That should make it easier to follow the auction.
Two additional columns have been calculated and added.  They are the current 
bid and high bidder, as displayed on eBay after each bid is placed.        v2.1.08
* = Winning bid. (may be less than actual maximum entered.)
 
                     Max                       Current Winning
  #    Bidder        Bid      Day & Time        Bid  &  Bidder
                   (US $)
  1   bobs6491      10.00   04-Aug  20:54:42    9.99   bobs6491      
  2   devilboy3     33.99   05-Aug  06:38:21   10.50   devilboy3     
  3   newdreams2    14.00   07-Aug  17:24:04   14.50   devilboy3     
  4   bobs6491      17.00   08-Aug  12:44:40   17.50   devilboy3     
  5   a60metro      23.75   09-Aug  17:18:11   24.25   devilboy3     
  6   talltexanmat  33.00   10-Aug  04:36:48   33.99   devilboy3     
  7   talltexanmat  36.00   10-Aug  04:37:14   34.99   talltexanmat 
  8   2peas_in_the  36.00   10-Aug  21:12:09   36.00   talltexanmat 
  9   sidest       *53.49   11-Aug  07:45:13   37.00   sidest        
 10   cinquante-sf  52.49   11-Aug  19:37:57   53.49   sidest  

At the time your bid was placed, eBay showed sidest in the lead and a current price of $37. Your bid of $52.49 was far above the displayed bid of $37, but still less than sidest's max amount. (like what evilboy did to everyone at the begining of the auction) We don't know what sidest's max truly was because eBay only shows the amount needed to get/stay in the lead. Their bid could have been $60, $80, $100, or even more.

Get it?

Evo, we get this scenario all the time (where people think the bid was not present during the auction) from new eBay/AS members. Puppy has an excellent analysis above. Once you get used to eBay's method of listing bid histories, you understand better.

A snipe is the absolute max you are willing to pay. You only get one chance, so you must be sure to bid that max. I recommend that you decide that max in advance and walk away, rather than setting and resetting it. Otherwise, you may get drawn into the nibblers' game, which is what we snipers seek to avoid.

Welcome to the forum. And I commend you for the courteous and levelheaded way in which you asked your question. Sometimes folks who were outbid come in here less than courteously, blaming AS, etc., when they simply do not understand how proxy bidding works. Keep coming back!