quote:
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Why would I have searched eBay for something if I thought I could just come here and get the answer, toot sweet?
I take it by the last line you mean
tout de suite (right away)? I think the short answer is that people were trying to point out that in the time you took to post the question here and await a response, you could simply have gone to eBay help, typed in the words "proxy outbid" or whatever, and gotten your answer
tout de suite, even more quickly than you would here. I do not think they were trying to be condescending.
Also, lately we have received more and more new AS users who are obviously also new to eBay, and often they do not yet fully understand how eBay's bidding system works, so it is sometimes difficult to explain the AS-eBay dynamic to them. Your question about proxy outbids suggested that you are also new to eBay.
When you are proxy outbid, it simply means that your snipe lost to a higher bid, one that was placed earlier in the auction, possibly even days before. It is a reminder that one must have the highest bid to win, not the last. But we snipe for the simple fact that many (or most) eBay bidders do not bid the most they are willing to pay, but just enough to make them the high bidder. Though they are willing to bid higher and pay more, they get caught with their pants down when we snipe at the last minute.