General

Topic Did something change with Ebay bidding?

sa330206

16-Feb-2023(#1)

In the last week or so I have noticed something weird with Ebay. It doesn't matter how close to 1 second I bid, I nearly always lose. My most recent example is I had open the item and refreshed with about 45 seconds left. I hit "place bid" to bring up the bid box and waited until there was 2 seconds left. I entered my bid with 2 seconds on the clock and watched it tick down to 0 and show me as the winner. Then the page did a quick auto-reload and I watched 2 seconds get added to the time (it went from 0 seconds, back to 2, then down to 0) and I was outbid at the last second.

Another recent example is when I made a bid on an item, watched the timer go to 0 and it showed I won. Then when I refreshed again, I still won but someone snuck in another bid which made me have to pay another $5.

I am really curious if something has changed.. for example if a bid is placed within the last few seconds it adds more time to the clock? I know I'm not crazy because I've been using Ebay for over 20 years and have never run into this behavior until recently.

nonamesleft

16-Feb-2023(#2)

So your bids are going through, but you're constantly being outbid?

sa330206

16-Feb-2023(#3)

The issue is stated in the OP. Place a bid, watch the clock go to 0, then time is added and more bids come in.

tommy1212

16-Feb-2023(#4)

Did you check the bid history to see if it correlates to what you're saying? Maybe something wrong on your end or the script on eBay that shows the time? I use eBay quite a bit and have never noticed this. I'm actually surprised eBay hasn't moved to a format like Bidfta, where time keeps getting added the more people bid last second, they would definitely make more money doing this.

sa330206

16-Feb-2023(#5)

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Ask-a-Mentor/Extra-3...

I'm definitely not the only one but it does seem to be some kind of timing/sync issue. My device times must be slightly off from ebays.

Someone in that thread also pointed out they started getting the "we are determining the winner, please refresh the page" recently too. I also started getting that in the last several months as well.

You can get some good deals bidding on auctions but I can see why a lot of people stick with buy it nows only.

Noid

* 16-Feb-2023(#6)

I started using Gixen (check it out here) a few years ago and never looked back. It takes all the stress and time involvement outta eBay bidding. Long before the auction ends, I log into Gixen, paste the unique eBay item number, place a generous snipe, and, in the immortal words of Ron Popeil, "set it and forget it!" Now, fast forward to mere seconds before the auction's end and, day or night, the system automatically does its thing without me so much as batting an eyelash. It. is. a. game-changer and I can't recommend it enough. I've recently gone so far as to pay the seven bucks for their annual subscription service so I can add a second snipe as an intentional redundancy in case the first one, somehow, doesn't work (which, for me, has never happened). Check it out by clicking on the image below!
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Anxiouz

* 16-Feb-2023(#7)

There are bots/tools that let people force in bids at the last possible second. Humans don't stand a chance refreshing and hoping things load in on time. It's been a thing for a decade but has gotten more efficient over time.

I only do BIN now, the deals found by bidding and waiting have been so few and far between that I just BIN. I've won so few auctions in the past many years that it's literally not worth my time to try to save a few bucks and deal with all of that. Or if I don't like that price I check Amazon and Mercari for other options. Mercari's fees and odd shipping costs have gotten worse but sometimes there are deals there.

benstylus

17-Feb-2023(#8)

I second using Gixen. You have already made the choice to snipe an auction by waiting until the last moment. May as well automate the process.

One of the other features I like the Noid didn't mention is grouping. You can set a bid to be part of a group so that if you win one of them, it won't bid on any of the rest of them. Very useful if you want a specific game; set bids on several copies and once you win one, you are done.

For your specific issue, it sounds more like a syncing problem between your computer and ebay's servers.

If you know the exact time the auction was scheduled to end, check the bid history. The auction end time and bidding timestamps will confirm or refute your suspicions as to whether time was added.

mcorrado

17-Feb-2023(#9)

Don't know if you have the app, but it seems to present more accurately in terms of when a bid changes, you don't have to refresh