Ebay bid clock differential?
LandrysFedora
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Wasn't sure what forum this subject belonged on so I will post here since I would guess most of the folks here either use or have used Ebay auctions. Last week I bid on an auction item with a few seconds left thinking I was in good shape with my late bid, I watch my bid clock tick to 0:00 and am awaiting final results. At this time I see the clock on the item with :12 left and counting down still as someone outbid me. I chalked this up to I must have made a mistake. Then yesterday it happened again same exact scenario. So now I look at it a lot closer and realize there is a 12 second difference between my bid clock and the item clock. Has anyone experienced this? And if so how did you resolve? Contact Ebay? I have lost 2 auctions now due to this
Comments
I have always, and I do mean ALWAYS used a snipe service to avoid the potential of exactly what you just experienced. There are free snipe services, whose address I've forgotten, but a well placed inquiry will have somebody replying with the service contact info. There are those who think sniping is some form of cheating, I am not in that camp. What if you travelled a lot, or had an issue where you couldn't be near a computer?? A snipe service allows you to place snipes well into the future and all you have to do is place a wise bid and hope for the best. If, for instance you live on the East Coast, and a seller happens to live in Oregon, and he/she ends their bid at 10PM, surely you wouldn't stay up till 1AM to watch a clock tick down with your finger on the enter button with a few seconds left. Snipe, the only way to go.
BTW, assuming I really, really wanted the item, I placed bids that were high enough that I could live with. I looked at the list of bids and bidders, how they increased their bids and how often they bid. It just kinda gave me an idea of the interest in the item, of course there are many times a winning bid does come from out of the blue. Example...if it was a $100 card that I'd been searching for quite sometime, and I just had to have it for my set, or whatever, and the bidding was near the card value, I'd place maybe a $139.56 bid, anticipating someone else was going to go high as well. Am I happy with paying a higher cost for a tough card? Yes. You just have to know you can live with paying more for a lower valued card. I also always, always checked PSA for the latest card sales of the card and the POP of the card. If a similar card hadn't sold in some time, and it had low POP in that grade, it gave me more info to formulate my pricing. DO NOT USE SMR!!!
If you've lost 2 auctions, it is highly unlikely you can't unwind the clock and retrieve the item. They are both long gone, probably paid for and you're back to square one.
I've experienced this many times, there is a difference in time with the clocks and it has caused me to lose a few auctions in the past. I usually get my bid in with about 30 seconds to go and I bid so high that no one can surpass me, of course I only bid on really rare cards and I'm usually willing to spend ridiculous amounts to get them, which my wife hates! If you're on a budget then MCMLVTopps is right, use a sniping service, it will automatically put your bid in for you on a set time, most of the other bidders are using a snipe service anyway, so it's fair.
Thank you sir. Good advice there! I will look into a snipe service just for the fact that I work outside in the field and don't always have access to a computer or even my phone.
I have used Gixen as my Snipe service for the last 3 years or so. has worked great and never missed a bid. you can have them place your bid with as few as 3 seconds left. there is a free version and a paid service. the paid service is only around 10-15$ for 2 years if I remember correctly. it includes a mirroring service for just in case.
George Brett, Roger Clemens and Tommy Brady.
Could that delay be due to all the different snipe bids with just seconds left?
Gixen. And the guy who owns it is in England I believe and is an excellent communicator. He tells you when to use a backup service when he is doing software updates.
I must admit I've never had any such issues. I've bid with 3 seconds left, 2 seconds left and never had an instance where the counter reset. Could it have something to do with your internet provider?
I'm leaning toward it being an Ebay issue but I'm not 100% on that. I actually simulated a bidding scenario where I didn't bid just to see what would happen. The bid clock went to 0 and then began counting forward to :12 when the auction actually ended. It's the weirdest thing.. I have been bidding on Ebay for years and this just started happening to me. I am going to call Ebay and see if this is an issue they are aware of.
I guess anything is possible. It's the weirdest thing. I am going to call Ebay and see if this is something they are aware of or an issue on my end..