Bids after ending time

Question

Don't be deceived by eBay policy. Bids ARE accepted after the ending time. If an auction ends at 8:00am they will accept bids until 8:00:59. They say technically the clock still reads 8:00 until it changes to 8:01. They say the seller sets the policy on the time the auction ends. Aren't these supposed to be eBay rules? This allows for sniping and is unacceptable. Don't expect any help from eBay either. They don't seem to care. Too bad because that cost them me as a customer.

woodland_gnome · Answer

eBay's rules are that auctions are scheduled to last exactly x days after they start. They do. You misinterpreted the time display.

Do not assume a precision that isn't indicated. hh:mm is not the same thing as hh:mm:00.000. eBay truncates (rounds down) its time displays to the lower second, minute, or even hour depending on the page you are looking at and in some cases how much time remains. hh:mm could be anywhere from hh:mm:00.000 to hh:mm:59.999 (NOT at hh:mm:59: 59 unless it started at that time y days before). That's OK on search results and the like, but they also truncate to the minute on the main Listing Page for the auction, and just recently started doing it on the Bid History Page for the actual endtime (but the bids are still to the second, confusing things further). I don't like that they display it that way but they are NOT accepting bids that were timestamped after the actual endtime.

Go back to the Bid History (where you found the bid time) and look down at the Starting Price line and you will see that the starting time displayed there was less than or equal to x days (the "Duration" also displayed at the top) earlier to the second. The auction ends x days to the second after the start time (I'm not sure whether that is at the end of that clock second or if it is at the anniversary of the fraction of a second it started to the fraction of a second that eBay keeps a record of on the timestamp to break ties that came in during the same second; I know it is not at the beginning of the second because bids are accepted that bear the same second display as the Start Time).

For an active auction with a bid you can calculate the endtime to the second from the starting time and duration displayed on the Bid History Page IF there has been a bid (there is no direct display of the endtime of an active auction on that page, only for completed auctions).

AND there is nothing wrong with sniping. It is the single best defense against shilling sellers and others who want to run up what you pay to your maximum. AND the endtime display issue does NOT encourage sniping, it only makes it harder to manually snipe if the actual endtime is unknown to the sniper (the countdown is approximately based on the endtime to the second but in my opinion it is not accurate enough to get a snipe in reliably at your target time).

And by the way, the regulars on this board (who are the only ones who can answer someone else's post) are all long-time eBayers who volunteered and were selected to answer questions and give advice here after doing so well on the discussion boards where the general eBay population can respond. We already know how eBay works (at least in our own fields of expertise, and generally in others). If you want to get your message (no matter how wrong it is) out to a wider audience you need to post it on the Buying Discussion Board. Other posters here are only here to get the answer to their particular problem, very few non-Mentors read other people's threads.

eburtonlab · Answer

Bidding ends a set number of days after the auction started down to the exact second. Bids are accepted so long as a bid for a valid amount is received by eBay's server before the auction ends, even if those bids are not displayed on individual bidders' pages around the world until a few seconds later.

For some unknown reason eBay no longer displays the ending time to the second at the top of the bid history page, but if there are any bids you should be able to calculate the actual ending time by examining the starting time of the auction at the bottom of the page. Auctions always begin and end at the same time down to the exact second, unless the auction is ended early by the seller. All bidders have the same time to place valid bids, and no one gets any extra time. eBay time stamps every bid as it is received by eBay, and the times are displayed to the second in the bid history if you use a desktop browser.

If you think you have encountered an auction where a bid was accepted after the end of the auction, examine the starting time closely and compare it to the time the bid was received and you should find that the bid was received before the auction actually ended. If not, please post an item number so that others can see it.

If you bid the maximum amount you are willing to pay (taking into account any shipping or taxes) then the only way you can lose is if someone is willing to bid more than you were and actually does so, or if someone bid the same exact amount, earlier.

No one can count on having the last bid, and bidders should assume that other bids will be placed at the end of the auction too late to be reacted to, and set their bids accordingly.

If your auction countdown is not behaving correctly, check to make sure your computer's time zone is set correctly, and the date and time are synchronized with an internet time server such as time.windows.com or time.nist.gov.

Check your computer's time here:

https://time.is/