Sniping at last 30 seconds

Question

I enter a bid to counter in last 30 seconds and it never goes through to EBAY. In a regular auction, my bid would hold buy not on this crazy site. So I think I am going to stop bidding here. It is useless to even try to go against those who game the system. So sick of it. Third time I have lost. Moving on to buy elsewhere.

woodland_gnome · Answer

As you have found out, eBay auctions are not what you call "regular auctions". Don't bid like they are. There are many auction formats and each requires its own strategy.

Bid your TRUE maximum that you are willing and able to pay for that particular item as listed (don't forget to back out shipping etc.) WITHOUT REGARD to what others appear or don't appear to have bid. There is absolutely no need to figure out what others have or haven't bid or might bid* in determining your bid amount, since it ALREADY will have been figured into the price if you win. While some claim tactical reasons to place a lower bid early in the auction and then wait until near the end to bid your full TRUE maximum, I advise bidding only 1 time (can't repeat it enough: at your TRUE maximum) because you are never guaranteed a rebid (and there are circumstances where the prior bid prevents a rebid on that same auction). For several reasons later bidding is better than early bidding (doesn't use up your Limits, keeps your options open, doesn't leave your hidden maximum available for others, including dishonest sellers, to probe by "nibbling" at it) and I recommend using a third party "snipe service" (do a websearch, there are reliable and secure ones that are free for limited use or there are different fee schedules that best suit your bidding quantity and ratio of wins) to place your bid during the last few seconds using eBay's API rather than the not especially reliable web interface or, worse, mobile app.

*(other than to assume someone else will value the item about the same as you, so bid a bit ABOVE any round or roundish number you come up with to increase your chances of being on the winning side of what might have been a tie or a loss to someone else who knows this tip)

disneyshopper · Answer

You need to decide the most you are willing to pay and bid that amount ONE time. It does not matter when you place your bid. It is the highest bid that wins, not the last bid.

eburtonlab · Answer

What happens when you place a bid in the last thirty seconds?

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.

You can check to see if your PC's clock is synchronized here:

https://time.is/