About automatic bidding
The bidding end time at 12:00 pm, another bidder offered $327.69 at exactly the same time.
the timing of the bid doesn't look like a normal bidder
It just below my maximum price $330, what a coincidence! because the other bids before that were around $200.
And it ended up being my maximum bid price $330
I was wondering if the $327.69 is reserve price set by seller?
As I have very little experience in bidding, I would appreciate it if someone could expian it.
The item number is 375350316719
13 comments
house*of*paws
·2 years agoHi @nardo_9712
The auction ended at 9:00:01pm PDT. [eBay doesn't always show the 'seconds' ... so you have to look at the Start Time to know exactly when the auction will end.]
You placed your bid 17 seconds before the end. The winner placed their bid 1 second before the end. You both had a similar idea as to what you were willing to spend on the item. YOU won! Congratulations! 😊
Nothing looks hinky. Max bids are hidden from the seller and all other bidders ... so there was no way that the winner had any way to know what you bid ... especially since there only was 16 seconds between your 2 bids. It was more a case of 'Great minds thinking alike'.
bennotbill
·2 years agoPersonally as it's a "private listing" I would have probably avoided it and moved on. If I did bid it would have been in the last few seconds to hopefully avoid any hidden shenanigans.
nardo_9712
OP2 years agoThank you all for your answers. It’s very helpful to me. I appreciate it.
soh.maryl
·2 years agoPerhaps that bidder who "offered $327.69 had already bid a sum above that amount, but his bid only had to be $327.69 to beat the next lowest bid.
In what way does the timing of the bid not look like a normal bidding. Can't figure out what you imply.
But we really need to see the actual auction info like the bid history to help you figure this out.
nardo_9712
OP2 years agoI provide the item number, it was updated in the latest post, you can follow that to check the bidding hostory.
the lowest price is $217. so the $327.6 is far more than that, and he's so close to my $330
nobody*s_perfect
·2 years agoWhy does it surprise you that another bidder also chose to bid more than the minimum? Both of you were apparently willing to pay about the same amount for this item. Snipers are known for bidding their true maximum bid since they know they won't get a chance to bid again if they're outbid; this was demonstrated in this auction, where the snipe bid came in just one second before the auction ended and the sniper lost to an earlier bid (i.e., yours).
If the $327.69 was a reserve price set by seller, then you would have won for exactly that amount, and no separate, later bid for that amount would have been shown.
IMHO this discussion just reinforces the prevailing advice that sellers should not use "Private" listings, because they reinforce bidders' suspicions about seller misbehavior. If this had been a regular auction we would have been able to see information about that $327 underbidder, such as his feedback number, the number of bids on this seller's auctions, etc., which almost certainly would have been reassuring.
soh.maryl
·2 years agoDid you not notice that there were quite a few bids in between those two?
Unavailable member
·2 years agoWithout an item number to see the auction,I couldn't even guess.
nardo_9712
OP2 years agoThe item number is: 375350316719
lacemaker3
·2 years ago@nardo_9712, thanks for sharing the item number.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Minty-Nintendo-Game-Boy-Advance-SP-Handheld-System-Silver-W-Box-Paperwork-Game/375350316719?nordt=true
Here's a link to the bidding history on that auction.
https://www.ebay.com/bfl/viewbids/375350316719?item=375350316719&rt=nc&_trksid=p4429486.m145235.l2565
What we see here is the two primary bidding strategies on eBay going head to head. You placed your maximum bid sorry, in the last minute, ignoring the low(er) bids that had already been made. Then you waited. That is a good bidding strategy, but there's another one that some bidders love ...
The snipe bid. Some bidders love to wait and place their maximum bid in the last few seconds of the auction. They normally bid an odd amount, because they decide what their maximum bid really is, and then add on a few cents as a tie breaker. That is what happened here, and that's why the second high bid is an odd amount. That was a snipe bidder, who really wanted to win that item.
Copngratulations! You beat the sniper! and you did it by less than one bid increment, so your unsuccessful sniper may be cursing about it now. The snipe bidder waits until the last second, but the con to that is that they don't have enough time to react and bid again if their snipe bid is not high enough.
It really isn't that surprising, that two different people settled on maximum bids that are almost the same.
No sign of shill bidding, here.
nardo_9712
OP2 years agoThank you for such a detailed answer. At that time, I thought there was some issue with the automatic bid, so the closing price directly changed to my maximum price.
Maybe it was just a coincidence
lacemaker3
·2 years agoNot really a coincidence no. The sniper bid in the very second, so it is recorded as the bid was placed one second before the auction ended. There is always at least a few seconds delay between when a bid is placed and recorded by eBay's server, and when the new price is transmitted out to everyone's screen who is watching the listing end. When a bid is that late, it can't be shown in real time on a watcher's device. So the listing ends and your browser displays a guesstimate of what the page should be, but if the bidding has changed, then your browser may display incorrect information until the page is refreshed.
nobody*s_perfect
·2 years agoUnder the automatic bidding system, the high bid showing on an auction will be one bid increment above the second-highest bid, UNLESS there is less than one full bid increment difference between the bids. In that case, the higher bid still prevails, at the full amount, as yours did here. (At this price bracket, the bid increment is $5.00.)
I think the closeness of the bids is indeed a coincidence.