cancel
Showing results for 
Show  only  | Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

How does someone steal a bid from me 13 seconds after the close? What can I do to get this reversed

 

How does someone steal a bid from me 13 seconds after the close? What can I do to get this reversed

Message 1 of 3
latest reply
2 REPLIES 2

Re: How does someone steal a bid from me 13 seconds after the close? What can I do to get this reve

EBay auctions are timed to the second not to the minute. 

Message 2 of 3
latest reply

Re: How does someone steal a bid from me 13 seconds after the close? What can I do to get this reve

Nobody stole anything from you.  A TIMELY higher bid was received before the end of the auction.

 

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. That might be OK on search results and the like, but for years now they also truncate to the minute on the main Listing Page for the auction, and more recently started doing it on the Bid History Page for the actual endtime displayed after the end (but the bid times are still to the second, confusing things further).

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) unless something happens to cause it to end earlier (e.g. seller ends early with or without a winner, buyer uses Buy It Now option, etc.).

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 as previously noted that is truncated to the minute and doesn't display the seconds).    You can also see the actual endtime to the second on the COMPLETED Listing Page for the auction (but perversely not on that page when the listing is active and the auction is still running).

Message 3 of 3
latest reply