Time when auctions end

[goodslides]

Why does E-bay not give a time when auctions end?  For instance, E-bay gives 9:54; but that is not a time.  9:54 PST would be a time.  Without a time zone, the number is ambiguous.  Is it local time of the bidder; is it local time of the seller; is it Greenwich Mean Time; is it a time zone that we have to guess?  

[eburtonlab]

The time zone may vary depend on what page you are looking at.

For auctions with bids, check the bid history by clicking on the number of bids using a desktop browser.

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. Note that the countdown displayed on your device and the bids you see are not updated in real time, and just because you did not see any other bids when your clock reaches zero does not mean that eBay did not receive other bids at the last moment.

You have not won until the page refreshes and you see a note indicating that you have been declared the winner and you see a link to pay or your payment is take automatically. A note indicating you are the high bidder issued while the auction is still ongoing is not the same as being declared the winner by eBay after the auction has ended.

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

Check your computer's time here:

https://time.is/

Problems with your device's time can cause problems when bidding at the end of an auction.

[woodland_gnome]

eBay is really really bad about time displays.   To see the most accurate display of auction endtime (IF the auction has at least one bid) go to the Bid History Page on the full website (which gives the times in Pacific Time).  It will not have the endtime specifically stated while the auction is active (only a time remaining display) but when there is a bid you can add the "Duration" (displayed to the right end of the line with the time remaining) to the starting time (displayed on the line at the bottom showing the Starting Price--but unfortunately that line does not display if there are 0 bids) to get the endtime to the second.*  ALL other displays of endtime of a running auction are truncated to the lower minute or even further--only once the auction ends is the endtime to the second  displayed on the completed Listing Page--even the endtime display on the Bid History Page is truncated to the minute causing too many bidders to come here griping about bids being accepted after HH:MM:00.   

The timezone is selected differently on different pages.  If it doesn't say it's PST or PDT (or the timezone of the main city on the particular eBay country site you are looking on--ebay.ca is Eastern Time, ebay.co.uk in London time of GMT or BST, etc.) it is most likely converted to  what it thinks is your local time (but can guess wrong if your time settings are wrong).

*ETA:  But it gets complicated if a switch between Standard and Daylight Time occurs in California (or the city of the stated timezone) while the auction is still running:  I think it used to run for exactly x (Duration in days) times 24 hours (to the second or fraction thereof) but I noticed this past Fall that that was not the case, at least for that change where the auctions were given an extra  hour so that the displayed hour numeral would be the same as for the displayed start time numeral (that there are two 2:00:00 to 2:59:59 a.m.'s in each time zone at the "Fall back" time might also have entered into that decision).  My hypothesis is that they will not do that for "Spring forward" as that would reduce the auction time rather than extend it (I just set a calendar task to remind me to check that next month).