winning bids hidden

[clevelandite69]

I am suspicious that when people are bidding on an item, they show part of their identity. But when I bid at the end, it looks like I am winning for a lower price but they say they are determining the winner. Then they tell me I won, but at a higher price than was shown. And when I look at the bidders, they have all turned private. What gives?

[shipscript]

eBay will hide the identities of bidders from each other, but you will always be able to see your own identity.

Many bidders wait until the last moment to place a bid or "snipe".  So there could be a lot of action at the very end. eBay will evaluate all of the proxy bids (essentially, the highest bid placed by each bidder), and determine who was the highest and earliest to bid that price. The highest bidder need only beat out the next highest bidder, so this does not necessarily mean that the winning bidder reached the highest bid they had entered.