Didn't win auction, but I'm not sure why: Timestamps.

[mccamira]

I bid on a listing earlier today. I was sniping the auction and lost it to another bidder. When I looked at the bidding  history, it says:

Time Ended: Aug 3, 2022 at 12:34PM PDT

Okay, but the timestamp on the winning bid is: 3 Aug 2022 at 12:34:01pm PDT

That is one second after the auction closed.

The timestamp on my bid is: 3 Aug 2022 at 12:33:59pm PDT

That is one second before the auction ended.

Is it common for ebay to count a bid that comes in after the auction is over? I guess the software has minor lag or something. But this hasn't happened to me before in many years of bidding. So I thought it odd.

Oh, I should add that the winning bid was another snipe, not an automatic bid.

(Not sure if I'm allowed to post a link to the listing.)

[myangelandmyprincess]

The listing ended after 12:34. That time stamp isn't showing the complete down to the second end time. 

[mccamira]

Then how are we to know what time an auction actually ends?

[nobody*s_perfect]

Every auction ends at the exact same time as it started, in hours, minutes and seconds. You can see the full time including seconds at the bottom of the bid history, just above the lowest bid.  The display used to give the full ending time at the top, but that useful piece of information disappeared a couple of months ago.

An auction showing as ending at 12:34 could have an exact end time ranging from 12:34:00 to 12:34:59.  Since a bid was accepted at 12:34:01, the end time must have been that time, or later.

You are allowed to post a link to the listing.

[woodland_gnome · Accepted solution]

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's OK on search results and the like, but they also truncate to the minute on the main Listing Page for the auction, and just recently started doing it on the Bid History Page for the actual endtime (but the bids 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).

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 on that page, and if there has not been a bid the Starting Price line with the start time does not display; copy the item number and paste it into the URL: ebay.co.uk/itm/########## to get the endtime to the second in London time (BST in Summer, GMT in Winter).

[nocoolnamejane]

You know how August  3rd isn’t over until 11:59:59?

Same goes for the time at which auctions end: your auction technically ended at 12:34:59, you placed your bid first at 12:33:59, the highest bidder placed theirs at 12:34:01, with almost a whole minute before auction’s end.

[nobody*s_perfect]

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@nocoolnamejane wrote: ... your auction technically ended at 12:34:59 ...

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@nocoolnamejane 

The auction ended at OR BEFORE 12:34:59.  If would end at 12:34:59 only IF it had started at exactly 12:34:59. But not if it had started earlier, i.e., 12:34:00 through 12:34:58.  Auction end with the same time, in seconds, as they began.

[nocoolnamejane]

Sorry! I got my seconds and milliseconds messed up… shoot, now it’s too late to edit…

[mccamira]

Thanks for the explanation and tips everyone!

The time stated next to Starting Price is: 27 Jul 2022 at 12:34:06pm PDT

so the bidding ended at 6 seconds after the minute. That explains it.

[cheho_4923]

My mom bough a lululemon belt bag on auction we though we had won but when she checked her bids it never said she won or lost anything could you tell me what could have happened

[kathiec]

@cheho_4923 

You tacked this onto an 18-month old thread. You need to start a new thread and include the item number so we can look at the bid history.

[kh-cathy]

Hi everyone,

Due to the age of this thread, it has been closed to further replies. Please feel free to start a new thread if you wish to continue to discuss this topic.

Thank you for understanding.