Explain how an auction works cus this doesn't make sense

[briabian]

I put in my max bid in this case $75. Up until 10 seconds before the end of the bidding the high bid is $43. At 1 second left the bid is now $74. The bidding ends. And I lose to a $76 bid? Eventhough a $74 was the last number shown? 

How do I win an auction when any bid I make gets outbid post auction end?

This doesnt make sense to me.

I understand people like to snipe but how does the high bid increase AFTER the end of the bidding time???

Explain it to me like I'm  5. I havent been using ebay that long.

[ebooksdiva]

Without seeing the auction since you didn't post the item number I can only guess what happened.
It sounds like a bid sniper got in on the auction during the last seconds and bid what they were willing to pay which was more than you were willing to pay. 
If you post the item number it would help tremendously.

[briabian]

But at the end of the auction the last number shown was mine.

[briabian]

186764941547

[ebooksdiva · Accepted solution]

Item number please  

The winning bidder may have placed a proxy bid higher than your bid earlier in the auction. But without actually seeing the bid history on the auction I can only guess. 

[stainlessenginecovers]

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@briabian wrote:

But at the end of the auction the last number shown was mine

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 Simply put- it doesn't matter. Your bid was NOT the highest. 

Next time, bid HIGHER. 

Another reason that nobody likes to hear is that 

a.) the timer is off

b.) the time between you seeing and ebay reality is different

Again, doesn't matter. 

BID higher if you REALLY want it. If not- don't worry about it- it sold for MORE than you were willing to pay. 

[briabian]

What is a proxy bid?

[kathiec]

@briabian 

EBay's servers aren't instantaneous. It takes them a bit to catch up with bids placed in the last few seconds of a listing. So it's not uncommon for the final high bid to display a few seconds after the auction end time. It's simply a byproduct of sniping and computer lag time.

If you look at the bid history, keeping in mind that auction end times are calculated as hh:mm:ss, you'll see that a bid was placed in the last five seconds or so of the listing. And you have no idea if that bid was $76; the only part of a proxy bid used is enough to make it one bid increment above the next highest bid.

[ebooksdiva]

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@briabian wrote:

But at the end of the auction the last number shown was mine.

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After looking at the auction. No yours was not the last bid in. As I said in my previous post a bidder came in just as the auction was ending and won 13 Nov 2024 at 5:00:00pm PST. That bidder nibble bid until they went over your last bid. 
Your last bid was at 13 Nov 2024 at 4:33:49pm PST a 1/2 hour before auction end. 

Screen shot proves it 

[briabian]

So ebay server lag time **bleep**ed me is what I am gathering here

[ebooksdiva]

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@briabian wrote:

What is a proxy bid?

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Proxy bidding, also known as maximum bidding, occurs when bidders have the option to set a maximum price that they would be willing to pay for an item and then allow the computer system to bid for them by the bid increment until someone places a higher bid than their maximum.

[ebooksdiva]

Your last bid was just under a half hour before the auction ended leaving time for someone one else to bid until they outbid you. 

[briabian]

When i placed that bid it was a $75 bid and the max at that time was 34 or 43 or something.

[briabian]

Sounds to me like watching an auction end to see if I need to raise my bid is meaningless. Just set my max as high as I want and forget the auction exists until it ends is the strategy.

[stainlessenginecovers]

Post #9 tells the story. You didn't bid high enough. Someone else bid much higher (could have been $200 for all you know) RIGHT on the 5:00 stop time. 

So, post #6 as I stated:

BID HIGHER ahead of time!!