eBay Testing Extended "Soft-Close" Auctions For Trading Cards

[valueaddedresource]

FYI - it looks like eBay is testing extended soft-close auctions on select items in Trading Cards.

https://www.ebay.com/help/buying/bidding/bidding?id=4003

"We're currently testing extending auction durations by 2 minutes when a bid is placed in the last 2 minutes of an auction. This test will apply to select items in the Trading Cards category. Please make sure you're on the latest version of the app to see this feature."

It's not clear exactly when the test started, but a version of that page from the Internet Archive dated June 21st does not show the banner, so it would appear to be a very recent change.

[short_circuit.lineman61]

the sport bidders are going to love this, they will be able to just keep on bidding.

[dhbookds]

lol..........so some people have asked for this forever........will be interesting to see what happens.

[valueaddedresource]

Also worth noting that eBay already does something similar for auctions run through eBay Live , where sellers have the option to enable extended bidding which adds an extra 5 seconds if a bid is placed in the last 5 seconds of the auction.

Not sure if the test on regular auctions is at the sellers' discretion, but if they do decide to extend this test or roll it out sitewide, hopefully they will allow it to be an option for sellers like it is on eBay Live, not mandatory.

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

@valueaddedresource  Good catch. It will be interesting to see if this goes from test to feature. And then it will be interesting to see if it is limited to trading cards, or to "focus categories", or will it be universal on the site.

Time will tell.

Who knows? Maybe this will give them something to announce at Vegas.

[selsa84]

No no no. This is a horrible idea. The end is nigh.

[cardsforauction]

I think they did this test in the past, because I've bid at the last few seconds and then time was supposed to run out and then suddenly a few more seconds was added on and I lost the item in some cases.  I don't see how this is good for bidders.  This is a benefit for sellers only and that's the point.  As a buyer, I can care less if the auction is labeled "hot auction" and then many bidders show up and raise the price.  I guess every seller is going to set up this auction style just like the Auto-pay.   

[valueaddedresource]

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@cardsforauction wrote:

I think they did this test in the past, because I've bid at the last few seconds and then time was supposed to run out and then suddenly a few more seconds was added on and I lost the item in some cases.  I don't see how this is good for bidders.  This is a benefit for sellers only and that's the point.  As a buyer, I can care less if the auction is labeled "hot auction" and then many bidders show up and raise the price.  I guess every seller is going to set up this auction style just like the Auto-pay.   

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@cardsforauction  yeah it's tough to say for sure.

We've seen occasional posts here in the community from buyers who are frustrated that someone else was able place a bid a few seconds after the auction was supposed to have ended and they have usually been chalked up to either a glitch or just lag time in eBay loading/refreshing the page - just one recent example:

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Ask-a-Mentor/ebay-buyer-for-30-years-and-I-m-livid/m-p/35150372

Generally speaking, I think that explanation probably holds true for the vast majority of instances where buyers have encountered that issue.

It's of course always possible they have run previously undisclosed testing on this as well, but in that case I would think it would likely extend the auction more than a few seconds, given that this test uses 2 minute increments.

I know the eBay Live version is much shorter at only 5 seconds, but that's a livestream auction where buyers are "in attendance" and actively participating in real time which is a very different thing from a standard auction on eBay and I don't think such a short period of time would really work for standard auctions.

[bennotbill]

Extending auction times..

This will END badly.😀

I don't think the ebay "auction style" is suitable for this. It isn't at all like a live auction. If this were to spread across the ebay auction format I think it would be the auctions death knell. That would inevitably follow after endless complaints. Top would be the end of sniping, and sellers twiddling their thumbs - when is my auction going to end.

[short_circuit.lineman61]

online auctions like hibid also allow the seller to see what the bidders max bid is, I wonder if they will adopt that feature also.

[cardsforauction]

That would be game over for some buyers.   What's the point of bidding if the seller ( or associates of the seller)  know your max bid?  This opens up to shill bidding, fake bids to raise prices on buyers.  I would be cautious to bid on items, if the prices always went to my max bid or more.  

[doc-holmes]

Oh, what an absolute pain. 

[a_c_green]

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@valueaddedresource wrote:
We've seen occasional posts here in the community from buyers who are frustrated that someone else was able place a bid a few seconds after the auction was supposed to have ended and they have usually been chalked up to either a glitch or just lag time in eBay loading/refreshing the page - just one recent example:

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Ask-a-Mentor/ebay-buyer-for-30-years-and-I-m-livid/m-p/35150372

Generally speaking, I think that explanation probably holds true for the vast majority of instances where buyers have encountered that issue.

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The problem is actually more clear than that. The Time Remaining countdown is based on the difference between the stated End Time of the auction and your own computer's clock time setting. That's intended to eliminate the risk of lag time messing up the final countdown as seen on your own machine. The ticking seconds of countdown are generated locally on your machine, not sent down the line to you in real time.

If your computer clock is running a little faster than the actual time, then the Time Remaining will show a little less than it should. Worse, if your computer clock is running behind the actual time, then the auction may have already ended when you try to get a last-second snipe bid into play. Thus it's important to verify that your computer clock time is accurate by synchronizing it with one of the available time sources on-line.

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@valueaddedresource wrote:
I know the eBay Live version is much shorter at only 5 seconds, but that's a livestream auction where buyers are "in attendance" and actively participating in real time which is a very different thing from a standard auction on eBay and I don't think such a short period of time would really work for standard auctions.

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Yes, the open-outcry style of live auctions is certainly done as a soft-close operation (and that 5 seconds of time extension corresponds to roughly how long it takes for an auctioneer to say "Going... going... *whack* Gone!"). But trying to apply that same soft close to a time-limited on-line auction strikes me as a recipe for disaster.

Here's the thread from 2017 where this idea was discussed to death. My response is #7 in the conversation below: 

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Extend-the-auction-by-three-minutes-when-a-bid-is-placed-with-... 

[valueaddedresource]

Thanks for that explanation @a_c_green , that makes a lot of sense.  And thanks for that old thread, I suspect we'll see much the same reaction to this latest test too.

Funny in your response back then you mentioned that it likely wouldn't take much time for enterprising individuals to create programs to automatically keep the bidding going.

I've seen more than a few suggestions across social media already today that popular sniping programs will likely just build in a feature to make a bid at the last second, then another bid 1 min 59 sec after that etc. so yeah...you were right on the money. 😂

[a_c_green]

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@valueaddedresource wrote:

Funny in your response back then you mentioned that it likely wouldn't take much time for enterprising individuals to create programs to automatically keep the bidding going.

I've seen more than a few suggestions across social media already today that popular sniping programs will likely just build in a feature to make a bid at the last second, then another bid 1 min 59 sec after that etc. so yeah...you were right on the money. 😂

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Yes, I spent a few decades in the tech industry, and I can assure you that whenever someone comes up with a new idea, someone else will have already coded a solution to either take advantage of it or totally subvert it, one way or another. 😆