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Automatic Bidding?

Bigun28
Posts: 475 Forumite


I was bidding on something this morning in the last 10 seconds of an auction and was outbid by a bid that had been placed about 5 minutes earlier, but the bidder wasn't previously showing on the bid list. I had kept refreshing the bid list to keep track of what was going on and the seller had set e-bay to only record the bidders as Bidder 1, Bidder 2 etc.
When I put my bid in, there were only 5 Bidders on the go, with a max bid sat at £155.03 for Bidder 4. At 10 seconds to go, I put my bid in of £176.23 and was outbid immediately by Bidder 6 with £181.23, which was exactly by the £5 increment set by e-Bay at that level, and I lost the item.
When I looked back at the bidding history, Bidder 6 was nowhere in the bidding and had actually placed their bid some 5 minutes before mine (as shown by the timing displayed for the bid placement) but it hadn't shown up on the bidding list even though it outbid the previous highest bid set by Bidder 4 of £155.03. It only appeared when I put my bid in.
At first I thought it was sniping, but they normally appear in the last 5 seconds or so and the time of the bid placement shows that.
So is there some other way that an automatic bid can be placed that I'm not aware of? I know about sniping and how that works, but how can a bid be placed say 5 minutes before the end and not actually be bid on the item until the final seconds of the auction, yet still show that it was bid some 5 minutes earlier and not appear on the bidding list?
When I put my bid in, there were only 5 Bidders on the go, with a max bid sat at £155.03 for Bidder 4. At 10 seconds to go, I put my bid in of £176.23 and was outbid immediately by Bidder 6 with £181.23, which was exactly by the £5 increment set by e-Bay at that level, and I lost the item.
When I looked back at the bidding history, Bidder 6 was nowhere in the bidding and had actually placed their bid some 5 minutes before mine (as shown by the timing displayed for the bid placement) but it hadn't shown up on the bidding list even though it outbid the previous highest bid set by Bidder 4 of £155.03. It only appeared when I put my bid in.
At first I thought it was sniping, but they normally appear in the last 5 seconds or so and the time of the bid placement shows that.
So is there some other way that an automatic bid can be placed that I'm not aware of? I know about sniping and how that works, but how can a bid be placed say 5 minutes before the end and not actually be bid on the item until the final seconds of the auction, yet still show that it was bid some 5 minutes earlier and not appear on the bidding list?
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Comments
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When you bid and enter the max price you want to pay, ebay will bid upto that amount for you which is why you were outbid and it shows as they bid it before you bidded. If that makes sense?Wins so far this year: Mum to be bath set, follow me Domino Dog, Vital baby feeding set, Spiderman goody bag, free pack of Kiplings cakes, £15 love to shop voucher, HTC Desire, Olive oil cooking spray, Original Source Strawberry Shower Gel, Garnier skin care hamper, Marc Jacobs fragrance.0
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also it is ebay that has set it to only show bidder 1 , bidder 2 etc not the sellerWins so far this year: Mum to be bath set, follow me Domino Dog, Vital baby feeding set, Spiderman goody bag, free pack of Kiplings cakes, £15 love to shop voucher, HTC Desire, Olive oil cooking spray, Original Source Strawberry Shower Gel, Garnier skin care hamper, Marc Jacobs fragrance.0
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When you bid and enter the max price you want to pay, ebay will bid upto that amount for you which is why you were outbid and it shows as they bid it before you bidded. If that makes sense?
Thanks for that and I understand how that bidding works, which is why I would have expected to see Bidder 6 somewhere in the bidding list before I had placed my bid.
As it was Bidder 6 had apparently placed their bid some 5 minutes previously to mine, but their bid nor the name Bidder 6 were showing up on the bidding list, despite me refreshing every few seconds.
They only appeared immediately as I placed my bid, and then it became apparent that they had actually placed the bid some 5 minutes before. That's why I'm trying to work out how it was done.
It's almost like they were sniping, but there was a 5 minute delay between the bid being placed and then actually showing up on the bidding list.0 -
Only thing I can think of is the EBay servers were having a problem and didn't update??0
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