no bids then out bid by an earlier bid?

misty

I just saw an item I fancied - which had no bids. I bid on it but was instantly outbid. I thought it was odd but thought maybe someone was just bidding at the same time. I bid again and am currently the highest bidder. I looked at the bid history whick looks like this

bid 1) me 14/10/06 - time
bid2) them 12/10/06 - time
bid 3) me 14/10/06 - time

How can someone out bid me with an earlier bid - when there were no bids on the item?

Hope I've explained this - I know I can be outbid and an earlier bid takes precedence but there were no bids.

Incidentally - and I don't know if this is relevant - I've been outbid by someone with 0 feedback

Any ideas - greatly received.

Hintza

EBay server problem? (or similar) Is the only explanation I can think of.

Moglex

I've noticed that if you look at a list of auctions (search result or watch list), it's very often wrong.

No matter how many times you refresh it you'll still find that the index says one thing but the actual auction page says another.

You may have been caught out by that effect.

angelcake

Hi, it does sound like ebay were probably a bit slow on loading the other bids up!I have never heard of this happening!!

SkipClick

Don't for get their are internet sites like Auction Steller which makes you win the auction. :A

victory

there are people that put bids in and when the bids starts up that is when their previous bid also starts, there are programmes that they can go into and bid in the future

Moglex

Moglex wrote:

I've noticed that if you look at a list of auctions (search result or watch list), it's very often wrong.

No matter how many times you refresh it you'll still find that the index says one thing but the actual auction page says another.

You may have been caught out by that effect.

Actually, belay that explanation. I've never seen the index out by 2 days!

I find the way they list bids can be quite hard to follow and not 100% consistent. (i.e why does the highest bidder sometimes appear twice at the top of the list with the same amount and other times appear just once?)

redballoon_2

I find the way they list bids can be quite hard to follow and not 100% consistent. (i.e why does the highest bidder sometimes appear twice at the top of the list with the same amount and other times appear just once?)


The highest bidder can appear twice but with the same amount, as they would have put in a higher bid.

Moglex

redballoon wrote:

The highest bidder can appear twice but with the same amount, as they would have put in a higher bid.

Erm, if they put in a higher bid, why is the amount the same

GabbaGabbaHey

Moglex wrote:

Erm, if they put in a higher bid, why is the amount the same

Because this is how proxy bidding (which eBay uses) works.

You cannot "outbid" yourself, so if you are the high bidder, and you then place a further bid (perhaps to avoid being outbid later), you will still show as bidding at the original price.

(For the pedants, there is an exception to this - where the original bid was less than one bid increment above the underbidder. In this case the second bid from the high bidder will change the high bid to one bid increment above the previous bid.)

Moglex

GabbaGabbaHey wrote:

Because this is how proxy bidding (which eBay uses) works.

You cannot "outbid" yourself, so if you are the high bidder, and you then place a further bid (perhaps to avoid being outbid later), you will still show as bidding at the original price.

Sorry, I'm probably being unusually dense today but that still doesn't answer my question:

Why do you see certain bid histories where the same person appears twice with the same amount each time, these bids being next to each other?

This only happens when the bidder is the current highest.