eBay??

[mooneyes]

When did eBay start extending auctions times? In the last few days I've lost 2 cards after I bid with 5 seconds left and suddenly the timer goes back to over a minute, and other people bid some more. It was weird because another one got bid up right to the exact amount I bid. I won that one but it was for exactly the most I was willing to pay.

I'm guessing it is to prevent so called sniping but if you do all the effort to track an auction and than take the time to time your bid just right, there's no point to do that anymore. I assume they are trying to encourage a bidding war in the last minute, but that doesn't interest me very much.
Maybe when I get around to selling some cards I might think it's alright...but as a buyer, so much for getting up early to get the occasional deal, which was fun.

[Cunnuc]

I am unsure on what you are talking about. I have not come across this yet. I don't think I've 'sniped' an auction for about a week so I haven't seen the to-the-last-second countdown.

I certainly hope this is not the case as a buyer. As a seller who just had 250+ auctions that ended Monday night I would have loved some bidding wars. I didn't see anything that would tell me there was a a bidding war because auctions were having time added in the dying seconds of the auction. Everything ended when they were supposed to.

Intriguing anyways.

When I worked 12 hour continental shifts and got home at 7am sometimes I loved relaxing with a couple beers and scouring eBay for good deals through-out the day. Few and far between for good/great deals at those hours but to me that is part of the fun in collecting. It would be a shame for eBay to follow this gimmicky practice which I do not even know to be true. Like one of those sites where people claims to have 'bought this PS4 for $10.33!' or this 'Diamondback Mountain Bike for $22.75!'. Upon going to the site and creating an account and bidding and then seeing the time go up 1, 2 or 3 minutes after each bid it seems possible for sleeper auctions of said PS4 for $10.33 but I have never seen any corroboration or proof from any of those sites which is why I used the word gimmicky.

I dunno.. I would like more information on this issue.

[subban7677]

I've heard the countdown timer has gone wonky. They aren't extenting auctions. I've heard of people having issues on their computer, but I haven't noticed an issue using the app.

[mooneyes]

It's just the way it sounds. Done it many times before but these times I was all set to win, and than...psyche, another 1 minute was added! I'm like what the bleep??? You mean it's not over?!? I hope it's just me and maybe my computer has a glitch, or I do. lol

[mooneyes]

I've heard the countdown timer has gone wonky. They aren't extenting auctions. I've heard of people having issues on their computer, but I haven't noticed an issue using the app.

That could be it. Maybe I should refresh the page right before hand...

[doniceage]

No issues on this end with extending the auctions. Let us know if you get an answer!

Don

[30ranfordfan]

honestly, I'm surprised they haven't done that already (though I have not heard that they did, or have any plans to).

If a bid is placed in the last 30 seconds, add a minute to the auction. It can only lead to higher sale prices...... which is good for eBay, good for sellers.... and buyers have a chance to up their bid if they want. Would suck for those of us looking for good deals, and make sniping software much less useful (which might be another good thing for eBay, at least in the sense that others wouldn't be making money off of their platform)

[scarrman]

Interesting conversation. I snipe virtually everything, set it and forget it. Too often I forget about an item and miss out bidding, besides the wonky bid times - morning/nights. I got used to sniping so that's what I do.

I guess if my snipe is $23.33, and the original bid time I would have won, but a minutes gets added and I lose out by a dollar, oh well. Same can happen bidding live or with a snipe.

But I don't see any issue with it, maybe it will become a thing that a seller can select an automatic time add on. I have seen this with time being added on a car auction site. I was bidding on a vehicle, thought I had won and suddenly time was added on. I had to increase my bid over the original so it did get the seller extra money. It was nerve wracking, and pi$$ed me off a bit to see it happen like that. But the seller won out and got extra dough.

[subban7677]

I'm not a fan of the idea. Now, auctions account for only around 15% of all ebay listings, I believe. That's too small a number for ebay to invest much into changing how auctions work. Plus, I don't like the idea because if an auction ends at 9:05, I want it to end at 9:05. I don't want to be at my computer or on my phone defending my bids for an indefinite amount of time.

[ac4760]

After reading this, I thought I had an idea of what had happened. However, I just watched an auction that I wanted to bid on. I used a sniping program as I can never remember to bid and I don't like to bid early. As I watched the auction, it counted down to zero but hadn't changed the high bid which I was well over ( and my snipe hadn't registered). After the timer reached zero, my screen started blinking every few seconds showing the timer counting down from 20 seconds in 4 second increments. My snipe then went in and won the auction, but it was really something I have never seen before.