There must be a new bid snipe program. Typically get snipped at the last 2-3 seconds of an auction. Tonight was odd, was not outbid with 1 second remaining, but within a nanosecond of the auction ending, I was outbid.
Saw something like that on another thread yesterday. Two guys made the exact same snipe bid at the same second (Ebay only shows the time of the bid to the second) Of course one was actually a fraction of a second ahead of the other, his bid was serviced first and the second guy lost because the first guy had what turned out to be the final bid level first.
may be the other guy did this in the old way, manually, entered the number and clicked the button with one second left.
That drives me nuts. I wish they did something like increasing the time five seconds or so every time someone put in bid at the last second. Then it would be a true auction and market price would prevail.
Not new, I've seen bids go in the last second numerous times. It's likely that the bid was already being placed at 2-3 seconds left but didn't make the actual connection and update in the database until there was 1 second left, etc. Too many factors to add with online auctions. Auction site servers accommodating bids, running the services (server load) along with connection speed between client and servers, hard drive write speeds, blah blah blah.
Here's how you win everytime when bidding on coins on eBay. Just go ahead and put in the maximum amount you're willing to spend. If you win the auction, you win. If you don't, you also win because you didn't spend more than you were willing. It's that easy. :thumb:
Why does it have to be a snipe program? Could have been someone waiting for the last second to hit Make Bid button, and had the ad page opened in another tab or browser watching the seconds tick down. I've sniped like that many times and come out on top.
Could it be the two bids were entered at the same time, BUT the other bidder had a slightly higher bid and thus won? Usually if two bid are exactly the same, the one entered first prevails.
That's possible too; however, as Condor pointed out, eBay's server doesn't show the time in fractions of a second, but as a whole second. Good thought though :thumb:
Many sniping programs allow you to change the increment to snipe. I use snip.pl, and if I set it to 1 second it can show less than 1 second to go I bid due to the time it takes the sniping program to contact Ebay. Normally I snipe with a few seconds to go, cutting it that close can be dangerous. OP, don't worry about the time. You got outsniped regardless, which is ok since it means someone went over your limit. Whatever, happens to me 50 times a week.
I rarely buy from eBay anymore but when I do, I manually snipe - no new fangled software for this old geezer! I put in my best bid, click with a few seconds left and if I win, good. If I lose, well at least I didn't spend more than I wanted!
IMO snipping or bidding wars simply leads to over spending rather it is better IMO to determine for each item how much you are willing to pay and put that as your bid.
The whole idea is kinda stupid if you ask me. Just about about any coin you want to pick on ebay, you can get it cheaper from a dealer anyway so why bother ?
It's best to make your best offer at the last possible moment. A snipe simply will not lead to over spending or bidding wars, if properly done there will be no time left for a bidding war and if you don't bid more than you think an item is worth, you can't over spend.