Ebay glitch screws me over

[wonka]

Was jonesing for a poster on ebay the other night and encountered a glitch that I have never dealt with before, wondered if anyone else has.

Said poster had several bids over the course of a week, and I knew what the realized price would probably be, and also knew that the last minute would bump it up to my estimated price.

Around two minutes left, and I was just watching two bidders have fun with it in terms of their back and forth sissy bids.  I saw how one bidder just dropped out, and I decided now to chase the last remaining bidder away in terms of my bid.

With the last minute to go, I placed a moderate bid, one that in my opinion would win after I evaluated how the current winning bidder had 'warded' off his foe.  My bid was significantly more than his/her bid, and I was in the lead by a landslide with around 45 seconds left.  The other bidder then threw out some shots in the dark, obviously flustered and desperate, but did not come close to my bid.  He/she was done at this point.

30 seconds left.  I had been here countless times, as the current leader and under bidder.  I thought that the under bidder could get crazy and over pay in his mind just out of that tinge of competition, and so I decided to blow him/her out of the water with a higher safety bid.  I placed my higher proxy, which was confirmed by ebay, the new max amount highlighted on my monitor.

3 seconds left, and my original bid is still winning, and not even close to my INITIAL bid, yet alone my new higher bid.

Auction is over, and I am pumped because I really wanted this poster and sent that other guy packing.
I look at the auction page and it says that I did not win.  I was shocked.
The realized price was the lowest accepted increment over my initial bid, but was still nowhere near my second increased bid.  

Obviously, the auction was sniped, which I had also taken into consideration in terms of another reason to place the second proxy.  Still, that second bid was accepted and confirmed by ebay, and sat there for just under a minute until it ended.  No bids were canceled either, by the way.

I contacted the seller, for what it was worth, and he said it is just the 'risk of selling on ebay'.  I would be livid if I were a seller in this case.

I am at the point where I am going BIN or bust.  So frustrating on every level.

Anyone else had their confirmed bid just simply...dissolve?

[Posteroid]

That sucks. I can imagine how frustrated you must be.
Something similar never happened to me, but in the past years I have only used sniping services if I really wanted an item.

Armin

[Disheveledamethyst]

I would say about 90% of all the posters I've purchased have been from eBay auctions. Only once was I told my bid was accepted when it actually wasn't, but I was using a mobile device and I attributed it to that. I was pretty upset at the time. I've never used a sniping service but I always snipe manually. I've never placed a bid that wasn't in the last seven seconds of an auction. The only time I ever had my bid negated was that one time.

As far as "the risk you take selling on eBay" goes, that's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. I highly doubt that anybody lists an item on eBay anticipating a major website glitch that would negate the winning bids on their merchandise. Personally, if I was a seller, I would tell the "winning bidder" that somebody outbid him and he lost the auction.

[paul waines]

Is it possible for you to go back in your History folder, copy the bid confirmation, and send it to Ebay.

If it was something I really wanted, and was conned this way, I certainly would try it...   

[AdamCarterJones]

Is it possible for you to go back in your History folder, copy the bid confirmation, and send it to Ebay.

Good idea!

[MoviePosterBid.com]

yeah good luck with that Paul.. The only effect is that ebay might fix the glitch, but it won't get him the winning bid. Then of course, when they fix the fix, bid snipers will get aced out again and software programmers will spend another month fixing their software to work with ebay again.

[jayn_j]

yeah good luck with that Paul.. The only effect is that ebay might fix the glitch, but it won't get him the winning bid. Then of course, when they fix the fix, bid snipers will get aced out again and software programmers will spend another month fixing their software to work with ebay again.

That was my first thought.  If they changed the result of the auction, they would have two annoyed customers, instead of the one they have now.  As in baseball, the ruling of the ump is final.

BTW, thanks for providing extended bidding on your auctions.  I am one who believes sniping is evil and one of the problems with ebay.  Basically, ebay becomes a week of advertising, followed by 10 seconds of auction where you get one chance to bid.

[Zorba]

  I am one who believes sniping is evil and one of the problems with ebay.  Basically, ebay becomes a week of advertising, followed by 10 seconds of auction where you get one chance to bid.

I would not go so far as to call it evil but I do MUCH prefer the extended bidding format. Feels MUCH more like a real auction plus I feel much better after I lose a poster.

[Posteroid]

I am one who believes sniping is evil and one of the problems with ebay. 

I totally disagree!
Sniping helps you avoid auction fever by preventing you from bidding higher than you initially wanted. I am sure ebay would love to stop sniping. It is not good for ebay's business because bidders don't become irrational in the last minutes of an auction and stupidly increase their highest bid. With sniping you set your price, lean back and wait how the auction develops. If you are outbid, tough luck because you have no chance to up your high bid anymore.

Armin

[Cj]

I totally disagree!
Sniping helps you avoid auction fever by preventing you from bidding higher than you initially wanted. I am sure ebay would love to stop sniping. It is not good for ebay's business because bidders don't become irrational in the last minutes of an auction and stupidly increase their highest bid. With sniping you set your price, lean back and wait how the auction develops. If you are outbid, tough luck because you have no chance to up your high bid anymore.

Armin

I am grateful for snipe programs. I think it has saved me a lot of money in the long run. I put in my snipe and walk away, i have the option to edit the snipe up until the last 5 minutes. I have avoided that irrational bidding out of frustration war because at times it did get out of hand.

Cj

[wonka]

Oh, another significant tidbit that for whatever reason, I failed to include in my initial post.

When the auction time ran out, to 0 seconds, I was in the lead/the winner...again, below my initial bid ceiling.

It was only when the page did its usual refresh, that everything changed.  Instead of seeing the usual green text telling me 'Congratulations, you won this item!', I saw the infernal red text telling me otherwise, and providing links to similar items.

The price on the refreshed page had the new higher amount, going to another bidder, with my second bid completely ignored as I mentioned.

[MoviePosterBid.com]

BTW, thanks for providing extended bidding on your auctions.  I am one who believes sniping is evil and one of the problems with ebay.  Basically, ebay becomes a week of advertising, followed by 10 seconds of auction where you get one chance to bid.

you're welcome.. I prefer extended bidding myself.. I lose fewer items if I have another chance to think about things

I would not go so far as to call it evil but I do MUCH prefer the extended bidding format. Feels MUCH more like a real auction plus I feel much better after I lose a poster.

maybe Zorba doesn't suck so bad after all

[Bruce]

It's funny. When I first started extended bidding, there was a HUGE uproar about it, and many collectors and dealers vowed they would NEVER ever bid in my auctions because of it. Flash forward 2 years, and they have all come back one by one (or in groups) and to their credit, most of them grudgingly admit they were wrong, and that time-extended bidding is more fair to all bidders.

In fixed time auctions, you have a massive preview session with a few practice low bids, and then in most of the auctions, everyone enters one blind bid and the highest one wins. That is not good for anyone, except the one guy who wins something for less than it might have gone for in a real auction, but everyone else did not get a fair shake, as you do in every live auction, where the auctioneer always says, "Going, going, GONE!"

Bruce

[wonka]

Fair enough, Bruce.  Glad to hear you are hearing positive feedback on your auction format now.

I am just not sure what that has to do with me losing an auction when I was in the lead when the clock hit zero.

[dhart3]

IMO, the only people extended bidding helps are the sellers and spineless bidders.  It allows the weak bidders to go fishing where they bid at $5 increments a hundred times trying to find the current max.  This sort of bidding of course causes the one that put in a true max bid to pay a lot more than he would have otherwise with a snipe.  Extended auctions can result in emotional and competition war bidding when a couple of bidders suddenly decide at the last second they wanted a poster more than they thought initially.  I still play the extended game but would prefer not to.  I say put your max in and let the best person win.

[jayn_j]

If it truely is your max, you can do that now in either system.  I generally put in my maxes a few hours early and then go to dinner as they close so I'm not tempted to frenzy.

The only time I would stray from that is when there is so much stuff I want that I am exceeding the budget.  Then I would bid lower on late closing items and go back and raise bids as I lost on items that closed early.

But the point is that I don't give a damn what the rest of the turkeys are bidding.  If they outbid what my research says it is worth, then fine, they can have it.

[Zorba]

IMO, the only people extended bidding helps are the sellers and spineless bidders.  It allows the weak bidders to go fishing where they bid at $5 increments a hundred times trying to find the current max.  This sort of bidding of course causes the one that put in a true max bid to pay a lot more than he would have otherwise with a snipe.  Extended auctions can result in emotional and competition war bidding when a couple of bidders suddenly decide at the last second they wanted a poster more than they thought initially.  I still play the extended game but would prefer not to.  I say put your max in and let the best person win.

Ive been a victim of that extended increment strategy more than once and it can be frustrating. I watched one guy extend the auction about half an hour before he gave up.
The irony is that this was a $75 poster and then the next week I see the guy place a 6,000 bid on something else. I was wow what wtf? What a douchebag 

Anyway, Im wiling to put up with that, as it really doesnt happen that often. Not nearly as often as having someone artificially snipe something 

[MoviePosterBid.com]

simply said

1) I win more items in Bruce's auctions than I used to because I have an opportunity to think twice

2) I get better bids as a seller and I'm very happy to have instituted extended bidding as a feature on MPB


any questions??

[Ari]

any questions??

Whats your middle name?
and
Do you dress to the left or right?

[CSM]

Whats your middle name?
and
Do you dress to the left or right?

I also wanted to know which Las Vegas intersection corner you can usually be found at?

[MoviePosterBid.com]

Whats your middle name?
and
Do you dress to the left or right?

Ari
none of your business
and
left

Chris.. here is a suppository for you

[CSM]

Geez Rich, atleast give me some lube!

[wonka]

Thanks for the helpful insight, guys.

[MoviePosterBid.com]

Geez Rich, atleast give me some lube!

some things you have to do yourself brother

[Ogami_Itto]

that sucks wonka. Honestly wish i knew how to help, I've never had that happen to me i use ebay fairly often.

  I don't think there is much you can do, seeing as the other buyer believes he won it fare and square because they didnt do anything wrong. It would suck to be him/her and have someone come along and say you didn't win because this guy bid but it didnt show up. like the others said i highly doubt ebay would or even can do much about it considering the end result of an auction is a binding contract.

as for this thread, it quickly got turned into a conversation about snipe/Extended bidding.

better luck next time
Evan