New Way of Recording Bids?

[crosbystills]

I recently won an item on eBay UK, as the sole bidder. Four minutes before auction's end I filled in the amount and clicked on "Place Bid". As usual, the bid amount and time remaining appeared in a box. This is the normal, in-between step before a bid is actually registered.

Suddenly, on the listing (open in a second window), the number of bids went from 0 to 1. Realizing I had some competition, I upped my bid amount, placing the bid in the final seconds of the auction.

The bid history shows one bidder, two bids, with the first placed about four minutes prior to the second. There was no other bidder. In a sense I was bidding against myself. Previously, the history would have shown one bidder, one bid.

Has anyone noticed this change on the eBay.au site? Apart from being confusing, it also has implications for sniping. As a bidder, our presence is revealed to others viewing the listing at the moment we "set up" the bid, rather than at the time we actually bid. And what about change of mind - does the appearance of that "in-between" box now count as actually placing a bid even if we never follow through?

[collect247]

Yes I know what you mean and my only theory is that you say you only confirmed the 2nd bid so somehow it also registered your first bid.

Also that countdown timer will only appear when you have actually got a bid on an item unless you have a snipe set up.

[crosbystills]

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@collect247 wrote:

But is shows that you placed a bid at 5 Jun 2018 at 4:59:41 AEST-- which looks like the bid you placed 4 min before the end of the auction?

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That's the point of my post. It's showing bids I didn't confirm. As far as I'm concerned, I placed one, not two bids in that auction (as in completed the entire process of inputting a bid amount then confirming that amount in the box which appeared).

I didn't bid 4 minutes early. I simply "queued it up" ready to go, yet it shows as a bid.

[collect247]

It had to of been a glitch then as I just tested what you did and only one bid was registered.

Did anything bump or brush up against the key maybe your elbow that could have made that first bid haha?

[digital*ghost]

I thought the increase bid prompt didn't appear until your initial bid has actually been confirmed? That's the way it's always worked for me, anyway. 

This is a screenshot of the window that pops up when I place a bid (NB: this auction already had 1 bid before I found it, and since it's a cheap thing I could use anyway if I actually placed a bid and won, I figured I may as well go through the process ). It shows my bid amount, but it has a confirm button I need to click before the bid is placed. 

If I click confirm, then I get this window.

[collect247]

That's exactly what I was saying digi as you can't increase a bid unless you have already made a bid for it to be increased.

And yes even though you don't confirm the first bid it is showing as a bid beside the timing.

[crosbystills]

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@digital*ghost wrote:

I thought the increase bid prompt didn't appear until your initial bid has actually been confirmed? That's the way it's always worked for me, anyway. 

This is a screenshot of the window that pops up when I place a bid (NB: this auction already had 1 bid before I found it, and since it's a cheap thing I could use anyway if I actually placed a bid and won, I figured I may as well go through the process ). It shows my bid amount, but it has a confirm button I need to click before the bid is placed. 

 ......

If I click confirm, then I get this window.

You make a good point. Let's say I did confirm the first bid without realising it (it was 5 a.m. after all ).

The second part of the process still doesn't sit right. I did not place a bid at 5:03:17, a full 49 seconds before auction's end. You don't get up in the dark to put a bid on only to give others a wide open opportunity to outbid you. 5:03:17 is around the time I increased my bid amount, but did not bid.

I bid at 5:04:00, 43 seconds later, yet the bid shows at 03:17. What if I'd gotten cold feet in those 43 seconds and decided not to proceed? Too bad, it seems, the system has already registered a bid.

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[crosbystills]

Oh, and D.G., well done for taking the scientific approach and conducting an experiment. 

[collect247]

No it will only register the first bid if you go through with it meaning if you didn't make that 2nd bid it wouldn't show any bids

[crosbystills]

I accept that I may have inadvertently placed that first bid. But there's still an issue with the second bid, outlined above.

I know for a fact that I placed that bid at 5:04:00 - the tension during that final 6 seconds was palpable. Why then, does the bidders list record my bid as occurring 43 seconds earlier?

[collect247]

You started the process of making a bid 43 sec before you confirmed so as it shows beside the timing in digi's 1st screen shot even though the bid wasn't made yet it showed 1 bid next to the timing and then 2 bids when the bid was placed/confirmed.

The same must go for the timing then 43 sec before you confirmed making it 5:04