Ebay Strangeness - Thoughts?

[ssjones]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/281473723546?ru=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com%2Fsch%2Fi.html%3F_from%3DR40%26_sacat%3D0%26_nkw%3D281473723546%26_rdc%3D1
A local piper was trying to find a first James Upshall on Ebay and his daughter was doing the bidding. She put in a bid with 26 seconds to go, but was beat by a bid that was entered 7 seconds after the auction ended. He was disappointed to lose this G-Grade. Has this happened to anyone else before? Does this have anything to do with the "Private" label attached to that bidder? The time on the auction page says it ended at 6:00 AM (PST), the bid history says it ended at 6:00:13 (so that last bid was under this time stamp)
Here's the bid history.

Bidder Click here to know more about anonymous user IDs Bid Amount Bid Time

Member Id: n***v ( private ) US $142.50

Nov-01-14 06:00:07 PDT
Member Id: o***y ( 700Feedback score is 500 to 999) US $140.00

Nov-01-14 05:59:34 PDT
Member Id: f***r ( 2073Feedback score is 1000 to 4,999) US $110.00

Nov-01-14 05:56:00 PDT
Member Id: f***r ( 2073Feedback score is 1000 to 4,999) US $106.00

Nov-01-14 05:55:45 PDT
Member Id: l***2 ( 6760Feedback score is 5,000 to 9,999) US $100.00

Nov-01-14 05:14:25 PDT
Member Id: f***r ( 2073Feedback score is 1000 to 4,999) US $96.95

Nov-01-14 05:53:56 PDT
Member Id: f***r ( 2073Feedback score is 1000 to 4,999) US $94.95

Nov-01-14 05:53:54 PDT
Member Id: f***r ( 2073Feedback score is 1000 to 4,999) US $92.95

Nov-01-14 05:53:50 PDT
Member Id: f***r ( 2073Feedback score is 1000 to 4,999) US $90.95

Nov-01-14 05:53:48 PDT
Member Id: f***r ( 2073Feedback score is 1000 to 4,999) US $88.95

Nov-01-14 05:53:46 PDT
Member Id: f***r ( 2073Feedback score is 1000 to 4,999) US $86.95

Nov-01-14 05:53:44 PDT
Member Id: f***r ( 2073Feedback score is 1000 to 4,999) US $84.95

Nov-01-14 05:53:40 PDT
Member Id: y***l ( 283Feedback score is 100 to 499) US $82.95

Nov-01-14 04:34:26 PDT
Member Id: c***l ( 158Feedback score is 100 to 499) US $78.00

Oct-31-14 21:58:26 PDT
Member Id: h***k ( 1588Feedback score is 1000 to 4,999) US $67.05

Oct-31-14 17:59:42 PDT
Member Id: h***k ( 1588Feedback score is 1000 to 4,999) US $63.05

Oct-31-14 00:59:21 PDT
Member Id: f***r ( 2073Feedback score is 1000 to 4,999) US $62.00

Oct-31-14 12:30:46 PDT
Member Id: 1***d ( 79Feedback score is 50 to 99) US $60.00

Oct-27-14 23:39:02 PDT
Member Id: o***c ( 193Feedback score is 100 to 499) US $53.00

Oct-30-14 20:14:29 PDT
Member Id: l***e ( 285Feedback score is 100 to 499) US $51.00

Oct-30-14 00:02:47 PDT
Member Id: t***0 ( 14Feedback score is 10 to 49) US $45.00

Oct-27-14 16:47:20 PDT
Member Id: l***e ( 285Feedback score is 100 to 499) US $29.00

Oct-27-14 08:58:00 PDT
Member Id: l***u ( 12401Feedback score is 10,000 to 24,999) US $22.00

Oct-25-14 16:10:07 PDT
Member Id: _***e ( 555Feedback score is 500 to 999) US $21.00

Oct-25-14 10:52:41 PDT
Member Id: y***l ( 283Feedback score is 100 to 499) US $0.99

Oct-25-14 07:54:19 PDT
Starting Price US $0.99

Oct-25-14 06:00:13 PDT

 

[sablebrush52]

I think that the stated end time is an error. Looking at the original post, it began at 06:00:13 and that would have been the end time. BTW, I've bought from this seller years ago and he's a straight shooter.
Some buyers opt to keep their history private, which is their privilege. Sellers can choose to make all bidders anonymous so that their ID's are hidden, but that's not what's happening here.
eBay's time records are funky, however. I've seen bids that, according to the time notated, came in hours late. Clearly this isn't the case, but I think that there's a bug in eBay's software infrastructure that doesn't convert for time zones accurately or consistently.

 

[ssjones]

Ah, missed that. Just a case of bad timing I guess. I didn't know that about "Private" bidders, thanks!

 

[sablebrush52]

The bottom line is that the highest bidder wins, regardless of when the bid goes in. I usually bid right at the end, because there's no reason to bid earlier. But that doesn't mean that I'm not going to get outbid.

 

[ssjones]

I was confused as it looked like the winning bid came in after the auction ended, but it appears that it came in a few seconds before it closed (which is the way I always bid).

 

[xrundog]

Multiple sniper bids within the last 5 seconds can really mess with the time record as well.

 

[jmill208]

Multiple sniper bids within the last 5 seconds can really mess with the time record as well.

I agree. Auction snipers are probably responsible.

 

[mso489]

I think "ebay strangeness" is a redundancy. It's not the real world. Time and numbers

mean something different on ebay.

 

[peteguy]

Ive been on ebay all day looking for some non pipe stuff and it has been giving me fits. Lots of delays and page timeouts. Cant even check out and pay for an item I won.

 

[kcghost]

Probably the people that you thought you outbid had given higher maximum bids earlier and it took eBay a bit to get them properly recorded.

 

[ssjones]

Sable nailed it, the auction actually ended at 13 seconds after 9, not right at 9, so the last bid was put in under the wire. I never noticed that on the auction page, it only rounds the ending time off to the minute. The bidding could actually end later.
Like this auction I won recently. The main page said it ended at 2:53, but the bid sheet shows it ended at 2:53:23.
http://offer.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewBids&item=281477911571&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2565
I can't believe I never noticed that before. I guess as I've watched the countdown clock running down, I never synced that to the actual time.