Outsniped

Shoutbanger · Guest

I really wanted an item so I used Gixen as I usually do (Im a subscriber) but I LOST the auction. Despite setting a higher amount.

Gixen informs me I was OUTSNIPED

How do I stop this happening in the future or is Gixen getting outsniped often?

I have set offsets to 6 seconds but tried to adjust to 3 seconds but received a message in red text saying this was a BAD idea and could actually slow the snipe.

Can anyone please explain. I am PC literate but not an expert by any means

I'm gutted I lost the item.

Many Thanks in advance

Cupid · Joined: 09 Aug 2007 Posts: 7970 Location: Bristol, UK

All that OUTSNIPED means is that someone scheduled a higher bid that was later than yours.

This does not mean that they reacted to your bid, just that they decided their bid would be closer to the end of the auction.

Had the winning bid been scheduled earlier than yours you would still have lost with an OUTBID status. The answer is not to bid later.

As with all auctions where your bid is not high enough to win the only remedy would have been for you to bid higher and thus pay more if you had won.
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Mark

Shoutbanger · Guest

Received Mark

Thank you for your explanation.

Much appreciated.

Brian

maxrockbin · Guest

I'm still not sure about a couple of things.

First, could someone provide an explanation of how a 3 second snipe actually can hurt? (ASSUMING the bid goes through. I realize there is an increased chance it won't get to ebay in time).

Also, here's a particular auction where it appears to my untrained eye that someone Out Sniped me:
161496952345

Here's the bid history INCLUDING automatic bids:

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Cupid · Joined: 09 Aug 2007 Posts: 7970 Location: Bristol, UK

maxrockbin,

In both your examples the final bids are in the same second... so the winning bid could not have been a reaction to the bid placed for you by Gixen because clearly it is impossible to see a bid on Ebay and then place another, higher bid, in less than a second. So, in these cases, it was other bidders scheduling their snipes to be placed at the same time as your bids. Because their bids were higher than yours they won the auction.... On Ebay the amount of an accepted bid always takes precedence over the timing.

That word 'accepted' is important in answering your main question... due to the bid increment rule on Ebay and the fact that auction prices only ever rise when bids are placed it is more likely that your bid will not be accepted by Ebay the later it is... It is even possible for your bid to be higher (by less than an increment), than any other bid placed earlier than yours but be rejected by Ebay because it is not high enough to meet the bid increment rule... so that is how being later can harm your possibility of winning.

Of course if there are no other bids in the last few seconds it makes no difference when your bid is placed since the price is not rising during that time. So earlier bids (a higher offset) work best in situations where other snipers have scheduled later bids than yours.

The other factor that penalises later bids is when another bidder places a bid that is exactly the same as yours... then Ebay selects the earlier bid as the winner. Often I alleviate that particular issue by bidding odd amounts a penny or so higher than I expect others to bid... people often bid even amounts say 60, 70 or 80.. I tend to set snipes at values like 60.03.

A final point, the Mirror and Main Gixen servers work independently of each other, neither server places a bid as a result of another bid coming in, they just both try their best to place the same bid. You often see two bids from Gixen if your offsets are the same for the Mirror and Main servers because Ebay accepts bids placed within the same second from different locations by the same user. If the two bids are over a second apart Ebay rejects the later bid as it has time to realise that the bid has already been placed for that amount.
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Mark

Guest · Posted: Thu Dec 04, 2014 2:02 pm Post subject:

Thank you. That's very clear.

maxrockbin · Guest

Could you help me understand what happened in this auction - just tonight? ebay auction: 231407750520

I actually won, but I'm not sure why.

My bid was $181.52 (that was my maximum bid entered on Gixen).

It seems to have gone through at 19:04:51 (auction ended at :53 -- 2 seconds later. Which makes sense since on Gixen I requested bidding 3 seconds before close).

Question: The previous bidder bid $181.00 just one second before me.
Shouldn't I have had to beat that by more than 52 cents?
Or did ebay consider the 2 bids to have arrived at the same time (1 second apart on the timestamp)?

Here are the bids (including automatic):

Cupid · Joined: 09 Aug 2007 Posts: 7970 Location: Bristol, UK

maxrockbin,

The bid increment rule applies to the auction price at the time that you place your bid... That price was US $152.50, so that is what your bid had to be one increment above, at that time the actual bid of $181.00 was hidden behind Ebays' proxy bidding system... of course in order to win you also needed a bid higher than that, which yours was, by less than a bid increment, so Ebay only makes you pay that much.

In a different scenario, if another bidder entirely had placed a bid, at some stage, of around $180.00 then the auction price would have been $181.00 when your bid was due to be placed, and then Ebay would have rejected it because it was not more than an increment above that auction price... That did not happen, so in that way, you were fortunate to win and the next highest bidder was unlucky.
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Mark