\"Auction ended. This auction has ended.\"

orcawarning · Guest

Item ID 132554118009

I use Gixen very often and have not seen the message "Auction ended. This auction has ended." before. The last bid for that item was $16.00 and I planned to snipe it at $25.57 with an offset of 6. What happened? My bid wasn't placed.

juangrande · Posted: Mon Apr 02, 2018 4:21 pm Post subject:

According to the bid history, the winning bidder made a best offer.

This most likely means that the auction had a Buy It Now (BIN) option, and somebody exercised that option (which ended the auction immediately).

When the auction has a BIN option, some people will make a small opening bid in order to inactivate the BIN option in the hope they could get it for less than the BIN. If you're willing the pay the BIN price, exercising the BIN option ensures you'll get the item.
_________________
John

If you don't know where you are going, you will wind up somewhere else.
--- Yogi Berra

Cupid · Joined: 09 Aug 2007 Posts: 7919 Location: Bristol, UK

The item must have had a 'Best Offer' button on it, a buyer made an offer that way (at the opening price) and the seller accepted it, which ended the auction early and thus did not provide any sniper the opportunity to bid.

You can also tell this happened because the item was a seven day auction but the completion time was before that seven days had elapsed.
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Mark

juangrande · Posted: Tue Apr 03, 2018 8:28 am Post subject:

So, this was presumably an auction with a Buy It Now and Best Offer. I haven't seen many of those. Do you know if you it's possible to set up an auction with just a Best Offer (and no BIN), Mark?
_________________
John

If you don't know where you are going, you will wind up somewhere else.
--- Yogi Berra

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Cupid · Joined: 09 Aug 2007 Posts: 7919 Location: Bristol, UK

I think it was probably an auction with a Best Offer like this:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/132568647939

I guess it could have had a BIN too, but, as you say, that is unusual, perhaps impossible.

Sellers can set these up to automatically accept the Best Offer and thus end the auction, if that offer meets a limit, that they set.
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Mark

juangrande · Posted: Thu Apr 05, 2018 8:56 am Post subject:

Thanks, Mark. That's very interesting. According to this eBay page, it's not possible to add a Best Offer option to an auction. Perhaps the rules have changed and eBay hasn't updated that page.

It's also interesting that the seller of the item the OP posted accepted a Best Offer for that item at the starting bid. So, if the OP had simply made that offer when they saw the auction, the item would have been theirs for the starting bid. I guess I don't understand why the seller would do that (now that it appears to be possible).
_________________
John

If you don't know where you are going, you will wind up somewhere else.
--- Yogi Berra

Cupid · Joined: 09 Aug 2007 Posts: 7919 Location: Bristol, UK