Auction End Time Changed

[at0micandy]

Hi Mario. I have some bids in a group, the first one, 300387241882, seems to have failed, gixen is reporting 'auction end time changed'. Is this a new anti sniping trick?

[Cupid]

Sellers are allowed to end auctions early, it is not new and not necessarily an anti sniping measure, they may have sold it on another site.
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Mark

[mario]

This one was clearly ended early. The original end time was Jan 18 12:48:10.

[at0micandy]

Thanks Mario, it now just occurs to me that a good sellers defence against snipers on any auction without a bid on it with minutes to go would be to end it early. I think in future I will always consider putting a min bid on the first item in any group, just to defend against premature closing.

[Gixen]

[Cupid]

Sellers can still cancel all bids and end the auction early, or sell to the current highest bidder.

That said, you may be right that some sellers may be more likely to let the auction run to completion if there is at least one bid.
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Mark

[nochkin]

at0micandy,
Btw, closing an auction in last minutes because it has no bids and protect from bidding on last seconds is not permitted by eBay rules. However, many sellers don't know about it.

[mario]

[daniela]

It also used to be that it was possible, for auctions that received no offers, that the seller could extend the auction deadline by just paying the extra fee. So once I set up my snipe, for an auction with 0.99 starting price, and did not monitor.... that's the point of sniping, no? About an hour before end time, the seller extended the auction, then a few seconds before the original ending time the snipe service did what I had asked it to do and submitted my bid, and I had to wait for a week (i think I got it, but someone else bid and raised the final price). But this is no longer possible. I think now an auction can be extended only for a short period after being opened. I set up my snipes a day or two before deadlines.

[mario]

[Cupid]

I think daniela was talking about what was possible many years ago. I agree I dont think it is possible any more... and has not been for quite some time.

It is a bit different for BIN sales though, I think they can still get extended automatically if the seller has a shop and specifies that is what he wants his items to do, of course that does not affect Gixen in any way since fixed price sales can not be sniped anyway.
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Mark

[daniela]

Yes, as Cupid says. It was possible years ago, however this possibility went away by placing a minimal bid. Now it is no longer possible, except from the first two hours of the bid. It is still possible to end an auction early, but there are many restrictions in the last 12 hours, so it's a good idea, if possible, to have a look within 12 hours of end of the auction. Most bidders realize it's stupid to end an auction early, but for those who don't (check their past listings!), just place a minimal bid. Also, as it was already mentioned, ending early is supposed to be if the seller sold the item to someone in person, or it shattered in pieces.... not because they did not like the price. So, if they relist it on ebay, they have a problem.

BIN is easier than sniping! I like the price --> I buy. I don't like the price ---> I'll buy elsewhere, or next week they'll be more reasonable....

[CHRIS4]

see title of the message.
Apparently, no bids for the concerned item. Dunno if it's the same 'early closing' problem... Anyway, I've asked the seller whether he would accept to add it to my order (I bought him an item yesterday).
Other scheduled snipes worked well in the same time, but that didn't concern this seller.
Chris

[mario]

[CHRIS4]

sorry, I forgot to mention it was item nb 400105828118, and I'm late as the line has disappeared now.
Seller didn't answer my message but reposted the item at higher price... pfff.

[CHRIS4]

I just noticed that ebay.fr had trouble with ebay stores precisely on March 4th... may be the reason
C

[mario]

No, this auction was ended early by seller. The original end time was:

Fri Mar 5 03:24:42 2010 PST

And the auction was ended at:

Thu Mar 4 14:17:36 2010