EBAY ERROR: BID FLOW RESET (11)

[anamate]

My price should have won, but Gixen didn't bid. I get
EBAY ERROR: BID FLOW RESET (11)
This type of item is not likely to ever come up again.
This error is not described in your FAQ. What went wrong?

[mario]

Something prompted ebay to ask for another login. The best way to find out why is try to place a bid manually, and see if there is anything ebay wants - e.g. update of expired credit card, address update or other.

[Amritendu]

I got the same error on two auctions, and I should have won both. As suggested, I manually posted a bid on another item and it went in without any problem. I had just bought a couple of items of ebay last week. Can you please help?

Thank you.

[mario]

Amritendu, the only other thing I can suggest then is to try submitting a bid from another location - using VPN or asking someone in a geographically different location to place a bid on your account. eBay wants something, and it may not be triggered when you connect from your home IP.

[Gixen]

[Amritendu]

I have tried it from my work computer and was able to place a bid without any problem. Can't figure out what the issue is? Is your IP address being blocked by ebay to prevent sniping?

[mario]

No, tens of thousands of snipes are executed fine from the same IP address. It's something to do with your account, and I have no way of finding out what it is.

[thinlyveiled]

I had the same error on two auctions. The first time I got the EBAY ERROR: BID FLOW RESET (11) message I would have lost the auction the auction to a higher bid anyway.

This time, today, item 120904499952 ended May 05, 2012 at 13:05:56 PDT with a winning bid of GBP 83, and my bid was set at GBP 140. Both Gixen servers were offset by the default 6 seconds. Maybe the winning bidder had a bid max higher than mine, and I would have lost anyway, but I don't think so. I was bidding well above market value.

One point I should mention, since it's a detail that might be pertinent:

Even though I had no web browser open at the time, I was still logged on to eBay from previous visit(s) to the site from my personal computer, since I had checked the Keep me signed in box on my eBay Sign in to your account page sometime in the recent past.

I have noticed that when a winning bid displays for a Gixen server, the other typically shows an error. But I don't have enough auctions in my Gixen history to draw any definite correlation.

Could the BID FLOW RESET (11) be caused by 3 competing IP's, when the first "signed in" IP is not a Gixen server, even if that IP login doesn't show any recent activity?

I have another auction coming up tomorrow. I will make sure that I am logged out of eBay before final bidding time, although I will probably first directly set a maximum bid that is lower than my Gixen bid, since I don't want to play the auction without a backup plan. I may even open up the spread of the Gixen server offsets to 8 and 3 seconds.

Any comments or suggestions?

[mario]

thinlyveiled,

eBay definitely wants something from you. You have to try to place the bid manually to see what it is.

Having an open session doesn't matter, that's not the reason for this - Gixen does it all the time with two bids being sent from main and mirror servers.

[hbomb]

I came across this same error earlier today when I tried Gixen for the first time after losing a couple of auctions by bidding manually. I found another auction for the item I was looking for & placed a manual bid & it went through fine without prompting me for any additional info, so I entered the auction in Gixen and this time I had the winning bid! The only thing I did differently was made sure I was logged out of Gixen and Ebay, as the first time I didn't log off of both. Don't know if this made the difference or not...

[mario]

It didn't in the past. After all, mirror subscribers are always logged in twice.

[da_razman1]

This has happened to me twice today also causing me to not get both items even though I had higher bids then those that won.

I've been given the same excuses that eBay needs some form of information which is NOT true. eBay does NOT require a credit card or anything else.

I been using eBay for years. I've recently bought items within less then a month & I placed bids before & after Gixen did NOT.

It's amazing how many people are all of a sudden having the same problem with Gixen not being able to login to eBay yet somehow this error message which you can clearly read says nothing about eBay needing any account information

Please fix this A.S.A.P. & quit telling us that we need to give eBay information. You have already cost enough of us to loose items we would have won!!!

[mario]

da_razman1,

They are not excuses, it's just how it is. As for "amazing how many", it's true that I see more of this than before, but relative to the Gixen user base, it's miniscule.

I will, however, try to overcome that extra screen in order to obtain more information as to what the cause is. I still stand by my claim it's account related.

[mario]

So here is some more research on the topic. In the last 48 hours, I can see 10 users affected by this error message, out of 14,000 that had scheduled bids in this time period.

Interestingly, one common denominator seems to be that 8 out of 10 affected users used Firefox 12, which was released April 24th. This may or may not be significant in some way, I don't know yet. It seems out of proportion though.

If you have time, and willing to help find the root cause of this - one thing you may try to do is change your web browser, login to ebay with a different browser, and then schedule new or edit your existing snipes with that different browser. Previous version of Firefox (11) is fine, or use Chrome or IE. Then see if this happens again.

[hbomb]

I'm using Firefox 12 & as I mentioned above I didn't have a problem with the second auction I tried

[mario]

I believe you, and most Firefox 12 users (and there are many more) don't have a problem. I just noticed that of the users who have a problem most use Firefox 12. It's not conclusive, at this point it's just a guesswork.

[sadaz48]

I just had this problem--EBAY ERROR: BID FLOW RESET (11)-- twice and I was using firefox 10 and I just bid on an auction myself and there was no problem.

[mario]

sadaz48, eBay may be more stringent with Gixen, than it is when you bid from your home address.

If you are able to verify your identity with ebay by registering your credit card with them, that may help. Changing your password to a very complex one may help as well.

[hanousjim]

I'm bummed, same thing here...

my high bid was $20 over winning bid, and I didn't win... got the same error notice...

Just went on eBay and placed a manual bid, and it worked fine, so it's not my password...

I will say that when I went in to Gixen and made the bid I was using Firefox 12

I'm not sure how that could make a difference, as I was not currently logged on the the final bid was placed and I lost the auction...

Oh well.... it's a free service, so I can't be too bent out of shape!!

160795681787

[mario]

hanousjim,

I noticed that as of 3 weeks ago, this started happening to some users who upgraded to Firefox 12. Using a different browser or Firefox version seems to resolve the issue, or verifying your identity at ebay by providing them with a credit card.

At this point I am unsure why this is so, but it probably has something to do with their anti-fraud measures.

[Cupid]

I use Firefox 12 and have experienced no issue at all.

My eBay account is verified with a credit card so that is probably why.
_________________
Mark

[Annie]

I too am using firefox12 and have had no issues. I snipe often

[anamate]

Lost 130692051129, just as with my last high bid, but I have no trouble bidding manually from same computer. Ebay is NOT asking for anything addtitional -- this excuse is just plain wrong. I'm going to have to use another sniper.

[mario]

anamate, I don't make excuses. The fact that eBay does not ask you anything does not mean that Gixen is not subject to more scrutiny, as it does not log in from your home ip address.

I am working on adding some more code to find out, if possible, what's behind this.

[nmpu]

I've recently had trouble with PowerSnipe claiming my subscription was expired when it had just renewed a few months ago. I opened a credit card dispute and changed my eBay password to prevent any retaliatory mischief.

So, I decided to give Gixen a try. I received the same 'EBAY ERROR: BID FLOW RESET (11)' for my first 2 items. I assume it will continue for future items.

I've subsequently entered today's remaining snipes into Bidnapper. We'll see how that goes.

I know that sometimes eBay may ask for a PIN. I've logged in and manually bid using multiple browsers. I've also generated a token via the eBay API to see if the PIN screen would appear. Unfortunately, I don't have easy access to another IP. I suppose I can try from a McDonald's.

I'm not new to eBay or sniping. I'm a volume buyer/seller and a former eBay 'Star Developer'.

--David

[mario]

David,

Since Firefox 12 has been released, a very small number of users get this problem when using Gixen. To give you an idea, at the moment there are 3 users in the last 48 hours that had this problem (out of 8,000 or so).

I have no idea why it happens, but interestingly it happens only to users who use Firefox 12 on Windows. Most Windows Firefox 12 users do not have this problem, but those few who do - use Firefox 12 on Windows.

The solution is simple - use a different browser, or a different (previous) version of Firefox, and the problem will go away. Make sure you log in both to ebay (at least once) and Gixen with this browser. Edit your pending snipes using the new browser.

[nmpu]

Mario,

For curiosity sake, I'll try your suggestion.

However, I can now confirm that Bidnapper successfully sniped my third item where Gixen continues to fail. The same snipe was entered into both tools.

--David

[mario]

David, I don't know what bidnapper does... they may not copy the useragent you use, or they may use the same useragent for all users. That can cause problems of its own, albeit not to the same subset of users.

The fact is that it's a guess game, as we don't really know what logic ebay uses. Sniping services cannot use ebay API, so we work by imitating browsers. In that process, we do our best to emulate each user as closely as possible to make sure ebay knows the action taken is wanted by the user and not fraudulent. Volume of traffic also plays a role.

If you use a different browser, you will not have this problem again. I see it happening rarely, and always with FF 12.

[Guest]

Responded to another thread before I saw this one...can you please explain why the browser I am running has anything to do with the success of Gixen placing the snipe? The point of your software is that the snipe is initiated from your system not mine, correct? Please explain...

[Guest]

Update: I found another auction to bid on today after I lost out earlier when Gixen didn't place my bid. First I made sure I was logged out of Ebay's site. Second, I logged into Gixen via Internet Explorer. After submitting my snipe, I logged out of Gixen and closed all browers. This time Gixen worked and I won the auction. So...it does seem that the issue (somehow) has something to do with either (a) being logged out of Ebay or (b) not using Firefox.

[mario]

Gixen uses the same browser footprint you use to submit your bid to ebay, hence the browser you use matters.

[msmith]

Hi, I had this problem (EBAY ERROR: BID FLOW RESET (11)) for the first time today, but it occurred only with the main site, not the mirror site, so I won the auction. I've been using Gixen for over a year with no problems until now. I'm currently using FireFox 13, and I have both a credit card and a bank account on my PayPal account. If there's any other means of securing an eBay account with a credit card, I'm not aware of it, but would be interested in knowing.

[mario]

I am looking at the issue. So far it seems that it occurs in 1.3% of sent snipes. So far I haven't figured any rule as to when and why it happens.

[pixiecoo]

Please see item 370629488682. This sold for 17 pound. I bid 50. Needless to say I didn't win due to above error although note mine says (2) not (11). I do eBay on a PC desktop with Google Chrome. But lodged my Gixen on a MacBook Pro through Safari. Firefox nowhere it. Does that make the mud any clearer Mario?

[Cupid]

I wonder if eBay is monitoring the use of browsers and seeking further verification when it spots changes to the browser use that are unusual.
_________________
Mark

[mario]

Useragent doesn't matter anymore, all snipes are now sent with the same Gixen-identified useragent, and for vast majority of users the problem has disappeared. This is account related in some way, or ebay had an issue around that time. I would try to place a bid manually and observe if anything unusual happens.

[Electronics_depot_direct]

I have had this same problem twice this week. The latest item id is 251146769314. I have used GIXEN for several years and never had a problem. In fact had successful snipe last week. I used IE 8 for both Gixen and ebay. It does seem to be a random issue, but I have learned that all seeming random issues have a root cause. It seems important, no matter how small the poplation is that is affected, to find a resolution to this issue not just a guess and possible work around. Especially when that workaround required failure before knowing if the problem exists. I would imagine ebay can provide some assistance in resolving an issue like this as the error is most likely a result set from thier sdk and they should know why those errors are sent out.

I really appreciate the service you have provided and hope it continues. Just hate being disappointed by the outcomes this week.

[mario]

Electronics_depot_direct,

You incorrectly entered your username when logging in to Gixen. I am surprised that you were able to log in to Gixen like that, but not surprised that your snipe failed. Email me for details.