Bidders Lose Lots Because Ebay Can't Tell Time

Example:
Time Ended:Oct 13, 2024 at 6:04PM PDT

Bidder Z amount $113.61 13 Oct 2024 at 6:04:30pm PDT (declared winner)

Bidder X amount $111.11 13 Oct 2024 at 6:03:56pm PDT

Bidder Z was declared the winner but clearly bid a half minute after the auction closed.

The closed time clearly shows the ending time of 6:04PM.
ANY amount of time after 6:04PM close is time that missed the auction ending..

Bidder X should have been declared the winner because they bid before the 6:04PM ending time.

How many eBay lots have you lost because eBay can't tell time.???

It looks like the ending time simply isn't displaying seconds. The true ending time may have been 6:04:59 PM to the eBay database and internal clock but the ending time display is shortened to just show 6:04 PM.

Edit: to add an example. The top line says the item ended at 3:29 PM but there are multiple bidders between 3:29:00 and 3:29:34. Notice the very first entry, 7 days earlier, the auction started at 3:29:34 so that's when it actually ends, on that very second, not rounded to the nearest minute.

Your example proves my point. The stated ending time is clearly 3:29pm PDT NOT 3:29pm PDT and whatever additional seconds eBay decides to allow.
Every bid after 3:29pm PDT was a late bid and missed the auction ending.

eBay must fix this error for completely fair bidding but contacting eBay is a job for the "Mission Impossible Squad"

You're correct that there usually are some seconds beyond the day/hour/minute ending time posted with an auction. When you watch an auction close on Ebay in real time there's a timer that also includes the seconds remaining. That is what makes it possible to snipe in real time.

You, Timm and others are confused about where the auction ending time is listed.

Sorry but the time LOCATION being referenced is only there as a general convenience and NOT the actual end time. You must look at where the actual start time is listed, to the nearest whole second and which may include some number of milliseconds less that 1000, to which the auction duration is then added. ALL AUCTION DURATIONS are set at whole days at the rate of 24 hours, 0 minutes and 0 seconds per each day of the duration chosen.

The PROPER LOCATION to look is the bid page where the auction start time is listed to the last whole second as well as all bids are also listed to the last whole second. ZebraMan's post above ALMOST helps but did not include the important information shown in my screen shots

:

Note the "Startling Price" line which is the lowest line on the bid entries. In addition to the starting price, the actual starting time is shown to the last whole second, plus some number of unshown milliseconds lass that 1000. Here in this example the start is "5 Oct 2024 at 2:39:31pm PDT" from which the 10 day duration is calculated. The duration is listed in the screen shot and to the left of the duration is a clock counting down the remaining time shown to the last full whole second (additional milliseconds not shown): "Time left: 1 hour 42 mins 56 secs Duration:10 days"


Below is the title page for the same listing with the general, abbreviated information:




Live and learn and it is not always someone else's fault. We sometimes need more knowledge which can be gotten for forums such as this.

Your title is fundamentally incorrect by the way. Bidders only lose lots because they did not tender the highest bid during the auction. Now some potential bidders may lose a lot when, say, they are outside doing yard work and forget to bid or bid again before the auction ends having lost track of time; eBay always honors the highest bid provided during the auction duration.

Parcelpostguy: The start time is irrelevant when a different ending time is posted.

I stand by my title because the bidder was the "Highest" bidder when the auction ended as posted, and lost it to a higher bidder who got a way with a late bid.

You are missing the point that they do not include the seconds in that line you insist on looking at. The actual time is that time and some seconds and parcel told you how to tell how many those seconds are.

I've been bidding on ebay since 1997 and never saw a "late" bid get recognized. Simply cannot and does not happen.

Parcelpostguy is correct about the scheduling of the exact time at least to the second for multi-day auction events. If it starts at a specific time on a date (for example 9 Oct 2024 at 9:43:24pm PDT) it will end on the final date at the same exact time, for example 5 day auction ending on 14 Oct 2024 at 9:43:24pm PDT.

You will see this time to the second listed on the actual bid activity page, but it may not show on the auction listing page to the second, but will show to the minute.

I often snipe to less than 5 seconds to the ending time, and have never had a missed snipe on eBay.

I wonder whether eBay's servers could keep up with all the last moment sniper bids if all auctions ended at the :00 second mark . Probably better that the end times are spread out over the last minute.

You see what you want to see, you hear what you want to hear - The Rock Man ("The Point," 1971)

@MrEos, that was exactly my thought as well. Most bids for auctions happen in the last few seconds, so if every auction ended at :00 seconds past the minute, there would be a system-wide flurry of bidding activity for 5 seconds (which needs to be handled in real time) followed by a lull for the next 55 seconds. The peak compute capacity required to handle this would increase, which would raise costs for everyone. The fact that they are spread over the duration helps balance the load and keep costs in check.

Your position is irrelevant when to take the time to actually read the rules of eBay as posted by eBay and as enforced by eBay when you choose to either ignore those rules or are ignorant to the rules.


Again, you are wrong, eBay is correct and you now have been informed of the methodology used. If you can't handle the truth, stop using eBay.

Also, why are you posting complained of such hairsplitting here and not on the eBay forums? I you afraid those users would gang up against you or otherwise disagree with you? The first things they will point out is shown here:





So enjoy tilting at windmills, I am moving on, Don Quixote, err Timm.

What I have noticed lately is that when I win an item outright with no last nanosecond bids is that its can take 15-20 seconds for ebay to declare me the winner. In the past the posting of the winner occurred almost instantaneously. I think this is a little cushion being added so ebay can make a few additional cents hoping for a late bidder to show up.

So we have one person who has decided eBay is closing auctions early and another who thinks they are keeping them open extra time.