I recently bid on an item on eBay, but lost the auction to someone who bid exactly the same amount as I did. I assumed the person must have placed the bid earlier than me. But when I checked the bidding history of the item, I was surprised to find that my bid was actually placed several hours earlier than the winner.

I complained to eBay and their response was basically: we're sorry, but it happens sometimes - we are reporting this problem to our technical people. Is there anything else I can do in this case? I haven't been an eBay user for that long, but is this really a common occurrence? I'm kind of wary of bidding on anything on that site now.

I believe that the way the bid-time display works is inaccurate. If someone bid before you and you then bid the same as his/her maximum it would show up as though they bid after you did since the system raised his/her bid after you placed yours. I have seen that in some auctions I have bid on before.

I believe dablue is correct.

I agree with the last two posters. Happens that way all the time.Too bad you didn't bid just a penny more. My first bid is usually my last bid, and at the last second. Always add a penny, ie. $21.01 just for that reason.

Phil

Thanks for the info everyone. At least now I feel a little bit better because I lost the auction fairly. I'll also make sure I add a penny to my bids from now on.

side note - more and more bidders are taking this philosophy...

I add a little more than a penny to all my bids cause i have had several instances where someone would bid the penny more as well.

The more one uses ebay, the more they will see the need to tweek their max bids a little...

I always bid odd cents amounts for that reason. I never just do a penny but something like 33 cents, 68 cents, etc.

Does it really matter if the next bid increment is ....say $0.50?

just curious - does a couple of pennies affect the bid....?

The lowest amount you are allowed to bid is shown next to the bid window, and that will become the high bid if it is 1 cent or more higher than the current high bidder's real bid.

You don't need to beat the high bid by the amount of the bid increment necessarily. All the bid increment decides is the minimum amount of the next bid.

If a high bid is shown as $7.50, then the lowest you can bid is $8.00. If the high bidder's actual bid is $8.00, then a bid of $8.00 will lose. But if you bid $8.01, you will win.

Wow - I had no idea - thanks.....

Next lesson: The joys of sniping.

I'm already hip to that jive my man.....