Matt and Brad,
Let go of the idea of seconds ( units of time ) in your heads, to understand this. Here on this board, at present, time is measured in increments of minutes. It matters not of the Net54 clock goes from "9:59" to "10"00" at 9:59:31, or 10:00:00, or when....
If a bidder bids $200 at 9:59pm in an auction closing at 10:00pm with a 5 minute rule, then what seems simple is that the auction ends at 10:04, and any bids that are posted with a 10:04 time would be accepted... If someone constantly monitoring and refreshing the thread saw that a $210 bid with a time mark of 10:04 actually occurred 5 minutes 26 seconds or 5 minutes 47 seconds after that $200 bid would be making that observation with a false perception of precision.
It seems obvious to me that 5 minutes is 5 minutes. And you don't cut off the auction 4 minutes later with a 5 minute rule... If I understand what you guys are querying it would be similar to when was the milleinium? Lacking a year 0 anno domini, the year 1000 would have been the 999th year, 2000 the 1999th year, and all of the hoopla at New Year's January 1 2000 was a year early.
Simply, 5 minutes is 5 minutes. An auction ending at 10pm with a 5 minute rule and a bid marked 9:58 would end at 10:03, that is at the conclusion of the 5th minute after that 9:58 bid. A bid marked 10:03 would be timely, a bid marked 10:04 would be late.
Surely it isn't being suggested that a 5 minute rule means 4 minutes???
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