How is this even possible?

UKCardGuy · #1 11-22-2025, 02:46 AM

I like to think I'm pretty savvy with eBay, but today I've experienced something that has me truly flumoxed. I received a notification for a card on my want list. It had no bids and a starting bid of 99 cents. So I make a max bid of $150 expecting that it'd be the hugh bid (at least for a while until someone outbid me). But no - immediately I'm outbid...even though I was the opening bid. When I look at the bid history is shows that a higher bid was placed 5 hours before.

How can that be the case? If they bid higher than me, wouldn't there have been at least one bid at 99 cents before me? How can I be the opening bidder at 99 cents but a bid was submitted 5 hours before?

Its highly probable that I'm just being stupid. If so, please educate me.

Thanks.
Gary G01db3rg

premiercardcollectors · #2 11-22-2025, 04:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by UKCardGuy

I like to think I'm pretty savvy with eBay, but today I've experienced something that has me truly flumoxed. I received a notification for a card on my want list. It had no bids and a starting bid of 99 cents. So I make a max bid of $150 expecting that it'd be the hugh bid (at least for a while until someone outbid me). But no - immediately I'm outbid...even though I was the opening bid. When I look at the bid history is shows that a higher bid was placed 5 hours before.

How can that be the case? If they bid higher than me, wouldn't there have been at least one bid at 99 cents before me? How can I be the opening bidder at 99 cents but a bid was submitted 5 hours before?

Its highly probable that I'm just being stupid. If so, please educate me.

Thanks.
Gary G01db3rg

It looks like the Bidder above you placed his bid 5 hours before you with a Max Bid of $152.5 or higher. Since you placed a max bid of $150 it automatically bumped his bid to $152.50.

You must not have actually been the opening bidder as there was already a bid at .99 according to the bid history.

You may have seen Opening Bid 0.99 but it probably said �1 Bid�.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

JollyElm · #3 11-22-2025, 04:33 AM

If you are "g*" then it appears you're right.
According to the history shown, the opening bid seems to have been made by you, as there's nothing between your bid and the starting price.
Is it possible that the phantom bidder had a snipe bid that kicked in because it was triggered by your $150 amount??
I don't use (or have enough knowledge about) any of those apps, but could that potentially be the reason??

UKCardGuy · #4 11-22-2025, 05:11 AM

Yep, i'm g... in that bid history.

The bidder at 152.50 couldnt have nid before me because i was the first bidder. When i placed my bid it showed no bids. I was the first bid at 99 cents.
I dont think it could be a snipe app, because that would just look like another bid and it wouldn't be 5 hours before mine.

I've seen soemthing similar on Pristine where i bid on a pennant that had no bids....and then i was automatically outbid even though my bid was the first bid. I just stopped bidding there because it seemed iffy.

I'm now seeing this on ebay. Something doesn't feel right to me.

NiceDocter · #5 11-22-2025, 07:11 AM

Other bidder has a DeLorean with a flux capacitor.

JollyElm · #6 11-22-2025, 03:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NiceDocter

Other bidder has a DeLorean with a flux capacitor.

Bravo, sir!

Mark17 · #7 11-22-2025, 08:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by UKCardGuy

Yep, i'm g... in that bid history.

The bidder at 152.50 couldnt have nid before me because i was the first bidder. When i placed my bid it showed no bids. I was the first bid at 99 cents.
I dont think it could be a snipe app, because that would just look like another bid and it wouldn't be 5 hours before mine.

I've seen soemthing similar on Pristine where i bid on a pennant that had no bids....and then i was automatically outbid even though my bid was the first bid. I just stopped bidding there because it seemed iffy.

I'm now seeing this on ebay. Something doesn't feel right to me.

Are you bidding from the UK, as your signature suggests? I have noticed from time to time that timestamps are sometimes based on the location of the system server. For instance, I'm in central time zone USA, and when dealing with a website based on the west coast, timestamps sometimes appear relative to their time zone.

Can you post a link to that auction, so we can see what the bidding timestamps look like to us in the USA?

swarmee · #8 11-22-2025, 09:15 AM

Did the auction originally have a hidden reserve of $150?

hcv123 · #9 11-22-2025, 10:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mark17

Are you bidding from the UK, as your signature suggests? I have noticed from time to time that timestamps are sometimes based on the location of the system server. For instance, I'm in central time zone USA, and when dealing with a website based on the west coast, timestamps sometimes appear relative to their time zone.

This is the only thing I have read that even seems plausible. Definitely quite strange. I do not think Ebay is "shilling" - in a worst case scenario some type of glitch.

jayshum · #10 11-22-2025, 07:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by premiercardcollectors

It looks like the Bidder above you placed his bid 5 hours before you with a Max Bid of $152.5 or higher. Since you placed a max bid of $150 it automatically bumped his bid to $152.50.

You must not have actually been the opening bidder as there was already a bid at .99 according to the bid history.

You may have seen Opening Bid 0.99 but it probably said �1 Bid�.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

If there had already been an opening bid of $0.99 made, the OP wouldn't have been able to place a bid for $0.99. I don't have any other explanation for what could have happened, but it is definitely strange.

premiercardcollectors · #11 11-22-2025, 07:13 AM

I use snipe tools but they usually don�t place a bid until the last 3-5 seconds of an auction. So much BS going on with auctions now.

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Lucas00 · #12 11-22-2025, 11:28 AM

I though chatgpt might actually be useful for this as I couldn't think of any explanation. Does this fit your scenario?