Discussion about B.S.T. Auction End Times and Determining an Auction Winner...

[leftygrove10]

I noticed in a recent net54 B.S.T. auction that a couple people had put in last second bids for the card being auctioned. It got me wondering what would happen if the following occurred during a net54 B.S.T. auction:

Suppose the auction was dictated by the seller to end at 10:00 pm. Suppose the following last minute bids were placed by different bidders:

Bidder #1 bids $100 at 9:58 pm...
Bidder #2 bids $120 at 9:59 pm...
Bidder #3 bids $130 at 10:00 pm...
Bidder #4 bids $150 at 10:01 pm...

Note the times of the bids. Net54 time stamps contain only the hour and minutes. Seconds are not included.

Who is the winner of this auction?

The auction was declared by the seller to end at exactly 10:00 pm (which means 10:00 with 00 seconds). Had this been an eBay auction, bids that occurred after 10:00 with 00 seconds would be too late and would not be allowed. Therefore, in the above scenerio, bidder #2 should be the winner of the auction with a bid of $120.

The bid for bidder #3 occurred at 10:00 pm. Since the auction ended at 10:00 with 00 seconds, this bid should be considered late and should not count.

Should the seller in the above example B.S.T. auction specify specifically that bids with time stamps of 9:59 pm would be accepted and that bids occurring at 10:00 pm or later would not be accepted?

This WILL EVENTUALLY HAPPEN on net54, because there have been several last second/minute bids recently. Now is the time to discuss this issue so that hard feelings and fights do not occur when it does happen.

In my opinion, sellers should specifically specify the last time stamp for which bids will be considered.