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Recently I had two snipes in a row where I won the auction at exactly my bid, not a penny more, not a penny less. (GBP 3.68 and 3.67).

Given that bid increments at this level are GBP 0.20, I figure if someone has a bid at GBP 3.40, I'll win at GBP 3.60; or if the bid is GBP 3.50, I'll get the sniper message "bid under increment" (which has happened a few times).

So I think it's weird two times in a row I've won at my exact figure.
Any other explanation?

As I understand it the way it works is that if you snipe (say) £3.68 and the next second somebody snipes (say) £3.50, you win because you'd already registered a higher bid -- but as it's less than one bid step (20p) above their underbid, the amount registered is simply as near to "underbid + bid step" as it can get, hence the full £3.68.

And conversely if somebody snipes £3.50 and the next second you snipe £3.68, you get the "bid under increment" message and lose. So it doesn't always pay to snipe too close to the end -- all you really need to do is to get close enough to stop people having time to react manually.

I think mozzer's hit the nail on the head - it happens to me from time to time.

Steevh,

I'm assuming you're talking about ebay here.

I'll use the following example on an item with an opening bid of £0.99

Bidder 1 bids a maximum bid of £2.24 but the price shown is £0.99

Bidder 2 bids a maximum of £3.52 but the price is shown as £2.44, being the 20p increment above bidder 1's maximum bid.

You bid £3.67 which will be accepted by ebay as you have exceeded bidder 2's maximum bid, even if it is less than the increment. It's just a quirk of the system.

This has happened to me from time to time.

Hope this helps !!

Cheers,

Robert

It won't, you know -- that's the point of the increment. If your bid is placed later, you have to top the earlier bid by at least the increment, or it isn't accepted -- I've occasionally missed out in this way.

I just tried it to make sure -- entered a bid of £1.20 on an item currently at £1.04 and for which the increment is 20p -- and eBay's response was: "Enter an amount that is equal or greater than the minimum bid required. This can be found under the bid entry box." (Which is good, as I'll snipe on it later!)

mozzerb,

My example demonstrates how you can win a lot by less than an increment.

I'll rephrase:

A stamp on ebay is listed with an opening bid of £0.99 and I bid a maximum bid of £2.24

You see the stamp with a current price of £0.99 with one bid. Naturally you cannot see my maximum bid. You enter a maximum bid of £3.52 which raises the current price to £2.44

Steevh sees the item with two bids and a current price of £2.44 (ie: my maximum bid, plus one increment, as a result of your bid).

Steevh snipes with a bid of £3.67 thus exceeding your maximum bid. His bid is greater than the 20p increment (ie: greater than £2.64) and is therefore accepted.

Oh right, I see what you mean. Yes, that would also have the same "go as high as possible over the previous maximum" effect.

Plus of course you can win or lose an ebay auction with an identical bid to another bidder as it just defaults to the earliest bid is the winner so the last second sniper will usually lose.

_________________
Long interest in stamps from Great Britain. Avid collector always after good pre 1930 lots

All seems quite complicated.

But it keeps happening - again yesterday - so its nice to know why.

Thanks for the explanations.

(I was indeed eBaying.)

Could you share some of the luck?

The auction site I use just adds 5 minutes to the end time, if you bid within the last 5 minutes.

Currently waiting for 5 lots to finish, but havn't had any luck the last week

Either I bid too low or the other bidders got too much money to spend.