Hi,

I had a snipe set on an item for $77.99 today. The item sold for $74.34, and I was given the message, "current bid is higher than your snipe". There was a shipping fee of $11.95 on the item, as well, but I have never used that to calculate my bid amount.

The bid increment for $25-$99.99 is $1, so I should have won this auction.

This is the first time I have had this problem with myibay, so it seems very unusual!

Thanks

You did not provide the item number so I could only guess that your original snipe amount was lower than $74.34, then you changed your snipe amount, but that was too late for the sniper to use it.
If that's the case, please check the following FAQ section for more information on when you can change your snipe:
http://www.myibay.com/login/faq/4/#q5

Hi Sashka,

Thanks for the quick reply. I had set up the snipe as part of a Snipe These group, so I had not changed it. I'm pretty sure I set the bid at least a couple of hours before the auction ended, and did not touch it after activation.

The item # is: 150504152058

An unusual thing about this auction was that a buyer retracted his bid twice, the last time around an hour before the end.

I've used myibay for thousands of auctions, and this is a very rare occurrence. Thanks for providing such a great and overall consistent service.

Gaston wrote:
The item # is: 150504152058

An unusual thing about this auction was that a buyer retracted his bid twice, the last time around an hour before the end.

Yes, this is the reason. The buyer retracted his bid on a last second so at the time of your snipe the current bid was higher than your snipe amount and so eBay refused it.

P.S.: Btw, why did you set your snipe to be such a weird amount 77.99 and not 78 even? You have a high chance to loose to those snipers who would set 78. Or even add a few cents to be 78.02 or something like that. A few cents won't make any difference for you, but will increase your chances to win significantly.
Just a suggestion.

Thanks, Sashka. I incorrectly read the retraction info--I don't see those happen often and I haven't had to pay attention to it before. Looks like it's actually fairly common with this seller's items. Fraudulent buyers use new accounts to make the price prohibitive and then retract their sheltering bids at the last moment... I don't know how to report that to eBay, do you?

After reviewing their lowest price sales on this item, I see that all of the winners used this fraudulent technique to obtain bargain prices.

Re: my $77.99 bid-
I'm actually using the extreme version of what you suggest. My real price point for that auction was $77, so I added the maximum cents to make it $77.99. (I was mislead as to the reasonable low price for these auctions, though, as the fraudulent buyers artificially deflated the price.)

Gaston wrote:
Thanks, Sashka. I incorrectly read the retraction info--I don't see those happen often and I haven't had to pay attention to it before. Looks like it's actually fairly common with this seller's items. Fraudulent buyers use new accounts to make the price prohibitive and then retract their sheltering bids at the last moment... I don't know how to report that to eBay, do you?

After reviewing their lowest price sales on this item, I see that all of the winners used this fraudulent technique to obtain bargain prices.

Yes, it seems like what you described. I tried to report it to eBay in the past, but no luck. Try it. The more we report, the better chance eBay will do something (refusing to retract the bid when there are a few minutes to go should do it).
I reported it as fraudulent bidder (and maybe seller) trying to block other bidders from bidding.

Gaston wrote:
Re: my $77.99 bid-
I'm actually using the extreme version of what you suggest. My real price point for that auction was $77, so I added the maximum cents to make it $77.99.

If your actual absolute maximum is almost $78 instead of $77, you should add a few cents anyway. Think about how you will feel when someone will win it for $78 even