#1176 permanent Buy It Now option causes snipe failure

[Jesse Brandeburg]

We've noticed a couple of snipe failures, there apparently is a way to have "Buy It Now" stick on an auction even after there are bids.

As an example, see the auction below, we should have had the highest bid, by quite a lot.

This completely messed up jbidwatcher (AFAIK) and it does something like:

information:

Nordstroms N Kids Floral Bubble Purple Capri Top Set 3 - eBay (150206458247)

Currently
$3.83 (4 Bids)
High Bidder
1988eve
Shipping
$3.50
Insurance (optional)
$1.65
Seller
thepurpletutu
Listing ended at
Tue Jan 22 20:08:39 PST 2008
You could have used Buy It Now for $15.00 Listing is ended. Events
Tue Jan 22 20:06:32 PST 2008: Preparing snipe. (1) Tue Jan 22 20:06:33 PST 2008: Snipe was too low, and was not accepted. (1) Tue Jan 22 20:08:37 PST 2008: Cancelling snipe, auction is reported as ended. (1) Tue Jan 22 20:08:37 PST 2008: Cancelling snipe. (1)

errors file:
Tue Jan 22 20:06:32 PST 2008: Tue Jan 22 20:06:32 PST 2008: 150206458247 (Nordstroms N Kids Floral Bubble Purple Capri Top Set 3 - eBay ) - Preparing snipe. (1)
Tue Jan 22 20:06:33 PST 2008: Tue Jan 22 20:06:33 PST 2008: 150206458247 (Nordstroms N Kids Floral Bubble Purple Capri Top Set 3 - eBay ) - Snipe was too low, and was not accepted. (1)
Tue Jan 22 20:08:37 PST 2008: Tue Jan 22 20:08:37 PST 2008: 150206458247 (Nordstroms N Kids Floral Bubble Purple Capri Top Set 3 - eBay ) - Cancelling snipe, auction is reported as ended. (1)
Tue Jan 22 20:08:37 PST 2008: Tue Jan 22 20:08:37 PST 2008: 150206458247 (Nordstroms N Kids Floral Bubble Purple Capri Top Set 3 - eBay ) - Cancelling snipe. (1)

Thanks for looking into this if you find the time, let me know if I can provide any other information.

[bob finch]

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I had something very similar take place with an auction this evening.

My snipe amount was *larger* than the *winning* amount, yet the snipe never was entered and here is the "info":

Listing ended at
Sat Feb 16 20:00:00 MST 2008
Listing is ended. Events
Sat Feb 16 19:57:50 MST 2008: Preparing snipe. (1) Sat Feb 16 19:57:52 MST 2008: Snipe was too low, and was not accepted. (1) Sat Feb 16 20:00:02 MST 2008: Cancelling snipe, auction is reported as ended. (1) Sat Feb 16 20:00:02 MST 2008: Cancelling snipe. (1)

How is this possible ?

[Morgan Schweers]

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Greetings,
Please let me know what the amount you were bidding was.

(And for bfinch, please let me know the item # and the amount you were trying to bid.)

There are many circumstances in which you might think you have a higher winning bid, but because of minimum bid increments your bid doesn't qualify, and eBay rejects it.

To be precise, the message 'Snipe was too low, and was not accepted.' is generated when eBay's bid page responds with the text 'Your bid must be at least', which means your bid was too low, in eBay's opinion. There is a second circumstance, when eBay is prompting you to enter a bid of '{some amount} or more', which has basically the same meaning. In either case, for some reason eBay rejected the bid.

In this case, the minimum bid increment means that the smallest acceptable bid would have been $4.08.

I haven't been able to list up a test-listing that includes this feature (BIN after bids) due to a small conflict with eBay which was quickly resolved, but I will endeavor to do so to see if that changes things, but the error you both got still requires specific responses from eBay to trigger.

Thanks muchly!

-- Morgan Schweers, CyberFOX!

[bob finch]

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Hi Morgan;

I wish I could get into the specifics of the amount of this bid but *oddly* the bid amount disappeared from this item after a re-sync with ebay. This kind of behavior with items in the completed tab I have also not seen before. (However it might well be an issue with minimum bid increments as you point out in your reply.)

In the error log itself (which I looked at with 'less' btw) there are some java script errors related to network unreachable, but the local gateway here does not reflect/reveal any issues at the same time. There are also some messages about "communications failures", however I cannot find a reason for these looking at any associated logs on the gateway server.

While I have not sniped an auction yet, since these failures, updating my auction list, including adding auctions via a re-sync, seem to be fine now.

i.e. I have nothing concrete to report that can be of further assistance to you.

But I *am* impressed on your speedy reply and good, solid information about the ebay interactions. Many thanks !!

Very best regards;

Bob Finch

[Jesse Brandeburg]

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Hi Morgan thanks for the reply.
from the text above the BIN amount was $15 and our max bid for the snipe was $16, or 15.99 (as I recall, because bidwatcher doesn't even show the snipe amount any more)