Twice now, I have lost an auction [#107589 (3-22-12) & #108281 (4-17-12)] though my bid was identical to the declared winner and, according to the website bid history, it would appear that my bid was first in one case (#107589). If what I have said is true, this is terribly unfair. If I bid the winning price and I bid it first, someone else should not be able to bid the same price and take away the item. The declared winner should have had to make a higher bid to take the item.
Both of these auctions involved final minute bidding. Perhaps I am misinterpreting the reported bid history data.
Given the comparative bid history, I also find it incredible that another bidder entered a bid exactly the same as mine, especially when, in auction #107589, I bid a significant jump ($68).
In auction #108281, it appears from the bid history that the declared winner bid the identical amount earlier than my bid. I am OK with that result, but the bidding software should have informed me that I would have to bid higher. The curiosity in this auction is that the declared winner is reputed to have entered the winning bid five minutes prior to the auction close when the highest bid at the time was $44 less than the winning bid. This aberration in the bid history invites distrust.
I am aware of the recent tirade of unhappy bidders over the practice of slamming. What I am reporting here is not a slamming issue that I can see, though I confess to practicing slamming when I really desire an item up for bid. I do not, however, use slamming software. I agee that practice should be discouraged, if not banned entirely.
If anyone else has light to shed on these disturbing circumstances, I would appreciate a response.

Hi Ken. Bob Zimmer here. I should probably wait for Charlie to answer you; but let me take a stab at it.

The experience you have is consistent with another bidder having bid a PROXY bid PRIOR to the auction end. I do this all the time. In your example. if I have a proxy bid of $35.00. and the high bid is $31.00 and I am winning it; then when you bid $32.33 at the end my proxy bid jumps to that amount, and I win the item. If my proxy bid was $32.00, your bid would have won the item.

My proxy bid is the MOST I want to pay for an item. Some I win, some I lose. There is no skulduggery, someone had a higher bid in place FIRST.

Hope this helps you.

Bob Zimmer/Trainster

Thanks, Bob. I too have used proxy bidding and almost always enter a bid more than the minimum increment. When I do that, ordinarily, if another bidder places a bid at the minimum increment above my minimum increment from the proxy bid, my proxy bid kicks in and it shows the other bidders bid as well as my new proxy-created minimum increment bid. If you review the bid history in #108361, the declared winner was in the auction earlier with apparent minimum increment bids twice, but then was absent for the 33.5 hours prior to the close of the auction. He and I came in with proxy bids $2.33 higher than the last successful bidder at $30.00. By the recorded order of bids, it looks like I was the first bidder at $32.33, but lost the auction. If the declared winner had a proxy bid higher than mine (probably is the case), why was not his winning bid required to be higher than mine? Consdering that both bids ended up equal at $32.33, if mine was first, I would think mine would have priority over his. I am still puzzled by the outcomes in these three auctions where my bid tied the declared winner. The disappointment is all the more keenly felt because I really wanted those items. Ken

I have had the same experience and also wonder how there can be identical bids. I think this is a software bug and should be corrected so the winning bidder does not have the same bid amount as the loser!