ebay question

[coyn]

On ebay when it says 1 hour 40mins left till end of auction, how accurate is that time? anyone here know?

[stevie21]

How do you mean? It ignores the amount of seconds and tells you how many minutes are left so there could be somewhere between 1hr 40min 00secs and 1hr 40min and 59 secs remaining.
The time displayed is dictated by when your page has loaded so you need to refresh it to keep the info up to date.

The auctions do also say things like
"Ends 27-Nov-05 07:36:11 GMT"
to include the seconds.

[dannydingbat]

Check it yourself. Go to the page, see what time it says and then press the f5 key on your keyboard to refresh the page. Time it until the new page comes up with a new time and see if you agree. It's right within a few seconds.

[coyn]

Thanks

[ronniemonda8]

It's okish. If it says '5 seconds left' and you bid within 4, you'll be too late, their server does seem a bit off.

[polar_bear]

It is accurate enough but if you mean for sniping purposes(bidding in the last 5 seconds or so ) then it is best left to software to do that for you.

Trouble is when everyone is on sniping software it wont work as an auction will it ?

[ronniemonda8]

well...it'll only be based on what people are prepared to pay. The only element you remove really is the distortion of perceived value which arises from others showing how much they are prepared to pay for it.

Most sniping software I've seen hits it at T-4secs. Any that can wait longer is gonna be better, not forced up by later bids.

[hollie1586]

the time is very accurate!