eBay is moving every auction in Australia to Extended Bidding on August 17, replacing the fixed end time that made last-second sniping possible. Any bid placed in the last minute resets the remaining time to 60 seconds, and the auction keeps extending until a full minute passes with no bids. eBay started testing the format last year on trading cards and added vehicles earlier this year, and says the pilot produced stronger bidding and, on many high-demand listings, higher final prices. Help pages in the US, UK, Canada, Germany, and Australia still call the feature a limited test, and no market outside Australia has announced a rollout, according to Liz Morton at Value Added Resource. The announcement doesn’t appear to give sellers any choice between formats.
