Today I was the highest bidder on two different items, and I got outbid as the items went 00:00s how does that happen, on one of the items I was the only bidder until the end

Perhaps they were using sniper software like this;

https://www.goofbay.com/free_ebay_sniper.html

If everybody used that, wouldn't it cause a melt down in the last seconds?

And they were 2cv Tools so anyone who selling any 2cv tools, put them on here first

Bad luck, im also after 2cv tools. Carb nut remove in particular!

Buy yourself a 12mm combination spanner, grind the ring end down until it's thin enough to fit onto the carb nut, heat up the ring end of it about half an inch from the ring and bend it through 90 degrees. I'll post a picture of mine for you.

i had thought about doing that,
thanks

Not really - eBay's servers are substantial enough to cope with a couple of people bidding roughly simultaneously...

I like Snipe software - I use a web-based service, as it isolates you from any probs with your own connection which running auto-bid software locally might give you. The bid goes in with six seconds to go on the auction, so there's a little wiggle room, but not enough for anybody who's doing manual incremental bids to respond.

But if everybody stuck to the golden rule of eBay - bid once, but bid the maximum amount you want to pay - it wouldn't make any difference whatsoever. The person who wants to pay most will win, regardless of when the bids go in.

There was an interesting study recently looking at how much the "i don't want to be a loser" attitude kicks in when bidding on ebay. The conclusion was that people will go way above a 'sensible' price just because they don't want to loose.

Indeed. It's hilarious what happens when two people both decide they really, really, really want the same thing. We found a couple of 1966 pocket tube maps in Ellie's parents house when we were clearing it. Put one of 'em on eBay - and there was a fight to the death. £70-odd later... Best of all, though, was sending a message to the guy who lost out in the end, saying "We've got another if you're still interested..." He was... He freely admitted he'd gone WAY over what he wanted to pay - but stuck to his bid... <chuckle>