Anti-Sniping: The Five-Minute Extension That Saves €7,000 Per Auction
How a bid in the final five minutes extends the timer, why the rule is configurable, and what bidders see.
Sniping is the strategy where a bidder waits until the final seconds and places a bid that nobody else has time to respond to. It produces lower closing prices because the second and third bidders never get to react. Anti-sniping is the platform’s answer: a bid in the final window extends the timer, giving everyone time to keep going.
The rule
If a bid lands within the configured anti-sniping window (default: last 5 minutes), the auction’s end time extends by the same window. Two bids in the final five minutes? The auction extends by ten. Bidding stops only when no bid lands within the window. The result: no last-second steals.
Configuration
/admin/auction/rules defines the platform anti-sniping window. Common settings: 3 minutes for high-velocity small lots, 10 minutes for high-value lots where bidders need time to consult. The window is per-auction-format-aware — a Dutch clock auction doesn’t need anti-sniping (no timer to snipe), so the rule is suppressed there.
What bidders see
The auction page surfaces a "extending" indicator when the rule fires: "+5 min — last bid landed in the final window." The countdown resets visibly. Bidders who set up watchlist alerts get a "lot entered final window" ping, so they have a chance to respond.
Settlement consideration
Anti-sniping interacts with the settlement cron. The cron only fires when the auction is genuinely closed — meaning no extensions are pending. A lot that extended six times still settles cleanly when the dust finally settles, because the cron is reading the actual end time, not the originally scheduled one.