Strange response to attempted Snipe Bid

I saw a watch on ebay I fancied getting as a suprise Christmas present for my wife once cleaned up and serviced. I'm in the UK and it was in the states finishing 2am UK time. So I set up a Hammersnipe bid as I have done previously for US based auctions.


Terms of sale
Postage and packaging

Item location: Phillipsburg, New Jersey, United States

Postage to: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Denmark, Romania, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Finland, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Estonia, Australia, Greece, Portugal, Cyprus, Slovenia, Japan, Sweden, Korea, South, Indonesia, Taiwan, South Africa, Thailand, Belgium, France, Hong Kong, Ireland, Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Italy, Germany, Austria, Bahamas, Israel, Mexico, New Zealand, Singapore, Switzerland, Norway, Saudi Arabia, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Croatia, Republic of, Malaysia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Panama, Trinidad and Tobago, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Jamaica, Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Saint Kitts-Nevis, Saint Lucia, Montserrat, Turks and Caicos Islands, Barbados, Bangladesh, Bermuda, Brunei Darussalam, Bolivia, Egypt, French Guiana, Guernsey, Gibraltar, Guadeloupe, Iceland, Jersey, Jordan, Cambodia, Cayman Islands, Liechtenstein, Sri Lanka, Luxembourg, Monaco, Macau, Martinique, Maldives, Nicaragua, Oman, Pakistan, Paraguay, Reunion, Uruguay

Excludes: Angola, Cameroon, French Polynesia, Libya, Mongolia, Suriname, Guyana, Mauritius, Chad, Madagascar, New Caledonia, Iran, Western Sahara, Laos, Congo, Republic of the, Seychelles, Sudan, Venezuela, Somalia, Burma, Cuba, Republic of, Yemen, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Central African Republic, Niger, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Tajikistan, Anguilla, British Virgin Islands, Cape Verde Islands, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Botswana, Eritrea, Swaziland, Lesotho

And I got this email from Hammersnipe when I looked the next morning



Which was a real pain as it went for less than my snipe bid. I've never had this happen before. I think next time I will try putting a bid in early for a lower amount so my account is accepted when it comes to the Snipe bid. has anyone else encountered this problem?

Maybe a dumb question, but if your potential snipe bid was greater than the winning bid, why didn't you just put a routine bid in for your ultimate price?

A manual bid would have most likely triggered a higher snipe. I often aren't in a position to try to manually outdo snipes because of time constraints or physical limitations (date night or party night).
I also use Gixen and support them however I can. I have had no issues except cowardice.

Thanks for all the responses guys. It would appear I have fallen foul of eBays wonderful new Anti Global shipping system. I think if I want anything like this again I will ask my brother in the States to bid for me and then ship it on back to the UK.
Since Brexit (which I personally think is a nonsense) far from being global traders the UK becomes ever more isolated and constrained in how it can trade. Buying and selling from Europe has become difficult whereas before I shipped product from the UK all over Europe from Norway to Greece without thinking twice about sending it. As easy as a parcel within the UK.

I can’t see how it has anything to do with eBay’s GSP. The seller is clearly using it as you have included in the OP above and you state you are in the UK. Based on the info below, which you provided above, you are inside the cleared shipping zone.

Terms of sale
Postage and packaging

Item location: Phillipsburg, New Jersey, United States

Postage to: United States, Canada, United Kingdom

It kinda sounds like an error on the third party snipe program. Or am I missing something?

I've had experienced that it was impossible to bid on items for the same reason even though shipping to my country was included in the seller's terms. Nothing I could do about it.