How Embarrassing!

Normally, when bidding in an Auction on the SL website, I make sure I refresh the screen past the end time, so that if I think I've won the auction, I confirm that's the case.

The system accepts bids up to some point that I haven't yet determined. The exact 'last second' that a person can click the Submit button, and expect it to register, is basically a trade secret among those who buy land on the Auctions. (What may complicate the situation is that that exact second may differ according to where you are....this information would be very difficult to ascertain with any certainty.)

At any rate, today I was bidding on four properties. For one of them, I got the 'you've been outbid' message about 30 seconds before the close of the auction, and decided not to try to re-bid. Of the remaining three, I seemed to win all three.

But in all the excitement, I must have neglected to click Refresh on one of them, post-expiration time....because I was certain I'd won it.

(And as I found out later, the winner must have made his or her winning bid within the last 3 or 4 seconds of the Auction.)

Sadly, being certain that I HAD checked all three post-auction, I proceeded to set one of the parcels up for sale. By the time I was finished, there was no way of finding out, online, what the Bidding History had been---from what I could see, the fact that someone else was in possession of the second parcel (the second one I'd intended to set up, if that's clearer) was some kind of glitch.

((After this experience---I wouldn't have had to call the LL Concierge line [first time I've done that] if there WERE some way for me to see the Bidding History. I wonder how expensive a change it would be to keep this Bidding History viewable to all those who had actually bid, for (say) 3 hours or so? Well, just a suggestion...))

Since I couldn't find out what had happened any other way, I did end up phoning, and speaking to a courteous person using the phone name of "Molly". I was very embarrassed to learn that the fault had been mine---that apparently I'd neglected to Refresh the 'confirmation of winning' page. I'd apparently gone by the 2-or-3 seconds-from-expiration screen.

At least I won't make that mistake again!