What does it mean when the countdown timer says "Checking"?

The official end time of the auction is maintained on our servers, which is synchronized to atomic clocks for great accuracy. The countdown timer displayed on your computer is based on information received from our servers regarding bids and the end time. We endeavor to make sure this information is always as up-to-date as possible, however sometimes there might be a slight delay in the information reaching your computer.

When your computer thinks the auction has ended, it displays "Checking" while it waits for further information from our servers:

- either new bids that have been recorded before the auction ended, which are then displayed, together with an update of the countdown timer,

- or the auction has actually ended, and the countdown timer then shows "Finished".

If many new bids have been recorded, or if several robots have been "battling it out", the countdown timer may increase by a substantial amount of time.

If the countdown timer stays stuck in "Checking" state, that means something wrong occurred either on your computer or somewhere in the Internet between our servers and your computer. Please refresh the page to get the most current information then.