Hi, I was bidding for some items, and realise that for some reason my bids were being placed 2-3 minutes before the auction actually ended. Even though they were set to 2s or 10s before auction ended.
This ended up with many of the items being bidded up close or above my bids

Hello Si,
Thank you for your report. The connections to eBay were taking extended time, and this was a safeguard to ensure bid placement. It is temporary and you should not see it again.
I hope this has been explained to your satisfaction. Please let me know if you have any other questions.