I chose 5 seconds as lead time, My bid was highest, 7 seconds later another bid come in, 17 seconds later another bid accepted by ebay. Auction then closed. What happened to the 5 seconds I chose as the bid placement window?
If 5 seconds was adhered to precisely, the item would be on the way to me as we speak (or post)!!!

Sorry this happened. If you would supply your auction # perhaps someone could take a look at it for you.

Can you provide auction #, or at least bid history. If they same bidder didn't place multiple snipes, then chances are they weren't responding to your snipe but using a service like AS.

Welcome, sjlnys!

If the other bids were higher than yours, you would still have lost. Because of the timing of the bids, it FEELS like they were bidding in response to your bid, but #1 they couldn't see you MAX, only the current high bid, and #2 you can't see THEIR max, only the winning bid. Highest bid wins, not the last.

Sorry the bid fired early -- did the auction end on an exact quarter hour? There are always lots of discussions about that here. eBay has such a huge load at certain times (especially exactly on the quarter hour on Sundays) that their servers slow down, so AS sometimes adds extra lead time to make sure your bid gets in.

It ended at 7pm and bid was placed 20 seconds early. Since I know we placed your snipe more like 35 seconds early it means eBay took 15 seconds to process it.

It also means the second bidder almost certainly did not see your bid before their snipe, and you would have lost anyways since their bid was $3-4 more than yours.

hi,
I won the auction but was watching the end just now and saw my snipe come in about 20-22 seconds before the 5 second lead time I requested and usually get. I checked my preferences and yes, it still reads 5 seconds. What happened?

Dennis, AS trys to test the waters to see how much traffic there is on Ebay. They then adjust your time accordingly. If they had not, chances are your winning bid would not have been able to be placed!

guy991 US $68.99 Jan-31-04 18:59:59 PST
lisa0425 US $67.99 Jan-31-04 18:59:47 PST
sjlnys US $63.01 Jan-31-04 18:59:40 PST
guy991 US $60.00 Jan-28-04 04:35:19 PST
pjp625 US $38.00 Jan-31-04 16:42:18 PST
electronic-service-center [ US $30.99 Jan-24-04 21:17:16 PST
cmwft US $27.00 Jan-25-04 10:56:31 PST
sjlnys US $25.00 Jan-24-04 19:47:45 PST

As you can see, the 5 second time was actualy 20 seconds. So how reliable is the 5 seconds? As you see the two bids higher than mine where 7 seconds later and 19 seconds later. Based on that, I would have won if the bid was placed to the 5 second mark as requested.

Still trying to understand what variables cause the bids to not be placed at a specific time as stated.

Thanks

During certain times eBay gets VERY busy, especially on or very near quarter hours, and especially especially on Sunday evenings near quarter hours. AS monitors response times for placing bids and will adjust your lead time to try and compensate. AS bid early for you to ensure your bid was placed. If they had not, your bid would not have been received and processed by eBay before the end of the auction.

quote:

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I would have won if the bid was placed to the 5 second mark as requested.

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Hmmmm... maybe, but maybe not. These bids could have been planed well in advance of yours. High bid wins, not the last.

sjlnys posted:

quote:

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As you can see, the 5 second time was actualy 20 seconds. So how reliable is the 5 seconds? As you see the two bids higher than mine where 7 seconds later and 19 seconds later. Based on that, I would have won if the bid was placed to the 5 second mark as requested.

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Snipers often think if their bid is the LAST one placed, they win. Auction winners are the one who have the HIGHEST bid at the end of the auction, no matter WHEN that bid is placed -- ALWAYS!

Looking at your auction's bid history, Lisa comes out of no where (she didn't bid in the auction BEFORE this bid) to bid on the auction a mere 7 seconds after your bid is placed. It is likely that this bid was planned before your's was placed and she may have even used a sniping service like AS, too. Since this bid was probably going to be placed regardless of your bid, the outcome would have been the same even if your bid was placed after Lisa's -- you would have been outbid. Guy's bid is possibly a manual sniper. He held the winning bid until you and Lisa came along, so he was probably monitoring the auction. Guy MAY have been responding to the bids, I don't think Lisa was.

So whether your bid was placed before Lisa's or after, the winning bid after both of you bid would be held by Lisa at $64.01. It's THIS bid that guy MAY have been responding to.

Jabbergah                                                    

thank you for your reply, Mrs. M. The auction was at 7:45pm est. I didn't realize this was such a busy time. I have a snipe placed for later this evening and was wondering if the same thing would happen again. Hope it doesn't affect the outcome.

Sunday evening is normally busy. Between 5:30 and 8:30 PST, on the hour, half, or quarter, I normally add 10 or 15 seconds to my 8 second normal time I set. That's just what I do. Everyone has their opinion. The most important thing is to place your snipe at the max you want to bid! Good luck!

Sniper's mantra - In sniping, it's the size that counts; not the speed.

Thank you one and all. I now have a grasp on this.
Well, back to sniping now. Thanks again

Glad it is working for you!

Oh, I LIKE the flowers!!!

it is an as-is auction, so if it had problems, the seller would probably say "tough luck" sometimes winning on ebay is losing by getting junk or paying too much.

I didnt realise cd changers were still worth money. I should sell my denon that I never use.

have a good one