I placed a snipe on a product with a current bid of $1.99, Buy it now of $5.99. My snipe max bid was 11.78.
The auction ended early in the morning, but I thought I mught be able to get it for less than 5.99, but if not I still wanted it anyway.

I did not win the item, I think it is because my max bid was above the buy it now price. What do you think?

Wouldn't have prevented your snipe. How about link to auction?

On your My Snipes page, what's the status next to the snipe?

quote:

Originally posted by Colofuzzbucket:
I placed a snipe on a product with a current bid of $1.99, Buy it now of $5.99. My snipe max bid was 11.78.

Excuse me? You were willing to pay $11.78 for an item that was on BIN of $5.99 - where's the logic in that? Just BIN for $5.99 or snipe at $6.01 but not 12 dollars - it makes no sense.

R2

quote:

Originally posted by Rick:
On your My Snipes page, what's the status next to the snipe?

Did not win

Colo,

Try clicking on the “View Confirmation” button by the snipe. If that doesn’t clear it up, then file a support request using this link:
http://support.auctionsniper.com/


Don’t feel like you need to respond to region2 – he has a reputation for picking on new users. You can ignore him - he'll understand.

quote:

Originally posted by Rick:
Colo,

Try clicking on the “View Confirmation” button by the snipe. If that doesn’t clear it up, then file a support request using this link:
http://support.auctionsniper.com/


Don’t feel like you need to respond to region2 – he has a reputation for picking on new users. You can ignore him - he'll understand.

http://auctionsniper.com/SnipeConfirmation.aspx?sid=58644032

When I clicked on View Confirmation the page that came up seemed to indicate that because my bid was higher than the buy it know, so it was not accepted. The link is above might get you to that page, I don't know if it is only accessable when you are logged in.

You're right - I can't access that link. I still think you should file a support request with that link I left you. The support staff is very helpful.

Good luck.

quote:

Originally posted by Rick:
You're right - I can't access that link. I still think you should file a support request with that link I left you. The support staff is very helpful.

Good luck.

Filed a report this morning, would you like me to post the results when they are available?

Definitely!

I am interested in the reply, as well, though I also wondered why you did not simply use the BIN in the first place.

Well, one explanation is that the buyer (Colo) wanted to pay the least amount possible, but they still wanted the item. So, they risk paying more than the BIN, but they also stand to pay less. How else would one do it?

And I, as others, have seen auctions close at more than the original BIN price.

Rick, you are right. I however failed to realize in the effort to get the lowest price possible that I was really only talking about a couple of dollars. I failed to calculate risk, I had more to lose by not using the BIN than I had to gain by the snipe. Lesson in math learned.

For the snipe lesson of the day here is the reply to my support question:

I am sincerely sorry to see that your snipe on item # 320207955477 was unable to be placed by Auction Sniper. While there were no widespread system problems at this time, this appears to be a case of our system being unable to place your bid on time.

We snipe from an atomic clock, which calibrates our servers. We snipe every auction not once but from 3 different servers and locations. 2 of them snipe exactly on time and 1 server tries to adjust for eBay server lag according to how long their average server is taking. In this situation, unfortunately, our system underestimated the lag time of the eBay server that accepted your bid and, as a result, the auction ended before the bid could be accepted.


I they have offered a snipe credit for later use. I just wanted to understand what had happened. You do get a false since of security that if you snipe something you will get it, little reminders like this are always to be remembered.

quote:

Originally posted by Colofuzzbucket:
When I clicked on View Confirmation the page that came up seemed to indicate that because my bid was higher than the buy it know, so it was not accepted.

Would you mind posting the text of the message you get from that View Confirmation?

Place Bid

Your maximum bid is above or equal to the Buy It Now price. You can lose the item to another user if they buy the item without waiting for the listing to end.Consider buying the item using Buy It Now.

Buy It Now for US $5.99

If you still wish to bid, you may do so below by entering a price lower than the Buy It Now price of US $5.99.

tem you're bidding on:

"LOT OF 2" Wranglers 3T SLIM 13mwz Pro Rodeo

Current bid: US $1.99

Your maximum bid:

Your maximum bid: US $ (Enter US $2.24 or more)

Your bid must be lower than US $5.99


You'll review your maximum bid, shipping cost, and payment methods in the next step.

quote:

Your maximum bid is above or equal to the Buy It Now price.

Learn something new. My regrets for giving you bum information on my first post.

Thanks.

So what can be learned from colofuzz's experience?

- It would appear AS ALLOWS to be scheduled snipes that exceed a BIN price.

- When AS places such a snipe, if the snipe bid exceeds a BIN price on the item, ebay will disallow the bid, thereby making the snipe bid fail.

Possible solution?

- It would be nice if a user attempts to schedule a snipe that exceeds a BIN on the item, AS would WARN the user that ebay would disallow any bid exceeding any BIN price still on the item at the time the snipe bid is placed. I think AS should STILL schedule the snipe as the user wants -- just add a warning message of the possible/probable(?) snipe failure.

Personally, I'm with Chatter on this one ! It seems odd to be willing to spend up to $12 on an item with a $6 BIN while attempting to save(?) $2, $3, $4 off the BIN price?

quote:

So, they risk paying more than the BIN, but they also stand to pay less. How else would one do it?

I think the only way one could accomplish what the OP was attempting to do would be to have TWO AS accounts:
- AS account #1 would snipe first (say at 13 secs lead time) for the user's TRUE max -- $12.
- AS account #2 would snipe second (say at 8 secs lead time) for 1 penny less than the BIN price.

Results:
If current item price at time of snipe is LESS than BIN price, then account #1 snipe will FAIL -- disallowed by ebay; account #2 snipe will be accepted by ebay (as long as bid increments permit it).

If current item price at time of snipe is GREATER than BIN price (BIN would have disappeared at this point), then account #1 snipe will be accepted as long as it is greater than current item price + bid increment; account #2 snipe will fail -- "Bid too low".

It's interesting to note that in the above scenario, one would NOT be in danger of bidding oneself up in spite of placing TWO snipes -- one snipe ALWAYS fails! Now, if ebay makes a software change ALLOWING bids exceeding BINs, the sniper WOULD risk bidding himself up by one extra bid increment with the 2 snipes placed.

An interesting mind puzzle! While the above stategy COULD be done, I don't think I'd do it or recommend it. I'd just jump on the BIN myself!

If I see an item for which the BIN price is WAY more than I think the item will likely fetch and/or I am willing to pay, then I stomp the bin by making a bid, and then enter my snipe through AS, as usual.

However, if the BIN is reasonable, and certainly only a few dollars above the bid, then I use BIN.

For me the acquisition is the objective and that is usually achieved by taking advantage of the BIN.