Strange thing just happened -- anybody know why?

About an hour ago, I had one snipe showing "Ready" in green. Decided I didn't want it, so I clicked "Cancel". Saw the message that said "Your snipe has been cancelled", and it was gone. Then I set up another one for a different auction, and checked to make sure it had a green "Ready" -- it did, and it was the only one there. No problem.

Just a few minutes ago, I came back to add a note to the second one, which should have been the only one... but it wasn't. The first one was back, again with a green "Ready" status. The only thing different is that instead of buttons that say Add Note, Modify, and Cancel, the buttons were Add Note, Modify, and Delete. Other than that, it looked like it was ready to go.

I thought about just leaving it alone, to see if it would fire, but I can't really afford the $50 price tag the experiment might have had if I won... So I clicked "Delete" this time, and then exited and came back to make sure it's really gone.

Both my "Choose Snipes" and "Choose Folder" options are set to "All". Could it be because I use my "back" button a lot? Like maybe I cancelled the auction, then went back too far before entering the new snipe, to a screen where the old one hadn't been cancelled? Seems like that shouldn't be possible -- once you cancel it on the server, it shouldn't matter if you're using a screen that's not refreshed. And if that were the case, shouldn't it have shown up with the new snipe I entered?

It's gone now, I think...

Just did a sort of test... deleted my existing snipe, then used the "Back" button to get it back on the screen, and tried to modify it. It took me to the Modify screen, but when I tried to save it, I got a message that said "This snipe cannot be edited" So I'm guessing the Back button didn't have anything to do with it...

For my "test" earlier, I deleted my newer snipe, then used the back button and tried to modify it. It wouldn't let me, which was good. So I re-entered the snipe and went away.

Three minutes before the end of the auction, I came back and clicked the "Update Prices" button, and the test-cancelled auction was back. My screen showed two snipes set up for the same auction, with green "Ready" on both of them. The only real difference (other than my amount, which I had raised) was that one had a "delete" button instead of a "cancel" button.

After the auction ended, I still had two snipes showing for that item. The real one said "You won" and the cancelled one said "Ready" (green).

About an hour later (now), and the cancelled one now says "Bid too low" (which it would have been). The real one is back to green "Ready", though it does say "you won" by the price.

I'm concerned about this. It was cancelled about 50 minutes before the end of the auction, and I SAW the message that said the auction was cancelled. If the amount hadn't been too low, would the cancelled snipe still have placed a bid?

Sometimes pages are held in memory on a server or even on your PC sit could have been that the page was being loaded from that 'memory'. Two solutions. One is to Refresh the page using your browser's refresh button. The other is that old favourite of closing down your browser and starting up again!

Or it could have been AS changing things 'live' at the same time you were modifying your snipe...

R2

Don't think it was cached memory, as I refreshed the browser and clicked the "update prices" button several times. The cancelled auction updated, just like the real one, and the status even changed eventually to "bid too low".

As for AS updating things live while I was making my changes, that's a possibility I guess, but it happened to me twice in the space of a couple of hours. If it's a result of AS making changes or doing maintenance, they need to be aware of the effects they might be having on our snipes -- that is, IF there's any way to determine if the cancelled snipe would have been placed. Also, I don't think they generally do maintenance on a Sunday evening, their busiest time -- isn't that usually reserved for late Friday night?

I suspect it wouldn't have been placed. I think (or hope?) that the snipe was cancelled, but somehow the status screen just didn't get deleted. But I'm only basing that on the fact that I saw the confirmation screen, on the fact that the "Cancel" button changed to "Delete", and on my general faith in AS.

Thanks for the input, though, R2.

Deleted means deleted and they shouldnt come back. If they did we'd have a hell of a problem on our hands.

I agree, you would. That's why I'm asking. Is there a difference between "Cancelled" and "deleted"? Because they *did* come back. I just don't know if they were real or just phantoms (status only, no real snipe behind them).

Sara, I don't really need any action on this, but if it would help you guys figure out what happened, I can open a support case and send you a file with screen-shots. Unfortunately I didn't take one of the "cancelled" confirmation screen, but I did take them afterwards. They show the two snipes on the same auction, before and twice after the auction ended. That same auction is currently listed in the wrong column of my "totals" boxes as well ("Active" instead of "Wins").

I'd still like to know, though, if the "cancelled" snipe was really cancelled, or if it would have fired.