The way I see it, the reason to snipe is to get your bid in at the end of an auction so a manual nibbler cannot over bid you. If your snipe is less than an existing maximum, you are going to loose. If some snipe comes in after yours with a higer bid, you are going to lose.

So why not set a snipe time of 30 (or more) seconds, to make sure it gets through the eBay servers. Isn't the chance that a human can pick this up and manually out bid you in 30 seconds minimal? And isn't the risk of not getting through the servers much greater?

Some reccomend doing this on high traffic nights (such as Sunday evening)...your thirty seconds may be just 15 in such a case, and a normal amount of time (say, 8 seconds) would not have gone through. Normally I pick 7 seconds or less because I panic and worry about the manual snipers. However, my biggest problems are pretty much your average nibblers, who keep raising my proxy bit by bit...usually the same people too...-_- They don't seem to have caught on to the sniping deal yet. But, there are some snipers out there that are good at what they do, but I have outsmarted them time and again using AS and timing my snipe just right. Strange thing is I know the people that bid on what I bid on since I belong to a message board for what I collect...x_x That REALLY makes things interesting.

Anyway, always check to see when an auction ends. If its a weekend night, ESPECIALLY Sunday, put in some extra seconds for your snipe. You chance it going in too late, although this might not always happen. Sometimes it really will pop up at 30 secs. to the auction's close...but as I said, it's a risk you may have to be willing to take.

*~samuraiblossom~*

I normally use 8 seconds except on Sunday , during the hour, half, quarter. I add 15 seconds then. If someone were to try to manual snipe at that time, if it takes AS extra, I would say they would be s---out of luck! Anyway, so far it has always worked for me. It's an auction, you take a chance.

I just popped in for a couple of moments on my trip to say hello to all, and especially you to our forum!!

I normally use 8 seconds except on Sunday , during the hour, half, quarter. I add 15 seconds then. If someone were to try to manual snipe at that time, if it takes AS extra, I would say they would be s---out of luck! Anyway, so far it has always worked for me. It's an auction, you take a chance.

I just popped in for a couple of moments on my trip to say hello to all, and especially you to our forum!!