Benny, perhaps you can share the item #.
As far as I can tell it may have at most cost you $12. The other bids were placed before you bid.
The person who lost sniped $139 with 16 seconds left, then upped it by $12 with 3 seconds left.
This item ended at 6:30pm on a Sunday night, while many times you can get away with a 5 second snipe, sometimes you cant. You're observations are based on a limited number of snipes whereas we are placing more in 20-30 minutes than you will probably ever place. With the number of snipes we place we can much better assess the risks of snipes placed at peak times on eBay. If you dont mind missing 1-2% of your snipes then set your lead time to 1 second.
Over the past week we've lowered lead times on peak periods and we're going to continue to do that. Your snipe was placed earlier than even we'd like. We're aiming for a 5-15 second max during even peak times.
And remember these extra lead times are only for peak periods such as 6:00:00pm 6:15:00 6:30:00 etc. There are numerous posts as to why this is needed.