We have a winner! The important phrase being “you’re comfortable with”. Exactly right. It’s a personal preference. Consider: most snipers probably lend more towards the paranoid, or if you prefer cautious, side of things. After all, they snipe to avoid bidding wars and nibblers and shillers and whatever other ebay bidding things that cause the ending bid to be “enhanced”. So, if you accept the paranoid/cautious label, doesn’t it make sense that there are a substantial, if not majority, of snipers that use a 3-second (minimum that AS allows) lead time. And, if you accept the 3-second theory, then if that wasn’t enough of a lead time, wouldn’t it be reasonable to expect a crap (I can use that word, but I can’t use the s-word) pot full of complaints on the forum about snipes not being in time, assuming you accept the theory that snipers besides being paranoid/cautious would also be spontaneous with their complaints, which would appear in mass quantities on this forum.quote:wouldn't you still want to specify the shortest lead time you're comfortable with so that AS would place the bid as close to auction ending time as possible...response time permitting?
If someone (you know who you are) posts that they use a specific lead time, say 8 seconds, ask them why that has some mystical advantage over some other lead time, and ask them when was the last time they tried some other lead times, such as 7 seconds.
It’s a personal preference – IT MAKES NO DIFFERENCE!