Since the stuff I bid on is rarely sniped and not often "hot," I'm probably not the best person to make suggestions. However, 5 seconds just seems too darn risky to me for any time of the day. I just can't see many people beating out a 10 second or even 15 second snipe. But again, not many people are waiting to get the stuff I'm bidding on anyway... there is RARELY that level of competition.
So... I go with the logic some of the fine people beat into my head when I first signed on here. And that is ALWAYS bid my max (and sometimes a few dollars more), and leave sufficient lead time for the snipe to get thru. ALL my snipes are set at 15... so far not a single one has failed to get thru. Most arrive between 16-19 seconds before auction close. I rarely adjust that 15 second lead time. I SUPPOSE if someone was sitting at their computer hitting the refresh button over and over, they could outbid me within that 16-19 second time-frame... and possibly that IS happening on those hot hot hot auctions that I rarely bid on.
So what we are looking at here, is not allowing enough time for a lurking sniper (or other sniper program) to get in there before the auction closes AND with a bid higher than yours! BOTH those things have to happen for you to lose.
I guess I'm willing to risk losing an auction by getting outbid by a faster sniper who ALSO has a higher max than me. It just seems the odds are low that will happen enough times to make me want to quit sniping altogether or to risk not getting my snipe placed by have a short lead time!
I personally feel anything under 8-10 seconds these days is a BIG RISK. Ebay is making a LOT of huge changes and it is going to continue for a while - at least a year. They are NOT going to post notices every time they are running upgrades that will slow down response time.
For those of you that don't know, eBay is getting rid of Half.com by summer 2004 and integrating a lot of their functionally into eBay. That's a lot of programming folks, and I doubt they are considering how their ongoing work is affecting people's ability to snipe.
This week they implemented combined shipping. Now Turbo Lister isn't working right. Goodness knows what is next, but they have PLANS! Things to build, things to integrate, things to break and then fix. Lots of them! lol
So decide? Keep a low lead time and risk your bid NEVER being placed, or have a higher lead time and risk someone will snipe you AND beat out your max?
diva (aka Dag)