I always set my snipes relatively early, at about 11 seconds, to reduce the chance of a missed snipe, but also to increase the chance of making the highest bid.
I recently came across a good example of this (some names may have been altered, because I was too lazy to remember them, or copy the auction):
I saw an item that I liked and left a snipe of about $303 for it. Two hours before the end reason prevailed over enthusiasm, so I modified the snipe to $288. At the time a regular proxy bidder (Proxy) had the high bid at $166. I went to bed.
The next day I checked the auction and saw the following result:
Auction end 02.08.16
Won by SuperSniper
SuperSniper Bid $311.01 Time 02.08.14
Proxy Bid $310.00 Time several days before
Me Bid $288.88 Time 02.08.03
Someone Bid $161.00
Notice that my original bid of $303.00 would not have been the high bid, but would have been high enough to make SuperSniper's bid too low to be accepted. Proxy would have been the high bidder at $310.00!
Given that a bid can be too late, but an early bid allows a response, what is the optimum time to place that winning snipe?
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