Auction Sniper bid 8 minutes before the end of auction when I sniped it for a 6 SECON

Did this auction happen to end between 23:00 PDT Thursday and 1:00 PDT Friday?

If your auction ended during the above mentioned time, it is during down time maintenance for eBay. No one can place a bid during that time, so the results would have most likely been the same, no matter!

See:
eBay Maintenance schedule

quote:

Originally posted by Serenity:
If your auction ended during the above mentioned time, it is during down time maintenance for eBay. No one can place a bid during that time, so the results would have most likely been the same, no matter!

According to LJLS, some ones not only “can”, but did bid during that time. I suspect ebay may have started their maintenance a few minutes late, allowing a window of time to place some bids in the last 8 minutes. Either that, or perhaps AS started their maintenance early.

LJLS, it might be helpful if you could provide the auction #, or at least the exact ending time (hh:mm:ss PDT).

Hi! I have saved the Auction Sniper email that I received telling me that I won ...but it certainly wasn't the bid that AS put in, it was my own due to AS bidding so far ahead that it caused other bidders to outbid me and forced me to go in and bid myself physically. This item is #4981781097. Checking the item's bid history, one can't tell exactly how many times somebody else bid that forced my bid up higher, but originally, at over 8 minutes before auction end, I saw that my bid had gone in at $56.00and almost flipped out seeing that it was so far ahead of the auction's end...thus allowing everyone to see my bid and bid against me! I was the high bidder until, from the item bid history, an opposing bidder entered a $75.00 bid at 11:14:44 PM PDT. My pre-entered maximum bid with AS then kicked in to $75.99 at 11:03:00. I was then outbid at 11:14:55 by a bidder with a $78.00 bid since my $75.99 bid was showing to anyone who looked! So,I physically had to go in at 11:15:11 to place my own bid at $79.00 to win this auction. None of this would have happened had my bid been placed at my ordered time of 6 seconds prior to auction end!! The auction ended at 11:15:20 (my own physical bid went in just 9 seconds prior to auction end.) My bid should have gone in at 11:15:14 and wouldn't have shown those other two bidders my various bid amounts which made them come in and both up my bids and outbid me! I am extremely upset about this costing me extra moneys that I would not have had to pay for this item had my bid gone in correctly.

As you can see by the above link, ebay was scheduled for maintenance at 11 PM (PST). Since that maintenance “may” prevent bids from being placed, and since AS doesn’t know when the bidding process will/if be down, the only thing for AS to do is to place your snipe before the scheduled down time. It has been suggested by region2 (forum member) that AS alert snipers that auctions ending during this 2-hour window will be placed early.

Anyway, the way I read the bid history, 56bridge would have sniped anyways (no previous proxy bids). The extra time allowed 56bridge to increase their bid by an extra $3.00.

That may or may not have been so. The other bidder naturally bid a lot higher than they would have, had they not seen my bid hanging out there. What I would have liked, is if AS had alerted me when I went to snipe, that due to "ebay possibly being down...yada yada yada..if you snipe, we may have to place your bid early".....then I could have made the decision as to whether I would have used AS or just done it on my own! However, I was not afforded that opportunity because when I set it up for the snipe and used my customary 5 or 6 seconds, all I got was the standard bit about "your snipe has been accepted" or whatever the usual always says. If I had known this, I would NOT have used Auction Sniper at all since with my DSL connections, I can usually get in during the last 9 seconds or less on my own. Also, if I'd been doing the bidding on my own and another bid had come in before and I thought it was too high for what I wanted to pay, I'd have just not bid at all. As you can see, however, I placed my own bid physically 9 seconds prior to auction end...due to AS placing my scheduled bid so darned early! I don't think anyone can say what amount Bridge would have bid if he/she hadn't seen my AS generated bid of $56.00 sitting there for so long! I feel like I was the little girl sitting there with her dress pulled up over her head letting all the world see her underpants with that horrid bid sitting there just inviting the world to come and outbid me and it really galled me to have to pay so much more than I had planned.

quote:

What I would have liked, is if AS had alerted me when I went to snipe, that due to "ebay possibly being down...yada yada yada..if you snipe, we may have to place your bid early"

mailto:suggestions@auctionsniper.com

R2

quote:

That may or may not have been so. The other bidder naturally bid a lot higher than they would have, had they not seen my bid hanging out there.

And you know this how--through a crystal ball? How about this: The other bidder was a sniper who bid his most at the last second. How do you know what other people's motivations were?

quote:

If I had known this, I would NOT have used Auction Sniper at all since with my DSL connections, I can usually get in during the last 9 seconds or less on my own.

Right. And since eBay had scheduled maintenance, you were going to sit at the computer and wait? When eBay goes down, they just go down, without warning (other than what they have posted on their announcement board days in advance). You would risk having no bid placed at all? By the time you realized that eBay was down, it would be too late for you to bid, manually or otherwise, and you would have lost the item. This makes no sense, which is why AS places them early in this situation. As it turned out, eBay did not go down that night--but you had no way of knowing that and would have surely lost if they had gone down.

quote:

Also, if I'd been doing the bidding on my own and another bid had come in before and I thought it was too high for what I wanted to pay, I'd have just not bid at all.

Not sure what this means.

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I don't think anyone can say what amount Bridge would have bid if he/she hadn't seen my AS generated bid of $56.00 sitting there for so long!

Precisely, which is whay you should not be making the statement you did above.

quote:

I feel like I was the little girl sitting there with her dress pulled up over her head letting all the world see her underpants with that horrid bid sitting there just inviting the world to come and outbid me and it really galled me to have to pay so much more than I had planned.

Such melodramatic insights. Honestly, you sound a tad too emotional to be a sniper.

Many times I've been described as an 'emotional wasteland' in the past - that explains why I'm such a great sniper! [to be read out in a monotone voice for best effect...]

R2

In reply to "Chatter"....I have physically bid many times during eBay's supposed "maintenance" periods and have won my bids. While, during that time I have not been able to see some features, I have never had a problem actually bidding. Now, I'm not saying that it doesn't happen, but I personally have never not been able to bid during maintenance "down times"...maybe others have encountered it but I haven't. It doesn't make sense to me that there would be many listings that might be about to end during eBay's maintenance times that would not be allowed to receive bids? What happens to those listings then since so many people naturally wait until the last minute to bid on them? I have physically bid on and won several items (not using AS) while not being able to see my own items for sale etc. during those times.

The point is that SOMETIMES eBay goes down during its announced periods. They announce it in advance. Sometimes they go completely down; sometimes they go partially down; sometimes they do not end up going down at all. There is no way to know in advance. Since there is no way to know beforehand, AS bids just before the scheduled maintenance period, which is really the only logical thing to do. Otherwise, the bid may not get registered. It is a catch-22.

If you choose to stay up until all hours, waiting to make a snipe because you are so confident that eBay will not go completely down, then by all means do so. But for many of us who work and have lives, this is not something that we choose to do. Perhaps it would be nice if AS were to insert a flag when the auction is to end during maintenance period, but where would that leave a bidder? Right back to staying up late, which many of us certainly will not do, especially if we bid our maxes. The end result is the same.

Bottom line: Choose the strategy and leave the whining out of the equation, especially in multiple threads.

Chatter, where is the dead horse?( I liked that for making a point! )

I had to look up melodramatic - for a minute I thought I had forgotten it’s meaning. And, while I was there, I thought it best to review the definition of projection and denial.

On the other hand, a couple of Chatter’s comments about sniping are accurate. [Toothy Grin]

YIKES, Chatter!!!

quote:

Originally posted by Serenity:
YIKES, Chatter!!!

Agree. A tad too melodramatic for my blood!

I guess I arrived too late -- Chatter's pic is "X'ed" for me.

It is still there, Jabber.

quote:

Originally posted by Serenity:
It is still there, Jabber.

Nope, fortunately it's still an "X" - it just doesn't turn into a playful cat.

quote:

Originally posted by Serenity:
Chatter, where is the dead horse?( I liked that for making a point! )

Best be more specific/pacific next time!

The picture was an X when I looked this morning. Because of that and some of the comments (I did hesitate before placing this somewhat graphic picture), I have deleted the post.

Sorry if it crossed the line.

What I have noticed in the new forum set up is that no matter which icon I place at the top of the post, it always shows as a notepad on the forum listings. It will show up properly on the post itself, but when you go to the forum main page, where new posts are listed, the icon now shows as the notepad, regardless.

quote:

Originally posted by Chatter:
I have deleted the post.

Thank you, Chatter!

quote:

Originally posted by Chatter:
What I have noticed in the new forum set up is that no matter which icon I place at the top of the post, it always shows as a notepad on the forum listings.

I see a icon for your last post.

Chatter, I saw the horse this Am, not a x! Weird!! Anyway, it didn't really upset me, honestly! I was playing with you, not upset. There have been a lot worse than that on here, IMO. If it had, I would have asked you to remove it, but maybe it upset others, so you probably did what was best.

BTW, mine shows the correct icon when I am posting and after.

quote:

Originally posted by Serenity:
BTW, mine shows the correct icon when I am posting and after.

Nope, Chatter is right. In the “Last Post” column, it use to show the last post’s mood icon. It no longer does.

Despite having requested a 7-seconds-before-close snipe, AS put in my maximum bid 29 seconds before the close of the auction, allowing the previous high bidder to add another bid before the auction closed, so I lost.
I checked previous AS bids, and they've all been within a few seconds of my requested margin. Can anyone explain what happened and why? Since the auction closed at 7:00 PM PST, I assume there was no scheduled ebay maintenence.

<sigh>

Shady,

This might help:
Read me

Rick:
Yes, I'm sure you get a lot of questions/complaints just like mine, and I like the "hard to hit a moving target" analogy.
Has AS ever posted a schedule with ebay's high-traffic times listed? I can imagine that on Sunday evening there is a greater chance of ebay's response being slow, and I'll bet AS would rather catch flak for putting in a bid too early than get nailed for not getting a bid in before the auction closed.
Maybe during these high-traffic periods I should make the effort to be where I can post my own bid if the item is hard-to-find, and leave AS for the more ordinary items that close at low-traffic times, or when I simply can't place a bid in the closing seconds.
Thanks for the explanation.

quote:

Has AS ever posted a schedule with ebay's high-traffic times listed?

Yes , it is in their Help.

quote:

What is the ideal lead-time?

Lead-time is the number of seconds FROM the end of an auction that you would like Auction Sniper to place your bid. We recommend lead times between 5 and 12 seconds. Currently, Auction Sniper successfully places 99.9% of all snipes with 5-second lead times.

We don't recommend anything less than 5 seconds. Although we send the snipe on time, during peak times an eBay server may not process it in time. This is not the fault of eBay nor us; internet traffic is just heavier at certain times. And during peak periods the default 5 second lead-time, while adequate for most weekday situations, often isn‘t enough for evenings and weekends. Anything under 5-seconds is not recommended. We synchronize from an atomic clock, which calibrates our servers.

We snipe every auction multiple times, from multiple servers and locations. These servers adjust for eBay server lag according to how long their average server is taking. Remember that it‘s in our interests for you to win.

You should increase your lead-time to 7-12 seconds on auctions that close 5-11 p.m. Pacific (eBay) time, and on weekends, when eBay traffic is heavier.

There are risks to sniping. No service or software guarantees your wins. Read more information about the risks of sniping: http://www.auctionsniper.com/risks.aspx.

Even though the vast majority of these are due to not enough lead time, eBay server lag or heavier than usual internet traffic, you can redeem free snipes for Did Not Win or Not In Time messages at: http://www.auctionsniper.com/freeSnipes.aspx.

quote:

Originally posted by shadyguy:
and I'll bet AS would rather catch flak for putting in a bid too early than get nailed for not getting a bid in before the auction closed.

Yes, that’s their thinking, and something I agree with.

quote:

Originally posted by shadyguy:
Maybe during these high-traffic periods I should make the effort to be where I can post my own bid if the item is hard-to-find, and leave AS for the more ordinary items that close at low-traffic times, or when I simply can't place a bid in the closing seconds.

You could, but I think you’ll find that unnecessary.

The complaints that come from snipes not getting placed are usually from those that didn’t follow the recommendations provided in the help text. They tend to come from those that used less than 7 seconds (often only 2 seconds) on a Sunday evening.

Now, having a snipe placed 29 seconds before the end of the auction creates a situation that might cause someone to place a retaliatory snipe (responding to your snipe), but that other snipe could have been placed by another service/program which means it wasn’t responding to your snipe.

Also, I’d rather not have auction ending times dictate my schedule. Sitting around the computer to place a last second manual snipe is more of a commitment than some of us are willing to make, and that’s assuming that you can get that manual snipe placed. AS uses 4 different servers (it may be more since the last update) when placing snipes to better insure it’s placed. There are too many things between your computer and ebay that can go wrong. And if you are going to place a proxy bid well in advance of the end time, then what’s the difference having a 29 second snipe?

Hope this helps.

Now I notice that on the front page of the message board forum, the mood icons are all yellow folders.

quote:

Originally posted by Chatter:
Now I notice that on the front page of the message board forum, the mood icons are all yellow folders.

They match the type of topic: discussion, poll, and photo album (position cursor in the various forums if uncertain). No thumbdown topic selection is available, but I could check with Infopop about future developments.