Auction Sniper Blocked My Bids

Top Tip 1. Never use a sniping service for must-haves.

Top Tip 2. Click on the link in the email from AS to see the actual message received by them when they tried to place your bid.

Top Tip 3. AS are good but they aren't able to get an auction relisted on your behalf.

Top Tip 4. Contact AS Support (via help tab or R|ck's inevitable link below) to ask them what went wrong.

R2

quote:

Originally posted by region2:
Top Tip 1. Never use a sniping service for must-haves.

Bad tip/advice.

quote:

Originally posted by region2:
Top Tip 4. Contact AS Support (via help tab or R|ck's inevitable link below) to ask them what went wrong.

http://support.auctionsniper.com/

quote:

quote:
Originally posted by region2:
Top Tip 1. Never use a sniping service for must-haves.
Bad tip/advice.

Good advice in my experience. Let the reader decide...

R2

quote:

Originally posted by region2:
Good advice in my experience. Let the reader decide...

Why do you think it's good advice? Do you have any experience in AS NOT placing a snipe on one of your "must-have" items? If yes, is that experience recent?

Simple - if I manually snipe and I miss it's my fault. If I set up a snipe on any service and it fails it's probably their fault but, whatever happened, I don't have the item. At least with the former I have some control over my destiny and we have all had a missed snipe at some time or another to remind us that these services are fallible.

R2

quote:

Originally posted by region2:
Simple - if I manually snipe and I miss it's my fault. If I set up a snipe on any service and it fails it's probably their fault but, whatever happened, I don't have the item. At least with the former I have some control over my destiny and we have all had a missed snipe at some time or another to remind us that these services are fallible.

I see. So, as I suspected, you don’t have any actual experience in this. Just some theory you whipped up, which at one time (6 years ago), “might” have been valid, but instead of looking at this service in the light of it’s recent performance, you stick with your obsolete view, which again, is NOT founded on ANY first hand experience, recent or old.

Since I already posted on this topic in another thread, I’ll just clip out portions of that text to, in your words, “Let the reader decide...”.

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quote:

Originally posted by region2:
Top Tip 1. Never use a sniping service for must-haves.

This advice is also based on the dated defense against not-in-times. Now, a must-have probably has an element of rarity to it. After all, if it’s something that is auctioned on ebay on a daily bases, it might be a must-have, but how vital is it that one must have it today instead of tomorrow? There are some (few) cases where a must-have “might” not be rare, but these mostly like fall in “that rarely occurs”.

The rarity of an item would “tend” (not always) to place more demand on the item. The greater the demand, the greater the bidding and the greater the chance of bidding wars and nibblers. To avoid this, it is even MORE important to snipe the auction instead of using a proxy bid. Yes, there is a chance of power failures, ebay crashes, server problems, et al, but with the improvements in the Internet, ebay, AS, communications, et al, these issues are more rare than a rare auction on ebay. But, there’s a very real chance that by placing a proxy bid on a “rare” auction instead of sniping it, one will either be out bided or up bided. The benefits of sniping even a must-have far outweigh the risk.

quote:

Originally posted by region2:
... we have all had a missed snipe at some time or another to remind us that these services are fallible.

He’s another question you can avoid answering. How long has it been since AS missed placing a snipe for you? 2 years? 5 years? 7 years?

big ears...

quote:

Originally posted by region2:
big ears...

I see you (region2) applied your maximum intellect to this response. Would be safe to assume that you never experienced AS missing a snipe, either a must-have or the other kind.

Based on the lack of complaints from other users on this forum about snipes not being placed, and any first hand experience on region2’s part of a missed snipe of any kind, one might well concluded that sniping a must-have is just as important, if not more important, than a like-to-have.

I apologise in advance if this offends, dear Rick but ............

I agree with Region2 for the following reasons:

In my experience AS has failed to bid on a couple of occasions for me. Not "must haves" so of little consequence.

A "must have" is a personal decision, but on the whole I feel "must haves" are sensibly assessed by most people.

I bought a "must have" lens tonight. Why? As I am due to photograph a friend's son's wedding in a fortnight and I need a wide angle lens, it became a "must have". Yes I looked, this particular one comes up about every six weeks or so, hence the sudden burst of decisiveness! Did I let AS bid? No, because I didn't want any glitches - I bid early & high!

The only other times I rate an item "must have" is if its genuinely rare. In that case I let AS bid, but also - if it ends at a time I can get to a computer, I'll add manual bid for luck.

Belt and braces? Yes, but if you really want something, then it pays to be cautious.

Paul

quote:

In my experience AS has failed to bid on a couple of occasions for me.

Always good to get some rational discussion.

I also agree, or DID agree, with region2. I have posts that recommend placing a proxy bid for “must-haves”. But I’m arguing that this thinking is dated. Back in the old days, the primary, or a close second, complaint on the forum was not-it-times. It’s been a fairly long time since the forum has seen that kind of a post. There was some server problems with AS, but I think that goes back 6 months or more. Ebay has improved; AS has improved; Internet has improved. Since the likelihood of a failed snipe “appears” to have reduce a great deal, and seeing that the likelihood of placing a proxy bid on a rare item will only result in a bidding war or nibbling, the potentially substantial savings of placing a snipe far outweigh the minor risk of the snipe not being placed.

Hypothetical: If the chances of a failed snipe are 1 out of 10,000, while the chance of a proxy bid being out bided or up bided are 1 out of 5, isn’t it rational to snipe? And, if the item is expensive, then one may end up paying substantially more for the item to avoid a very minor risk. If you have got unlimited funds, then expense is no issue. But in the world of most snipers, seeing that they are probably sniping to save money, the funds have a limit.

I’m not saying that there wasn’t a time that sniping was more risky, as some of the irate posters were quick to announce, but those days are gone and perhaps it’s time to rethink this.

quote:

The only other times I rate an item "must have" is if its genuinely rare. In that case I let AS bid

You and I are in agreement.

quote:

Originally posted by Camera:
The only other times I rate an item "must have" is if its genuinely rare. In that case I let AS bid, but also - if it ends at a time I can get to a computer, I'll add manual bid for luck.
Paul

For must have items I typically do the bidding manually as I have been burned a couple of times by sniping services. Luckily AS has been really reliable in my usage to date...but if I must have something I don't take a chance on a sniper failing to bid.

By the way, if you lose an item but no-one else bid on it, you could always contact the seller and ask him/her to relist or with a BIN price. Worth a try if it is important to you.

Beware of asking the seller to sell outside eBay though - this is against the rules.