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The key word in your post is “outbid” not “out-seconds”. The lead time doesn’t make much difference. 3 seconds, 5 seconds, 10 seconds – it’s all about the same. The only importance lead time has is to prevent giving another bidder time to see your snipe and react to it by placing a manual snipe. If they are using a sniping service, which is most likely the case, then they aren’t monitoring the auction and your lead time will not be a factor. As always, if you want to win, place the highest bid.
Sorry, I don't get the point. If lead time doesn't matter then why have it?

My bid was out bid within the 7 seconds. There was not enough time for Sniper to respond with a new bid.

You seem to be saying to bid very high and hope that Sniper can counter bid in the remaining 6 seconds. That runs counter to Snipers help logic.

Sniper says: "We never recommend less than 5 second lead times on auctions. Less time than that and eBay can take too long to process it, or even respond with the wrong message."

Thanks for your advice,
quote:
If lead time doesn't matter then why have it?
It’s expected and makes the sniper feel like they are in control and make them feel they are a bigger part of the process. It’s kind of like the close-door button on elevators.



quote:
There was not enough time for Sniper to respond with a new bid.
AS only places one bid/snipe, and that’s your maximum bid amount.



quote:
You seem to be saying to bid very high and hope that Sniper can counter bid in the remaining 6 seconds.
See previous reply.



quote:
Sniper says: "We never recommend less than 5 second lead times on auctions. Less time than that and eBay can take too long to process it, or even respond with the wrong message."
That’s dated, and came about in the day when eBay was slower and AS wasn’t as good as they are now. AS supports a 3-second lead time, which I’m sure, considering snipers’ probable mentality, gets used very frequently, and yet if you search the forum you’ll not find any posts (at least for a couple of years) complaining about a not-in-time snipe.
Another newbie belittled by our resident wit...

AS bids once with your max bid. The lead time has little effect - anything under 30 secs and no-one is going to have time to react manually.

So, what happened to you? AS placed your bid but the winner either had a snipe set up with a higher amount and won OR they had already placed their bid and you lost due to eBay's proxy bidding system. Tell us the item no and we might be able to help.

So remember, it's not the last bid that wins, it's the highest - AS just helps you avoid bidding wars.

R2
quote:
Originally posted by region2:
anything under 30 secs and no-one is going to have time to react manually.
You use to say 50 seconds - you're learning (slowly).



quote:
Originally posted by region2:
Tell us the item no and we might be able to help.
Best not to do this, Newbie Belittled.



Resident Wit (it's lonely at the top).
I actually prefer to use a slightly longer lead time, because there is a chance that an earlier bid will be accepted instead of a later bid. So far this has only happened for me once. I became high bidder despite my maximum bid of $55.56 exactly matching the second bidder. I bought the item because my bid was 8 seconds before the end of the auction, while the second bidder bid 4 seconds before the end of the auction. Wink
I'm new here and not sure why I was beaten. My max price was higher than the winning bid. I set it for 3 seconds, just as I had done in my 2 previous snipes, which went very well. Resulting in 2 wins.

Why did this happen? I feel like I might have had a better chance bidding myself.

Could it be a connectivity issue? I don't think so, I was on wifi the whole time.

Has this happenned to anyone else?
quote:
Originally posted by Loumojay:

Could it be a connectivity issue? I don't think so, I was on wifi the whole time.
AS bids from its servers so you being on WiFi or dialup makes no difference.

AS bids once as if it was you - you'll lose if someone has a higher proxy bid in place or your bid isn't one increment higher. AS works brilliantly in that it it bids towards the end of the auction and helps avoid a bidding war - you'll need to do the research to ensure your snipe has a good chance of success.

R2
Thank you for your responses. They have been very helpful.

After I calmed down and I studied it a bit, I think I found the issue.

My max bid was 6201.99

The winning bid was 6102.00.

The increments at that point were 100.00 each.

I can only conclude that had I placed my max bid higher by .01, I penny more, I might have one. I say might because it's always possible the winning bidder had actually placed a higher bid than that.

Thanks again for your input!
Do to my [mostlikely] not understanding eBay increments, I sure would appreciate clarification concerning below. I have quoted the text and then underneath added my 'current' understanding.
Please help me to understand... Wink

Loumojay says:
quote:
My max bid was 6201.99

eBay says: "The bid increment is the amount by which the current high bid is raised each time someone places a higher bid."
Does this mean that whatever this current bid is, the next possible/valid higher bid must be equal to or greater than: current bid + bid increment.
If so, then I see/understand that 6102.00 + 100.00 = 6202.00, hence the shortfall of 0.01

What's bugging me is just how does one get a handle on where to place the max bid?
I mean, that winning bid could have been 6152.00, so how can knowing the bid increments help me 'before' the event to make max bid decision? (since only a bid of 6252.00 or more would have won, yes?)

Or, is it that generally, bids usually float around the logical increment levels?
eg, 3000.01, 3100.01, ..., 3900.01
and that someone would not have a high bid of say 3880.00 whereby only 3980.01 would qualify as winning.

I am probably making this over complicated, but gotta voice what's in the vacuum !
quote:
I am probably making this over complicated
I don't think so. I think you’re right on. I don't see how knowing the bid increment helps. There can be other snipers jumping up the price to a different increment. The only sound advice is to decide what's the absolute most you are willing to pay for something, then use that as your max bid. There's the popular opinion that bidding odd amounts is a good idea – maybe yes, maybe no. If more people bid odd amounts, an even amount could take the auction.

It’s all a crap shoot – no science. Snipe your max amount, and hope nobody beats you.
@Rick:

You speak from wisdom... hey, a Sniper Deity must've been around the block more times than one wants to think about.

What you say hits the mark for me. Your agreement is kind indeed (was expecting a few well placed kicks Big Grin yes, 'what' you perceive the max item value for oneself to be seems the best idea which I will make my mantra.
I guess, the personal issue is that loosing can be hard to take, yes? We all wanna come out top and AS to be our personal Knight in Shinning Armour!

Your insightful comment will allow me to just walk away and keep smiling.

Crap shoot - ya, I like that loads. I'm into Forex and in the end, all the mumbo jumbo jazz is just BS. Like you say, no science at all. Pure finger in the air job.

Thanks loads Rick, most helpful.

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