Correct way to snipe?

Did your AS snipe not fire, or is it that you didn't win because your max bid was beat? (And note your AS snipe will not go through unless it's at least an increment above the highest bid then showing on ebay.) Of course an AS snipe is no guarantee that you're going to win--unless maybe you set a "nuclear" snipe i.e. with an extravagantly high max bid. AS doesn't keep bidding till you win for sure, it only bids the max bid you set.

I don't understand why people would recommend method (2), combining a manual and an AS snipe. The only time I would manually bid, in ebay, on an item for which I've set up a snipe is if it's a rare item and I want to be absolutely positively sure that I'm gonna get my best bid in.* AS is highly reliable, especially in the basic snipe function, though it ain't 100% and also there've been problems with bidgroups and some of the other functions (how common, no one knows for sure).

*Another situation where I'd be ready to bid manually is if the item's so important that I'm afraid AS might get my snipe in too early--as it unfortunately does, seconds or sometimes minutes or even hours before the precise time one sets it for--thereby enabling someone else to react to my snipe. In that situation I'd be viewing the precious item in the last seconds in order to possibly bid again--but this is assuming I'm wobbly on how much I value the item. On the other hand the common wisdom is to set your automatic snipe for your true max bid in the first place.

....whoah, looking at the other recent threads, I wonder just how reliable AS is these days....

You can file a support incident to find out the real story. We're mostly just other users.

Generally, you do NOT place any bid, just let AS do it.

What did AS give you as a status for the auctions that you didn't win. Frankly, if your ebay id is the same as your forum name, I don't see any indication that any snipes were received by ebay. How much did you bid and what was the final auction price (you can give an auction number too if you like)

AS bids as if it was you - you'll win only if your snipe is higher than everyone else's bid - AS just prevents bidding wars. Reliability? No problems for me...

R2