eBAY's PEAK HOURS

5 seconds should be enough for nearly any time of day. If you wanted you could change it to 6 or 7 seconds between 5pm-8pm pacific (ebay time) to be extra extra safe.

I dont think you'd need to but to be extra safe adding another second or two would be enough.

It may also be enough time for someone else who is either manually sniping or watching the auction to slip in another bid. So it's a tradeoff.

Honestly, I believe the busiest time is when I am around... (just for laughs)

Anyway, as I already said in another posting anything between five and fifteen seconds I personally consider "un-outbid-able" by a human. A machine might.

I've tried to bid on something today with thirteen seconds left, I was signed in on ebay, and I am connecting with DSL:

1. I reload the item, knowing it would end soon, and it says thirteen seconds left.
2. I realize my snipe is too low, and so I scroll all the way down, enter a higher bid, click submit (no password required).
3. The confirmation page loads, I click submit (logged in, again no password required).
4. The bid still is too late.

Anyone else is welcome to try. Let's call it the SnipOlympics. The goal is to get a manual snipe in with the least amount of time. AuctionSniper is considered doping. Have fun.

hos lin snip

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No sig.

My personal best at manual sniping is 4 seconds on a T1 (for an electric bike for a coworker). Grin. He bought me lunch for that one! I've never since even gotten close to that doing the manual thing, VERY risky.

I actually nailed one recently dead on auction end. It was for an item I really did not *have* to win, and it was fairly inexpensive, so I was just messing with the time, to see if I could do it.

Not for the faint of heart, even when messing around.

http://shetlandsheepdogs.org/brat/index.html

Apparently there has been confusion about the official rules of the contest.

Therefore, the ISOC, the International SnipOlympic Comittee, has released the following decree for clearification:

Not the time left in the auction AFTER the snipe was placed is considered to name the winner, but the time left listed on the item-page when you start entering your bid on the bottom of the page.

However, the ISOC is considering to host a demo post-sniping competion at the next SnipOlympics.

Juan Antonio hos lin snip

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No sig.

As to the methods described above proclaiming that a bid placed with a time remaining of thirteen seconds won't make it through...

Here is the method I used to use before I started using Auction Sniper. I also have a DSL connection, and of course pre-signing on to ebay is a must:

1. With enough time remaining (a few minutes) you need to set up. Open the item page to see what the time remaining is. Research the bid history to see if some nitwit is totally giving his bidding habits away by returning each time after being outbid and placing another bid.

2. Place your initial bid to see where you are in the bidding war. You may become the high bidder at this point. You may continue to place bids if your bid was not high enough to win the auction without anymore bidders.

3. Determine the amount of your final bid. This is how much more you are willing to go if someone places a bid in the next few minutes and outbids you. Return to the item listing to track the time.

4. Open a second window on your browser with the item page to pre-enter your bid (having a second monitor helps me on this, but resizing will make this possible on one screen). Click on "place bid," and fill in the amount. When you get to the final "place bid" button, put the window aside.

5. Return to the original window and reload to track the final mintues/seconds. Hopefully, that nitwit won't be back before the auction closes, but you are ready if he is! As with Auction Sniper, you determine first ultimately how much you want to pay, and you don't have a second chance. Keep reloading your screen at a faster pace as the auction end nears (this will happen automatically because of the adrenaline boost!). Keep your eye focused on the name of the high bidder, this will quckly let you know with each reload if you are still on top.

4. If you see another name pop up, zoom over to your other window and zap the "place bid" button! Return to the original item window and reload. Hopefully, you will see your name as high bidder just below "auction has ended."

I have been succesful in placing a bid this way with as little as six seconds left before the auction closed. A few times after the dust settled I discovered several other bids were placed in the final seconds along with mine, I assume they were Auction Sniped.

A technical note: a high speed connection is a must for this method. I tried to do it once when I was away on vacation from my PowerBook with a 56k modem and it was hopeless. Reloading is just too slow.

This is why I love Auction Sniper so much; it just does what I used to do by hand without all the time and stress involved!

--Jonathan

I do adjust my bid time for peak hours and have still had bids not be placed because they were out of time - as I said in another post it is usually for the item I want most. I think Sunday evening is very busy. I go 6-8 and have still not had my snipes placed in time.

I have lost because my bid was placed too late a few times doing manual sniping - but not often. I had a regular connection and was still able to pull it off - I never bid more than once - I placed high bids - really more than I hoped to pay but what I was willing to pay - because my connection was so slow I would reload at 2min and check the price then put my bid amount in but not place the bid - I have a timer I would start when I reloaded the screen - I would judge the speed of my connection at the time and place the bid in the last 10-12 seconds - less if my computer was going fast. I was very successful.

I now have a fast connection and I recheck bids up to 30 seconds out before entering my bid amount and actually place my bid at 5 seconds. I still use the timer and have not had a problem. One day this week I forgot the time and got to the item 40 seconds out - I wanted to bid on two auctions that were at the same time and was able to do so. Just to show that manual bidding can be done very quickly with a fast connection.