Having trouble, any help

I think the capital "I" on your keyboard isn't working some of the time so I'm not really able to make sense of most of what you are asking!?

I suspect that your snipe went in OK but was not high enough to beat an existing Proxy bid which would trigger the email you received from eBay. Read up on Proxy Bidding on Ebay's help. Most of the 'regulars' use 8 seconds - lower than that risks your snipe not getting in on time but that's a decision for you to make. AS will, however, adjust times to suit network/server speeds.

HAND (have a nice day!)

R2

i thInk the capItal "i" on your keyboard Isn't workIng some of the tIme so i'm not really able to make sense of most of what you are askIng!?

quote:

Anybody else having this trouble.

Not really a “trouble”. The lead-time is more of a target. AS shoots for that lead-time to be when the snipe is placed, but sometimes the loads on ebay change. If ebay's response time slows up around the end of the auction AS guesstimates that it needs to pad the lead-time to compensate. The theory is that it’s better to get the snipe placed a few seconds early than not at all. Sometime the guesstimates are better than others.

Snipes can’t be changed within the last 5 minutes of the auction. In the help it says, “For reliability and performance, our bidding system prepares your snipes in advance, so you must make your changes before this time.” Part of that preparation is setting up the snipes in multiple servers (I think it’s 4, maybe more these days) to insure that at least one of the snipes is placed. So, in those last 5 minutes, I would guesstimate that AS has it’s hand full determining how much padding is necessary to hit that moving ebay response time target.

I simply say, "nonsense"! I have NEVER sniped less than 8 seconds and have NEVER lost to anyone unless I sniped too low!!

quote:

Originally posted by Serenity:
I simply say, "nonsense"! I have NEVER sniped less than 8 seconds and have NEVER lost to anyone unless I sniped too low!!

Are you saying you’ve never had a snipe not placed, or that you’ve never experienced a retaliatory snipe because AS placed your snipe too early?

Ebay’s a big place, with lots of transactions. On higher end items that perhaps fall into the rare collectibles category, it would only make sense that the competition is much greater than in some of the other areas. With greater competition comes greater incentive to practice bidding techniques that others might not normally follow.

I think we’ve had enough people come on this forum and say that they are able to place a retaliatory manual snipe in the last few seconds that we might believe this to be credible. I’m not sure why someone would go thru the mental anguish to do that instead of just placing their retaliatory amount as their original amount and using a sniping service, but then I’m not in their shoes.

The fact that most of us on this forum use 8 seconds, it’s possible our experience with 5-second or less snipes doesn’t represent the real world.

Good Morning Rick,

Thanks for your response. Honestly I don't pay as much attention to the details as I should. I think the problem is I am having trouble with last bid and highest bid. If I can't "sneek" in and bid, what's the point? If AS has to place my bid so early that ebay has time to send me a notice to bid again, something is wrong.

For me, I would prefer to lose the bid because of delay rather than having the bid placed too early, but to each his own and I am still learning. At the risk of sounding stupid, I am finding out there is a whole lot more to this and ebay than just placing a bid.

Hi Kimm,

Your “to each his own” is spot on. If AS’ method of placing snipes works for you, then AS is for you; if not, then not. With AS, you can’t specify less than 4 seconds, and sometimes the snipes will go in early. On Sunday nights (prime time), don’t be surprised if you see an occasional 20+ second snipe. The forum groupees (I being one) don’t see that as a problem - but others do. Our (forum members versus employees) experience (big qualification on “our”) is that placing 8 second snipes works very nicely for many of us. Someone may place a snipe after yours, but that will probably be an automated one, which would have happened even if your snipe were placed in the last second. As far as a manual sniper – well, anything is possible.

quote:

For me, I would prefer to lose the bid because of delay rather than having the bid placed too early,

If you feel strongly about that, and based on what you feel is “too early”, then from time-to-time you need to be prepared to be disappointed, or whatever word you would used (mad, angry, and pissed are other ways of expressing it – and they have been), with AS.

If you haven’t already read the following, you might find it the quickest way to learn about sniping:
http://www.auctionsniper.com/TipsSheet.aspx
If you read nothing else, including this forum, those tips are your best reference.

Thanks

This fourm has been very informative too.

Happy sniping, Kimm.

quote:

Originally posted by Rick:
With AS, you can’t specify less than 4 seconds,

Correction: "... less than 3 seconds ..."

quote:

If AS has to place my bid so early that ebay has time to send me a notice to bid again, something is wrong.

No it's not - the only times that ebay would do that is:

(1)your bid has been outbid by a proxy bid ( a bid placed earlier and with a max, in this case, higher than your snipe)
or
(2)you have been outbid by someone in reply to your snipe (unlikely in the last 15-30 seconds)
or
(3)you have been outbid by someone with a pre-arranged snipe that went off, and was higher, than yours.

Then ebay will automatically send that email, even if there is only 1 or 2 seconds to go...

Just had a thought - AS was down for maintenance today, in which case it sends out the snipes before closing down, up to 2 hours (I believe) before the auction ends. I don't think this applies here as I think you were complaining about a 7 second lead but correct me if I'm wrong.

R2