help!

In theory you should be able to get a snipe in with one second to go. In practice, you'll lose out as often as you'll get your bid in. Instead of concentrating on having the last bid, concentrate instead on having the highest bid, with just a few more seconds to go. I've won two auctions today with 8 seconds to go and never a counterbid. On Sunday evenings you should allow much more time, perhaps 30 seconds, because that's the busiest time of the week for eBay and its servers often can't keep up with the flood of bids coming in.

So: (1) always bid your maximum; (2) allow 8 seconds (or more depending on eBay's busy times); (3) don't worry about having the final bid of the auction.

oli,

Is that you?

1 second bids on Sunday are not safe. eBay is very eradic.

I think our default of 5 seconds is fine. But you can try 3 or 4 seconds if the items come up often. Nothing to lose in such a case as you can just bid on them again later.

5 seconds is not enough time for a manual sniper to see your bid, enter a new bid, and resnipe. I'm sure a few might be able to do it once in a while, but I dont think most are successful. So with a 5 second snipe you are getting the full benefit of a snipe which is to not let anyone else see your bid and react and rebid themselves.