Just lost my first snipe!!! ????

The auction ended right on the hour on a Sunday evening. It's highly unlikely that anyone would have had time to react to your bid in 42 seconds. There are a lot of auctions that end on the hour and half hour, especially on weekends and evenings. This causes eBay's circuits to get backed up. AS's software detects when eBay's experiencing a slowdown and moves your snipe ahead to compensate so that your snipe goes through, otherwise your bid might not get placed.

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Originally posted by Cojac:
Is AS going downhill or what? I've used it for 2-3 years and it has always performed flawlessly. Item number 8331951540 was just lost because my snipe was placed 42 seconds before the auction was over... it was set for 5! I could have manually sniped better than that.

You lost because someone bid more than you did.

Let me get this straight--you say you have used AS for "2-3 years"; you say that it has "always performed flawlessly," yet it took but a single loss (where you were outbid) for you to ask "Is AS going downhill or what?"

The highest bid will win. I have lost a lot, because I am willing to let others pay more than I want to. By the same token, I have won a lot because AS helped avoid a bid war

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It is certainly not highly unlikely that anyone would have had time to react with 42 seconds left. This auction proves it!!

I definitely agree!

I’m not sure why some of the regulars feel that a retaliatory snipe can’t be placed in the last 30, or even 20 or 15, seconds of an auction. pinkmurmaid placed two snipes AFTER servantspride. Now, one snipe could (“could”, but not “does”) mean the other sniper was using a sniping service, or program. But, when it’s two or more snipes – it’s a manual sniper. And, it also means that the ebay traffic for the 30 or 40 seconds was faster than AS calculated.

We’ve seen ample evidence that a manual sniper can bang out more than one snipe in the closing seconds. Perhaps those (and it’s not just one person) that say 30 seconds doesn’t allow enough time for a retaliatory snipe have never tried it.

I’m not sure who started this “rumor” about retaliatory snipes, but it sure has become popular. Folks – IT’S A MYTH. Maybe it’s time for a new mantra?

thanks for the posts everyone. Falcon gal and chatter are wrong. Yes, he DID counter my snipe after it was placed in this auction, and it happened to me the other day when I placed a manual snipe inside of 30 seconds. That's when I swore I would use AS and pay the quarter because it had always worked. The issue here is not about dollars, it is about timing. If the snipe had been placed 5 seconds before the end, he would have not been able to raise it again. period. My goal is to win the auction as cheaply as possible by being smarter than the average ebayer. If I am outbid prior to my snipe, I'll let it pass.
As for ebay's circuits getting backed up, I don't know. Maybe that is why AS failed in this instance. My comment about going downhill was meant as an inquiry. If I'm the only one, then I guess I can expect technology to fail once in a while and I'll just try again next time. If it happens again, that statement could be warranted.

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Falcon gal and chatter are wrong.

About what? Because I said you were outbid because someone bid higher? That is the truth. Or that you were questioning the effectiveness of a "flawless" operation after a single loss in "2-3 years"? That is also the truth. Those are the only two points that I made.

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Because I said you were outbid because someone bid higher?

Well, then why not stop sniping and everyone place large proxy bids? One of the main reasons to snipe is to avoid bidding wars. A bidding war can take place over several days or, as in this case, can take place in the last 42 seconds of the auction. In this auction, it would appear that “someone bid more” because they had the time to bid more. Or, put another way, had they not had the time, based on their first snipe, they wouldn’t have bid more.

It’s obvious that the winner of any auction is the one that gets the highest bid placed, but the more time that others have to see that bid, the more likely that the highest bidder will be bidding higher than they needed to have bid – just like any other bidding war.

Chatter said:"About what? Because I said you were outbid because someone bid higher? That is the truth. Or that you were questioning the effectiveness of a "flawless" operation after a single loss in "2-3 years"? That is also the truth. Those are the only two points that I made." Not trying to be insensitive, but Chatter was 100% on target, I believe!

I think Rick has pointed out what Chatter appeared wrong about.....definately his wording is accurate...Cojac lost because someone bid higher than him...well duh! Anybody who loses, does so because of a higher bidder.

The point was.....Cojac lost because of a snipe placed too early, which resulted in pinkmurmaid placing at least one extra bid in reply to the snipe.

I too have been playing with manual sniping, and its soooo easy to retaliate (why do you think this is a myth Rick?) to a bid/snipe placed in the final seconds.

Whatever was said, its a mute point anyways, AS would of adjusted the lead time because the auction ended in heavy traffic time.

But to answer your questions Cojac.....NO!! As is not going downhill. Its just not perfect, but no service is

I have never been one to deny that it is possible to manually place a last-second snipe; certainly, in the DSL era, it is not difficult to do so with 42 seconds remaining!

As such, it is possible when AS sends a snipe with 30-40 seconds, instead of the specified 5-10 seconds, that someone will occasionally find themselves outbid. After all, AS is only making an estimate of when the snipe needs to be placed, based on currrent conditions, to fall within the requested window. On a Sunday night, with an auction ending on the hour, that is absolutely the busiest time.

But the internet is a strange animal. Sometimes it is quite slow when one figures all should be well, and sometimes the peak periods seem busy, but then bids still get placed at the very last second. There is no scientific law at play, and AS can only set its computers to make their best "guess-timates." But AS surely wants those snipes placed (that is their bread and butter), and worries that the 3-8 seconds typically seem will not cut it, giving them less profit and more irate customers.

We here know well the angry icons faced when snipes do not get through in time. Lately, however, they seem to be going in the opposite direction. Perhaps AS is overcompensating, but as we have stated before, this seems a case of "damned if you do, damned if you don't." And I do not share the rosy contention of some that the situation would be improved of only AS would put a disclaimer on the snipe screen, warning anyone who changes the default time that they do so at their own peril. No, the whiners would always find an angle by which they might perpetuate their chosen pasttime.

I suppose that, as much as anything else, I was responding to a bit of whining in the original post. I find it rather much when newbies in this forum introduce themselves by whatever form of gripe and complaint--whether it is by angry icons, "this sucks," or questioning if AS is going doing downhill. Even if the complaint is legitimate, negativity makes for a very poor first impression, particularly when someone professes to have been a long-time AS user. My replies were customized accordingly.

There, I have had my say. Thank you for trodding through it.

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and its soooo easy to retaliate

I agree with you.

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(why do you think this is a myth Rick?)

Some or the forum regulars think that a buyer can’t place multiple snipes in response to someone else’s snipe in the closing seconds of an auction – that’s a myth. We’ve seen too many examples from various posters to believe it isn’t possible, and as Lexie points out, not only possible but also easy.

As far as why AS pads the lead-time, maybe this post of mine will help explain:
https://community.auctionsniper.com/eve/ubb.x/a/tpc/f/58.../878105679#878105679

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I suppose that, as much as anything else, I was responding to a bit of whining in the original post.

I think your whine-o-meter is on the ultra-sensitive setting. Even to say “a bit” seems “a bit” excessive.

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I find it rather much when newbies in this forum introduce themselves …

“Introduce themselves”? I don’t think most of the people that come on this forum are introducing themselves. It would appear that most of the people that post, call them “newbies” if you like, do so because they have an issue they are trying to get resolved.

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… by whatever form of gripe and complaint …

Sounds like you are griping and complaining.

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--whether it is by angry icons, "this sucks,"

Why bring up what others have done on previous threads? Isn’t that “a bit” of a reach?

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Even if the complaint is legitimate, it makes for a very poor first impression …

“First impression”? “Introduce themselves”? This isn’t a dating service. Re-reading Cojac’s responses, I don’t see whining, even a “bit” of it. Now I could discuss whining about whining, but then someone could say I’m whining about someone whining about someone whining a bit.

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No, the whiners would always find an angle by which they might perpetuate their chosen pasttime.

More whining?

It has been requested that AS provide an advance setting that would turn off AS adjusting lead-times during peak periods. I’m sure that if that enhancement were made, then there would be some that would get upset that their snipe wasn’t placed in time, but on the other hand, I do so get sick of others trying to protect me from myself.

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There is no scientific law at play, and AS can only set its computers to make their best "guess-timates."

Leaving on a positive note, that last quote I fully support. It must be damn difficult with something as dynamic as ebay to make an “accurate” determination of how much to adjust lead-times so that the snipe will actually be placed to match the sniper’s request.

Have waded thru this topic, and discounting the sniping/whining and countering; the original issue -- early snipe allowing counterbid -- I think it's obviously the case in this example. To insist on the impossibility of manually sniping within the last minute or so of an auction is rather silly since isn't that exactly what several of us did UNTIL we found AS?!?

Now to go even further and risk being declared a heretic, I sometimes wonder if the quarterhour bottleneck busy times are NOT on the ebay computers, but rather on the AS computers! Since ebay has a large number of auctions ending on the quarter hours, obviously there are a correspondingly larger number of snipes scheduled to fire within the 15-second span preceding those quarter hour times. Therefore, in order to accommodate the sheer scheduled snipe volume, some of those snipes get their lead times significantly padded. Simply a matter of logistics.

This is NOT to say AS is not a useful and valuable service. It just isn't foolproof and flawless, nor should we expect it to be. However I do kind of like the idea of opting out of the auto-lead-time-padding feature.

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I do so get sick of others trying to protect me from myself.

Actually, a gem with which I heartily agree!

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Originally posted by Chatter:
negativity makes for a very poor first impression, particularly when someone professes to have been a long-time AS user.

Truer words were never spoken!!

But I believe that goes for both sides of the fence, something that seems to slip the mind occasionally.

Glasses houses n all.