Lead time advice on a slow auction (not popular item) please?

It's not actually the popularity of the item, but that more auctions end on the hour and half hour. ebay resources could be severally taxed. You might be OK with 8 seconds. Hard to say. I'd make it more. The chances of someone sniping because of your snipe is very remote. Even with a 15 second lead time, that's tough to do. Also, considering it's not a popular item, it's even more likely that no one would place a counter-snipe. I would definitely encourage 20+ seconds.

Another factor, is how much do you want the item. Longer lead time will give you more assurance of winning.

Another factor; if it's off hours (very late or very early) reducing you lead time might not be harmful.

Sorry, can't give a specific "yes" or "no". You have to make the final decision.

Spark,

Sniper Sara B. (AS support) just posted this in response to quarter-hour ending auctions:

Dont worry about that seeming like too big of a lead time. Manual snipers wont even get the chance to bid most likley because their bid wont make it in time to eBay because of the extra load of users coming in because so many items are ending at once.

Thank you! I think I'll change it to 20 seconds.