Not in time?

This just happened to me also. I have been allowing 8 seconds, but this one came back with the status of "Not in Time". Quite irritating, to say the least. It was a one-of-a-kind sort of auction, for some items my son really wanted. Now I guess I need to tell him I screwed up...

My guess is that you both ran into one of eBay's unpredictable "slowdown" times. I just hit one about 15 minutes ago when I was looking for things I might want to bid on. The search listing came up fine, but when I clicked on an item to look at it there was a delay of about 30 seconds before it came up. If I had placed a bid on any of them through AS (I use a variable time so as not to be predictable) I would have lost out too.

I took a look at your snipe, looking-back, and I see that Auction Sniper placed it exactly when we said we would -- 5 seconds before the auction was to end. The problem was that eBay did not receive and/or process your bid in time. This will occasionally happen, but it is very rare for a 5 second snipe. Sniping is a risk, as mentioned here: http://www.auctionsniper.com/?p=risks -- but we will gladly credit your account for free sniping credits anytime you receive a not-in-time status message.

You can redeem your sniping credits here:
http://www.auctionsniper.com/?p=missed

Even though in situations like this Auction Sniper did its job, we like to let our users know that we understand what its like to miss out on an item that you really wanted. Although free sniping credits may not be the solution, its the most we can do.

Thanks,
Adam R.

Steve: How do you arrange variable lead times for your snipes?

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Steve:
... I use a variable time so as not to be predictable)

When you add a snipe it lets you choose your 'lead time'. This is normally set to your preferred time. However, I assume Steve varies his lead time so that it is not too obvious to others that he is using automatic sniping. Someone looking at his bid history may see that he bids, say, 5 seconds before EVERY auction ends and start searching themselves for the joys of AS. By varying the lead they may just think he is a very dedicated manual sniper!

You're on the right track, Mish, but you haven't quite got it. I use a mixture of AS snipes pre-set to be entered with a few seconds remaining, and manual snipes as I did in the days before there was an AS. This gives me the convenience and reliability of AS when I can't be at my computer to do a manual snipe, and the variation of snipe times to keep anyone looking at my bid record from knowing exactly when my bid will go in. Based on my bid record all you could tell is that I bid somewhere within the final 20 seconds.