Review of Lead Times

AS technology updated - unlikely!

Stick with 30 - 8 seconds isn't going to make much difference.

R2

I am one week on this site, and have been looking for this exact info. What should lead times be? Are their different guides depending on when close is in the 24 hr clock (6-9pm EST etc.), or full-half-quarter hour measure? Can't find a FAQ that settles this.

Region2 - Greatly appreciate your post on the Pop Up window idea! this seems so ideal, the space already exists in the layout. Excellent product development given for free.

I have won 5 bids this week with 2 second lead times. According to advice above this is impossible, or at least foolish. What gives? Is a 30 second lead actually "sniping"? Will it continue to re-bid from that point?

a rambling first post - kurt

Hey Kurt- I ahave been doing this a long time. Most of my snipes have made it without problem. But I have missed a few (its very painful) with 5 second lead times. One 22 second lead bid did not get placed on a sunday evening - that was brutal. At that time, AS suggested a lead time at 45 to 50 seconds. Yea, I know it is crazy. Still, I don't know how many people can manually outbid a bid placed in 30 seconds . . and they would probably only get one chance . . .so, on really important things, I put a lead time of 33 seconds.

I doubt that anyone is always going to win. I however, so far, have not lost because a bid was not placed, only because I didn't bid high enough. I always stick to 8 seconds for normal times and add 10 on the quarter, half, and hour and 15 on Sunday between 5:30 and 8 PST. If a day comes that a bid isn't placed, I don't think I'll fall to pieces! Afterall, look how many got placed and I won!

I'm in the UK - I never alter the lead time and I have never missed a snipe. I guess it's busier in the USA so some tweaking is required but it would be nice if AS was to help the innocent punter with a message or on-line guidance...

R2

This was in the faqs (seems a little conservative from what the forum recommends):



1. How do I add a snipe?
…
Lead Time
Lead Time is the amount of time in seconds from the end of the auction that you would like to snipe. A 5 second lead time will bid when there are just 5 seconds remaining. Auction Sniper recommends a 5 second lead time. Add 2-4 seconds more during peak times (5-10 p.m. PST and weekends).



10. I sniped at the right time! What happened to my snipe?

If you look at a snipe confirmation, you might see as an example:

Lead Time 5
Snipe Time 02/10/2002 17:13:50 -5 sec
Actual Snipe 02/10/2002 17:13:50 0 sec

Auction Sniper will send your bid to eBay exactly when we agree to, on the right date at exactly the right time with a 5 second lead time. After we send your bid, it can encounter internet traffic and not reach eBay in time. In addition, eBay may not be able to process your bid in time during peak hours: you might want using slightly higher lead times between 6 and 10pm PST.



64. What is the ideal lead time to use for a snipe?

Lead time is the number of seconds from the end of an auction that you would like AuctionSniper to bid for you. We recommend lead times between 5 and 10 seconds, although we've seen times as low as 2 and 3 seconds work just fine. Currently, Auction Sniper successfully places 99.9% of all snipes with 5 second lead times.

We don't recommend anything less than 5 seconds Although we send the snipe on time, during peak times an eBay server may not process it in time. This is not the fault of eBay or us; internet traffic is just heavier at certain times. And during peak periods, you might consider adding 2-4 seconds more since their servers seem to be taking quite a hit during that time (5-10 p.m. PST), and on weekends.



I still like your pop-up window idea to warn users for auctions ending in heavy usage periods.

I cant believe I am promoting a Pop-Up.

I hate pop-ups, but must give R2 his due, its a very good idea

I just won my first auction using Auction Sniper. Although I'm happy that I won, I figure I spent about $50 more than I should have for the item, since my lead time was set at 5 seconds, and Auction Sniper placed my bid 2 minutes before the end of the auction. Another bidder put in 4 more bids in those last 2 minutes. Needless to say, I could have done better myself. Since this was one of my 3 free trials of Auction Sniper, I guess the old adage "you get what you pay for" is true. I got taken to the cleaners thanks to Auction Sniper.

I rest my case - if seaheather45 had seen the popup then maybe s/he would have realised that eBay runs slow on a Sunday and AS increases the lead time.

Mind you, if seaheather45 had read about proxy bidding in eBay's Help page then they might have been less miffed.

As for 'taken to the cleaners' - bollox - they put in a snipe and got the item for less than or equal to the max they wanted to pay.

It's clearly another case of AS being used by someone not fully understanding how it works then blaming AS when they don't get the item for next-to-nothing. AS can only go so far in educating these people - at present they're not going far enough IMHO.

R2

Hello region2... I appreciate your response. Had I known how Auction Sniper was going to work, I certainly wouldn't have chosen to use it for that auction. I was sitting right here, thinking that it would do the job for me since I'm on a dial-up and can't time my bidding as precisely as those using faster connections. But sending in a bid two minutes earlier than I requested is more than compensating for Sunday night traffic.... it's a real goof. I could have put my bid in manually much closer to the auction end, preventing the second-high bidder from putting in four bids against me. The first bid would have only ratcheted up my final price a fraction of what it did.

As for getting something for next-to-nothing... that isn't the point. An item is worth exactly what someone is willing to pay for it. The doll is worth what I paid for it, but the whole idea of sniping is to get the item for less than might be possible otherwise by bidding so close to the end as to close out other bids. Otherwise, why snipe at all? Just place a bid at the beginning of the auction and hope for the best. Besides, placing a bid at the end of the auction is not without risk; the bidder doesn't have a chance to bid again if the initial bid was not high enough to get over the proxy of the present high bidder.

Bottom line is that I will not use Auction Sniper again unless I am away from home and can't get to another computer to place my bid. Even on my dial-up I outperform Auction Sniper! Not knowing that my wishes would be ignored, I expected AS to do what it promised to do... place my bid 5 seconds before the end of the auction. If the lead time was going to be 2 minutes, the program should have indicated that on my snipe page. Then I could have cancelled the snipe and bid myself... saving myself a nice chuck of cash.

Hey Sara - another dis-satisfied customer. AS really should inform them better (see previous postings about FAQs and suggested popups) so that they don't think AS is rubbish all the time!

R2

Region2, I don't mean to beat a dead horse, but if the faq says that the bid will be placed exactly when the bidder asks, where does AS come off changing the bid time simply for the fact that it is Sunday night? It's deceptive advertising to promise one thing and deliver another.

I read the faq about lead times and changed my original 2 second lead to 5 seconds because there was a warning about having it too close to the auction end if the servers were busy. When I checked my snipe settings, it said 5 second lead. I expected AS to execute the bid at 5 seconds before auction end. If the server was busy and I missed it, so be it. That was my fault. But to have AS arbitrarily decide that 2 minutes was a better lead time than 5 seconds, when I had asked for 5 seconds, is unfair. If this hadn't been a free trial, I would protest their asking me to pay for their "service." They did me a disservice. I would have saved money by doing my own bidding. This was a test for me. AS failed. Why does AS think they can simply change my lead time without notifying me beforehand and giving me the chance to agree to the change or to cancel the snipe? That would have been the honest thing to do.

Seaheather45, you're 100% right - hence my point about the FAQs being CRAP and the punters being misinformed! Please log a support call via HELP tab and email the boss who receives suggestions@auctionsniper.com so that maybe, just maybe, they'll realise that all is not rosey in the garden!

R2

Hi Seaheather

I feel your wallets pain. Although you *did* win the auction, I would be a tad pissie at paying the extra $50.

Two Minutes is waaaay too early for AS to place a snipe. Its not really *sniping* then is it?

quote:

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As for 'taken to the cleaners' - bollox - they put in a snipe and got the item for less than or equal to the max they wanted to pay.

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Must say, I am with seaheather on this one, she has every right to be pissie.

YES - she won the auction, but I dont see how another bidder got in 4 other bids if ebay was indeed running that slow.