Snipe timing

5-8 seconds seems to be popular. If auction ends on a Sunday evening OR on an exact quarter hour, consider adding 10-15 seconds. If auction ends on Sunday evening AND on exact quarter hour, consider adding 20-30 seconds.

This is because of the way eBay schedules their auctions. The only choice you have is on the quarter hours, so many many auctions all end at the exact same second. Lines into eBay get very busy and response times slow down.

AS attempts to correct by automatically increasing leadtimes, but sometimes it's not enough.

and to the forum!

to our A S forum!!

I use 8 seconds unless it is on Sunday,between 5 and 8:30PM PST, ends on the hour, half or quarter. I add 10 to 15 seconds to my time in these situations.

Hey Folks :]
I've been using 4 seconds lead time.
I used to use 5 seconds but other snipers
were beating me to the punch.
Today I won because my max was a buck
more than the other guy :] And the other
guy also seemed to be using AS with a 4 sec
lead time. Also notice our 4 second
lead times resulted in 6 seconds (interesting).
Of course I don't know for sure
if the other guy was using AS.
I feel that if I put any lead times
more than 5 seconds, I'll be manually
sniped by someone else.

Ends Jan-25-04 20:54:33 PST

j_stars( 12) US $80.95 Jan-25-04 20:54:27 PST
rdbuk ( 59) US $79.95 Jan-25-04 20:54:27 PST
apman29( 0 ) US $61.00 Jan-25-04 02:56:34 PST
rdbuk ( 59) US $59.95 Jan-21-04 09:30:34 PST
apman29( 0 ) US $57.00 Jan-25-04 02:56:11 PST
apman29( 0 ) US $55.00 Jan-25-04 02:52:21 PST
apman29( 0 ) US $51.00 Jan-25-04 02:50:38 PST

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Puppy Raiser:
5-8 seconds seems to be popular. If auction ends on a Sunday evening OR on an exact quarter hour, consider adding 10-15 seconds. If auction ends on Sunday evening AND on exact quarter hour, consider adding 20-30 seconds.

~ J_Stars

quote:

---

Originally posted by J_Stars:
Hey Folks :]
I've been using 4 seconds lead time.
I used to use 5 seconds but other snipers
were beating me to the punch.

---

You might consider that it's not the seconds that count as much as the bid amount does.

I see your point however if you use too much lead time you risk being manually outbid no matter how high your bid amount is. The point of AS is to eliminate that risk. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't dream of using eBay without AS.


[QUOTE]Originally posted by Rick:
You might consider that it's not the seconds that count as much as the bid amount does.

I really think Rick is right. I have never set my snipes for less than 8 seconds and have not lost one yet because I was out sniped manually or otherwise. No matter what your timing, the biggest bid wins.

When you are down under ten seconds, and you lose to another sniper, he was planning that snipe, regardless of what lead time you used. If he wins, it is because he bid more, not because you used four seconds verssus eight seconds.

I primarily snipe to avoid bidding wars, nibblers, bid retractors, and stalkers. I use AS to keep my blood pressure down, especially when my computer is.

Even if my snipe goes in early enough to allow a manual sniper to place a "retaliatory" snipe, I'm not worried for two reasons: 1) It's never happened; 2) When I've seen that happens the other sniper often doesn't bid that much more then their 1st snipe (that may be due to the fact that, unlike proxy bidders, they don't have that much time to "stew" on their bid amount).

I think I started at 5 seconds. Someone, Chatter or Steve, finally talked me into 8. For peak times Sara talked me into 12 to maybe 25.

Chatter has a LOT more successful snipes under his belt then I do and with much greater frequency.

It seem Chatter, Rick, and I are really all three, pretty much in agreement.

The HIGHEST bid, not the LAST bid, WINS!

Jabbergah                                                    

[This message was edited by Mrs.M on January 26, 2004 at 02:27 PM.]

It doesn't matter how much time the other sniper has to react to your bid -- if he bids higher, he wins. If he bids lower, he loses. Simple.

Ahh Crap - count me in on the Highest Wins not the lastest

Lexie

this is one of those cases - where I think just about everyone that has been using it for a while will agree.

Pff ToS - You are Number 7!!

Lexie

Thanks for all the suggestions. Sounds like 6-8 is the dominant theme. I'll use it.

I have been putting last minute bids into Ebay for over 3 years - though only recently using AS.

I used to use 20 seconds on my own system using a package called iSNIPEit (support went belly up - so I switched to AS).

I have dropped to 15 seconds because everybody on AS seems to want to push it really close, but having missed a bid I am inclined back towards 20.

I don't believe I have ever placed a single last minute bid at 20 seconds where I lost and in reviewing the auction I came to the conclusion that somebody outbid me manually.

Sure, I've been beaten by other snipers who bid after me, and by manual bidders who bid before me. And I've had my bid raised by a later sniper who didn't bid as much, and I've raised other bidders' bids to the increment (or less occasionally) above mine when they bid more than me.

But I have never encountered a manual bidder who placed a bid and was holding the high bid before my bid went in and who managed to get the high bid back after my 20 second bid beat his proxy.

The way I see it is ; I'm bidding once and late - my price is reasonable for the item (I'm not looking for individual bargains - I get the bargains overall by not being pushed all the way to my max on every item). If there is a manual bidder out there looking at the item - holding the high bid at somewhere below his/her proxy then he/she has 20 seconds to do a refresh - see the price has gone one increment above his/her proxy and that he/she is not the high bidder - then he/she has to type in a bid and get it accepted.

It certainly could happen - but I've never seen it.

I suppose a couple of times when I have been beaten by a later bid it is possible that a manual sniper was watching the prices at, say, $50 and planning on a certain bid (let's say $100) and then on seeing the high bid go to $90 as a result of my snipe he/she does a quick change and submits a $150 instead.

Maybe - but I doubt it happens much - If there is a manual sniper out there I would guess that he/she has already worked out the simple rule - one bid / bid your max and be happy when you're not pushed all the way.

P.S. the question is not whether someone could bid manually like this - it is whether people actually do on a regular enough basis to make me reduce my lead time to a point where I start missing bids.

But, I hear suggestions though nothing definite, that AS attempts to add a few seconds when Ebay gets slow just to be sure it makes it.

And sometimes I wonder about those Sunday evening quarter hour events and a tiny voice says 'maybe it's not Ebay that gets too slow but AS'. After all Ebay introduced the facility to time auctions like this - I would be inclined to think that their system staff did some analysis and continue to do work to ensure they are not tripping themselves up - after all inability to accept bids would upset their customers, the sellers.
(Really Sara, it's a very very very tiny voice).

(Edit)
P.S. I have just seen someone else propose this heresy ; https://community.auctionsniper.com/eve/forums?a=tpc&s=84260069&f=585608021&m=431605336
must be a brain virus! (ref Richard Dawkins)

I must go and read the replies .....

John SL

[This message was edited by johnsl on January 27, 2004 at 02:56 PM.]