I had known about sniping for a while, but had never thought I needed to use it. But when I lost an auction on an item I wanted very much (a cherished item from my childhood I had been searching for for years) to a sniper, I realized that I needed sniping on my side too.
I asked friends on another forum and several of them recommended AS. As it happened, another of these items came up soon after on eBay, in much better condition. I signed up for AS and placed my bid. Then waited. Read some more, raised the lead time back to the recommended 7 seconds from 5 (even though the auction ended mid-day, not a peak time), and raised my bid just to be sure.
As I watched the clock count down, I realized I was placing a lot of faith in AS. Bidding on the item was fairly heavy. I watched the clock in My Snipes count down past 7 seconds, and panicked. The status didn't change from Ready to Success (as the status description page suggests means that the bid was placed). Then it changed to "Auction Ended". What?!?!?!
With trepidation, I clicked on the link for the auction to see who had won. "Congratulations, you won!" the page announced. I just about fell off my chair in relief and delight. The second highest bid was also from a sniper - but it was below my bid.
I do think that use of sniping keeps final prices lower - the one I had lost had been bid up a lot (by me, partly), and the one I won went for about the same price but was in much better condition.
So, thanks, AS, for fulfilling a long-time quest of mine. I'd only suggest that the status update in real-time along with the clock. I'm guessing that the clock is really just a simple JavaScript, but some refreshing would be comforting, at least to first-time users such as myself.
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