Timing of Snipes

I see I should have read deeper into this forum for some answers.
Here is the auction I lost.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2209540409

I lost it by 3 cents..that's what bugs me. Just wondering why when I ask AS to snipe at 5 seconds before close it des it at 16 seconds...

Hi Hawk and welcome to the forum.

I am going to copy and paste from the reply I did yesterday as it seems very much the same.

quote:

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I'd say (and I am no expert) that the person that outbid you was using sniper software of some sort, or they are a manual sniper. Their bid was 7 seconds after yours which seems rather quick for a retaliatory bid. Also the fact that it landed 7 seconds before the auction ended would suggest it was a sniper of some sort.

In the end it doesnt matter at what stage your snipe was placed - if you bid the MOST you wanted to pay you were outbid fair and square.

We have no way of knowing how much the winning bidder was willing to pay, but if you were willing to pay more you should of bid the MAX you wanted to pay.

In relation to your bids being placed early - Auction Sniper will often test Ebay's response time and if it is lagging a little they will adjust your snipe time so that it actually makes it to the servers in time. I guess personally, I would prefer them to put it in early and if I lose the auction its because I know someone else was willing to pay more, rather than them submit it with my lead time and the snipe not make it at all because ebay was running slow.

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Hope that helps a little but it doest help with the fact that you didnt win this auction. I guess being that kinda item that it doesnt come up very often

Hope to see you around some more

Lexie

Hi Hawk!

Lexie's post is good. The one thing that she said that applied to the OTHER auction and not to this one is that we DO know what the winning bidder's bid was -- it was $25.03. That's why you'll often read in this forum to set your bid to an odd amount -- like $25.11 instead of $25, or $10.57 instead of $10.50, etc.

The other bidder looks like a sniper, too! Wonder if they use AuctionSniper?! They may not even have known of your bid when theirs was placed. Next time bid $25.19 or something like that, and maybe you'll have it!

Snipe on!

Jabbergah                                                    

Hi Hawk

Hey I just noticed something about this auction.

JEDI could not have seen your bid before his bid was made.

If your bid had been received, processed, and displayed before his bid, he would not have been able to bid 25.03! He would have had to bid at least $26.00 for his bid to be accepted. (one bid increment above your $25)

He was just plain willing to spend more than you.

Puppy,

Ummm...not quite right on your auction analysis if I read your post correctly. After Hawk placed his bid (via AS) for $25, Hawk held the winning bid at $21.50 with the $25 held as proxy. When Jedi place the $25.03 bid, it was several bid increments above Hawk's winning bid.

Not often I get the chance to correct Puppy! Your posts are general right on!

Jabbergah                                                    

Thanks for the welcome...let me say one thing up front.. I love AS..I've gotten more stuff for less money because of AS and I am grateful.

I did bid my MAX bid .. I understand that part I got beat..no doubt.

But you guys still did not answer my basic question...

Why was my snipe made at 16 seconds before the close of bidding and not the 5 seconds that I had it set for?

At 16 seconds the winner had some time to get his winning bid, above mine, in if he was manually watching. 16 seconds and two windows open it can be done.. I've done it myself before I signed up for AS. It's nerve wracking but it can be done..

You generally cant reliably sniping that quickly on a snipe ending on a half hour. eBay lets sellers schedule auctions and they all choose 6:30 7:00 7:30, etc. So many many many many many times the normal number of auctions end at those times. And every buyer and seller is on sniping and bidding, and refreshing and generally clogging up eBay.

Sure usually they make it, but too many werent so we not monitor eBays reaction times and adjust. Better to have sniped and been outsniped, then for your snipe to not have made it at all.

I checked out the bid history. He won by 3 cents. You should always bid an extra penny or two. I use .07 personally. It'll get you a few more wins here and there because you'll have that few cents more than everyone else that always bids right on the even dollar. i.e. had this person put in a max of $25.00 you would have won. But since he put in $25.03 as his max, he won by 3 cents. Lots of people add .01,.02,.03 so that's why I do .07.

But in short, we adjust snipes at peak eBay times because eBay slows down so frequently at those times for just 20-30 seconds that too many snipes get to eBay late and thus arent placed at all.

thanks Sara.. that's an answer I can understand.. I do put in a few extra cents in a lot of them.. this was a quickie that I'd put in in the last 20 minutes for a present for a friend.. and didn't think it would go over My MAX bid it was so low at that time...

quote:

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Jabber:
Ummm...not quite right on your auction analysis

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<-- (that's embarrassed, not anger)

Jabber you're right! (And I thought I stumbled onto how slow eBay is sometimes) 7 sec. in a computer system is an eternity.



[This message was edited by puppy_raiser on December 18, 2003 at 04:43 AM.]