What happened??

It was during ebay’s scheduled maintenance:
http://www2.ebay.com/aw/announce.shtml
. . . but, AS should have placed the snipe before that.

You could try clicking on “View Confirmation” button (next to the snipe), and if no further suggestions, file a support request:
http://support.auctionsniper.com/

Sounds like AS goofed, so be sure to file for some free snipes:
http://www.auctionsniper.com/freeSnipes.aspx

Aha! Scheduled maintenance . . . what an unholy drag! But that's obviously it. I did post a support request and Mark W. replied that eBay had "blocked the transaction" but didn't say why.

I'm just glad it didn't happen to a really big-ticket item that I'd been really dying for--I'm mad but not furious. And I think I will file for some free snipes--thanks!

As it's the first time this has happened in over at least 1,000 AS snipes, I'm willing to forgive and . . . file for some free snipes!

Support said that I wasn't able to place a bid because "certain countries were blocked by the seller." But they ship internationally, and I'm in Canada.

Free snipes didn't work. It said a free snipe had already been taken--which it wasn't."This item # is either not in our database or has already been credited."

Weirder and weirder . . .

quote:

Support said that I wasn't able to place a bid because "certain countries were blocked by the seller." But they ship internationally, and I'm in Canada.

That sure doesn’t make any sense. The following is in the auction listing:
Standard shipping cost or USA except Hawaii & Alaska starts from $15. Standard shipping cost for Canada is & Europe will be calculated upon request.

Why would the seller “block” Canada, yet list shipping costs for Canada? If the snipe was block by the seller, the “View Confirmation” button next to the snipe would say that.

You could always email the seller and ask them. On the surface, the info Mark W. is providing doesn’t appear to be matching the symptoms, unless the seller accidentally blocked Canada?

This also appears in the listing:
Will ship to Worldwide.

The latest, by Jake, says that all the information they have is that the bid was "blocked by eBay."

I am tending to go with your conjecture that it occurred at an unfortunate time that the maintenance was going on and simply didn't make it, whereas the bids by the lame bidders made it through because they were already registered in the eBay system.

Hmm . . . thought a bid that ended in the wee hours was a sure thing but in future I will look more closely at auctions like that. Many thanks, Rick!

Tonbo,

Well, to add to the mystery, the winning bidder (victor_and_andrei) is in Ontario, Canada, and shotandroll and pepeleica are in Spain.

I’m still a bit suspicious of the “blocked bidder” diagnosis, but I’m a suspicious character.

Since the auction ended at 23:45:00 PDT (7:45:00 BST), and since ebay’s maintenance starts at 23:00:00 PDT (7:00:00 BST), the snipe should have been placed at least 45 minutes before the end of the auction to insure that the snipe wouldn’t be blocked by ebay’s scheduled maintenance. Of course, if AS attempted to place the snipe well after the start of the maintenance schedule, say 23:44:50 PDT (7:44:50 BST), then that would be further indication that the reason provided by AS needs to be reexamined.

Also, there’s an AS status of “Blocked by seller” that should have been displayed, if that was indeed the reason. At a minimum, it would seem like AS has a bug by showing the status “Undefined” instead of “Blocked by seller”, but I’m just a user.

Note: The date for all BST times in this post is 23-Jun-06 (damn - this time zone conversion stuff is difficult).



Happy wee-hour sniping.

The guys who answer the Help calls will often trot out standard responses - it's taken 3 or 4 attempts plus some scathing British sarcasm before getting my problem through to them on occasion. Being somewhat experienced at eBAY and AS it's rare that I need to log a support call so it's a pain to have to spell out the problem over and over before it gets passed up the chain to a real techy. Ergo, don't give up - keep at them until you get a satisfactory response! And some free goes...

R2

I can see how a million things can conspire to thwart an AS bid--I'm just surprised that they succeed as much as they do. What still boggles my mind is that there are still legions of people--legions--who still actually place bids, some 6 days before the end of the auction. It confirms my faith in the axiom that 99% of the human race is intelligent; they just prefer not to be.

But this was the first time in over 1,000. I would just learn fron this to be extra-cautious when trying to win an auction that concludes in the wee hours, when Auction Sniper is still in the middle of a dream.

--Nick