What's a good safe lead time?

Hi Modo,

The surest way to win an auction is to place the highest proxy bid thru ebay. The surest way to pay the least amount for an item is to snipe (you still have to have the highest bid). If winning is your highest priority, go with the first method. If price is your highest priority, go with the second.

Since AS adjusts the lead-time to insure that your snipe gets placed, the amount of time you specify isn’t all that important. There is a recommendation in the FAQ’s, but basically it doesn’t make much difference if you specify 3 seconds (1 and 2 seconds aren’t allowed) or 10 seconds.

Thanks!

Also, one more question, you know how bidgroups have a maximum number of items before it stops autosniping, is that full functional? Like, is it guaranteed not to place bids after the number of wins I entered?

we normally hear of it not working rather than bidding too many... Read the help

R2

Ok... Wtf, it didn't even place a bid and my lead was 16.

eh? Now I have no idea what your problem is/was?!

R2

Oh well, once it didn't bid in bidgroup but I put it by itself outside of bidgroup and it worked. I won the item, and all the bidders are sending me messages calling me an idiot... Definatley pleased!!! I will be buying snipes!

quote:

Originally posted by modoman:
Ok... Wtf, it didn't even place a bid and my lead was 16.

Care to supply auction number and your bid amount? What's the status next to the snipe?

quote:

once it didn't bid in bidgroup but I put it by itself outside of bidgroup and it worked.

-eh? An item can only be in a bid group or outside a bidgroup, not both? I'm confused! Make sure you delete and recreate a bidgroup as it cannot be reused once it has 'fired'...

R2

guys i read all posts
i placed 2 bids using AS
first item: lead time 4 snipe 6 seconds
second item: lead time 3 snipe 6 seconds..

it seems AS usually puts 6 seconds before ending..regardless of the lead time...

I lost an item although i put bid 8 seconds before ending time because winners lead time was 3 seconds..

How could i surpass these 3 or 2 second winning guys using AS ?????????????????????

quote:

Originally posted by piercee:
Hi piercee,

How could i surpass these 3 or 2 second winning guys using AS ?????????????????????

Only one method available - bid more than anyone else. Since you’ve already read all the posts, no sense in going into the difference between a manual retaliatory snipe and a prescheduled snipe placed by a sniping service.

This subject always amazes me. I have never been out-sniped when I have used a 7 or 8 second snipe. Not unless I am simply outbid because my bid was not high enough, has this happened.

ok let me put it in this way

What was your minimum actual snipe time using AS ever???

quote:

What was your minimum actual snipe time using AS ever???

“Minimum”? Aren’t you a little interested in “Maximum”?

Piercee, I have always used the same settings except a long time ago when I added seconds for busy traffic times. I no longer find that necessary because AS seems to adjust for it ok now.

Since my last post above, I used a.s once more on an auction which was very important for me.
Lead time was 3 sec again.
A.s put my bid 8 sec. [edit: i was the highest bidder.] before end time. And I lost the auction again.
From now on my A.s adventure is over.
Loved as's democratic forum but i guess a lot to improve about this lead time. cheers.

Hmm - so your snipe went in at 8 seconds (a full 5 seconds more than you expected but at the lead time recommended by most on the forum) and you lost 'cos someone else was able to respond. I DON'T THINK SO!!!

I guess s/he never bothered to understand how AS actually works nor read the forums properly (otherwise s/he would know that most people call it AS not a.s !!!) to discover about proxy bidding etc.

There's no helping those that don't want to be helped!

BYE!

R2

I think you didnt read careful enough to distinguish whether the problem is the capital letters or literature lesson or the accuracy of the service. If you think i m lying, i dont care.
cheers.

quote:

There's no helping those that don't want to be helped!

!!!

This person was fixated with the lead time without understanding the fundamentals of how AS works. When it didn't work as s/he expected then they chose to move elsewhere. Probably the right decision for them but not necessary the right decision for the majority...

R2

quote:

Originally posted by Mrs.M:
This subject always amazes me. I have never been out-sniped when I have used a 7 or 8 second snipe. Not unless I am simply outbid because my bid was not high enough, has this happened.

Interesting discussion. Mrs. M, I was recently out-sniped, almost definitely by manual means, on a recent auction for a laboratory centrifuge. The bidding history revealed that my snipe was actually posted about 14 seconds (if I remember correctly) prior to the auction end. This allowed enough time for a determined competitor to SNIPE THE SNIPER.

I was a little surprised, to put it mildly.

My snipe lead time was set to 10 sec. I assume AS adjusts the time based on the variability of pings to Ebay.

Regards,
Az

quote:

I assume AS adjusts the time based on the variability of pings to Ebay.

AS does adjust the lead time - particularly at eBay's busiest times.

I think you will find it is a little more sophisticated than "pinging" eBay. I think AS automatically adjusts based on response times to earlier bids - hence the errors!

However. AS does try to respond to the situation and this is not an option available to the ordinary bidder.

If AS had not adjusted, then the likelyhood is that your bid would not have got through on time!

In this case it does look like you lost, because they placed it too early, based on their data for eBay's response time. However, in the majority of cases, I have found that AS is accurate and places the bids at the time set.

The problem is that this forum represents - if you like - the complaints department - and so gives an undue prominence to the failures.

If you read the postings, most reports of early bid "failure" here are not that they have been "outsniped" by manual bidders, but that they simply did not outbid the existing proxy bids or other snipers.

The cases where AS gets it's timing wrong and allows enough time for a manual bidder to see your bid and respond are, I genuinely think, quite few in number and only a very small proportion of the total bids placed.

However, I wish they would "come clean" and give us an rough guide here, as to the numbers sniped, as that would at least enable those who have a problem to see what the odds are. If it's 1 in 100, 1 in 1000 or 1 in 10,000 would I am certain help those that complain see the the whole situation.

May I also enter a plea to all those who post here. Without an auction Number it is impossible to determine whether it was the lead time at fault or the competition for that item.

Paul

Az,

Is this the auction?
http://offer.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewBids&item=230029828888