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35 replies

What would happen if I manually bid before my snipe?

L laitfrappeMember
Hey guys, I've read the FAQs and a few threads but I'm still a little confused on how this whole thing works. Or maybe on how ebay works. From my understanding AS is pretty much identical to manually bidding and putting in your maximum bid except it's able to calculate the average response time of the server so it makes certain you enter your bid before the auction ends. Whereas you might try to manually bid at 7 seconds but the server takes 8 seconds to process it ending in a loss.

So what does ebay do after you enter your maximum bid? Let's say the item is at $50 with 3 seconds to go. The other bidder has a maximum bid of $140. You enter a maximum bid of $150. Does ebay automaically start a bidding war between the two of you? Within a second ebay processes your bid, it automatically increases your bid by say $2 increments, and it automatically increases his bids by $2 increments until one of you ends up on top. All this happens with one refresh of the page, it either says you're the top bidder or you've been outbid. Is this the case? And is there any chance that you can still lose even if you have a higher maximum bid? For example, ebay processes your bid but there's only 0.1 seconds left, you outbid him by $2 but at 0.04 seconds he outbids you at $2. At 0 seconds it's too late for ebay to return a counter bid.

Lastly, what would happen if I set my snipe to 5 seconds but I bid myself at 9 seconds?

This is an awesome service but I'm really worried about the horror stories I've read. AS bidding at 35 seconds to adjust for lag but giving others a lot of leeway to counter bid. The item I'm interested in particularly is rare and a must have for me.
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rickrickMember
quote:
The other bidder has a maximum bid of $140. You enter a maximum bid of $150.
You would end up paying $142.50 ($140 + $2.50 ebay increment).


quote:
And is there any chance that you can still lose even if you have a higher maximum bid?
As long as you bid enough to satisfy ebay’s increment system, then the answer is “no”.


quote:
Lastly, what would happen if I set my snipe to 5 seconds but I bid myself at 9 seconds?
Ebay won’t allow multiple bids for the same amount from the same user. If your manual bid wins, AS will still charge you a fee, or use up one of your free snipes.


quote:
AS bidding at 35 seconds to adjust for lag but giving others a lot of leeway to counter bid.
It’s a possibility.
L laitfrappeMember
Thank you Rick. You must be exhausted from being bludgeoned over the head with the same questions over and over. Most of the threads I read involved your answering the questions!

What would you advise however, for a highly important item? Should I manually set the maximum bid myself? (I'm not sure how to, I just know how to "bid"). I'm still fresh off a big loss from two days ago and I'm not sure I trust AS to enter a max bid at the inputed time.

How can I monitor the sniping FROM my ebay account itself? Assuming this doesn't affect the program itself (i.e. my online banking automatically freezes my account if it's dual logged). I'm thinking since 30 second sniping is rare I might set my lead to 10 seconds. I refresh my page and if AS fails then I manually enter it myself.

My two biggest fears are AS placing my bid 30 seconds early, and AS failing to bid all together due to some sort of error.
rickrickMember
Here are your choices:
  1. Place a proxy (non-sniping) bid and worry that it will cause a bidding war that will result in your paying extra or losing the auction.
  2. Place a manual snipe and worry that there will be some sudden surge on ebay that causes your snipe to be too late.
  3. Have AS place your snipe and slightly worry that it will get placed early or not placed.
  4. Don’t bid on the auction, and worry that you could have gotten the item for next to nothing.
Which worry number are you up for?


If it was me getting started, I’d use up one of my free snipes to give AS a test. Actually, what I actually did was to use 2 of my get-started free snipes to see what would happen. Seeing that it’s gift giving season, surely you can find something on ebay that closes in the next few hours that’s not very expensive, and might make a decent stocking stuffer, and won’t cause any unnecessary stress if you don’t get it.
L laitfrappeMember
Okay I've been practicing. For the past 10 minutes or so I've been following the countdown timer on AS for the item. There's still two days to go but I'm following the 60 second count downs. My lead is set to 7. So when the timer reaches below 10 I refresh the page as quickly as I can and I glance at the status. If at 6 seconds the status is still "waiting" then I will manually bid on the item myself in the tab next to my AS tab. I've timed it and it takes me about 2 seconds to confirm my bid. I believe this is what I'll do and I don't think I can really "bid" myself anyway, in case I overlap my own bidding.
rickrickMember
The timer on My Snipes isn’t all that accurate (it’s based on your computer’s clock), and it’s not the same clock that AS uses to place the snipes. The AS snipe-placing clock is synchronized to ebay’s. Instead of refreshing on AS, do the refreshing on ebay’s bid history for that auction. If for no other reason, ebay has a slightly bigger computer budget than AS. You’ll be able to see your snipe in the bid history within googol seconds of it’s placement.
L laitfrappeMember
This may be true. Maybe rare means that it appears once a month, or every few months. Another interesting thing has developed. Someone has outbid themselves multiple times... 15, 40, 46, 50, 71... I remember reading a prior thread where you mentioned that this is a tell tale sign of a sniper!

I'm anticipating multiple snipes on this item and I can only hope that my max bid exceeds theirs. The good new if you can call it that is that the item is still many many times under its retail price and there's about a day and a half left till the auction ends. From my little experience someone usually jacks up the price even before the last minute though.
rickrickMember
quote:
I remember reading a prior thread where you mentioned that this is a tell tale sign of a sniper!
I wish I could remember what I was drinking/smoking at the time. I'd like to buy some more.

Those types of bidders are referred to as nibblers. These are also called something else, but this forum has filters.
L laitfrappeMember
Okay, so 8 hours to go! The same price. But I suspect it will double or triple by the time the auction ends.

My new concern? That the snipe doesn't work for whatever reason. Maybe I'm in the process of confirming a bid and you can only "confirm" a bid one at a time. Maybe there's a small glitch on AS servers, or a small lag, at the last few seconds. What would you recommend?

The auction ends in the evening on a Sunday so should I be increasing my lead from 7 to 10 anyway?
rickrickMember
quote:
What would you recommend?
Place a manual bid now. You may pay more, but all this stressing you’re doing over sniping isn’t good for you health. Be a proxy bidder instead of a sniper – you’ll thank me some day when you are old and still healthy.


quote:
The auction ends in the evening on a Sunday so should I be increasing my lead from 7 to 10 anyway?
OK.
L laitfrappeMember
Okay, with just a few hours to go I have a new plan. What would happen if...

I placed a manual max bid (Is there even a difference between placing a bid and a max bid? I think you can only place max bids anyhow) with 10 seconds to go, and AS is set to 7 seconds just in case I can't input it in time. What are the possible scenarios that can follow?
L laitfrappeMember
Rick, I suspect I will be bidding for a heart transplant by the time this auction ends.

So, my manual bid won't conflict with my snipe in anyway? If I bid $4553 at 10 seconds and my snipe's bid is $4663 and is set to 7 seconds what can go wrong?

My bid won't in anyway interfere with my snipe? I'm not even sure if I can input the bid before my snipe is sent.
rickrickMember
You definitely have a good handle on the dynamics of bidding/sniping.

Do remember one thing – currently heart transplants are a seller’s market. But, I’ll gladly give you a break on the handling charges for region2’s heart. I’m keen on harvesting/preparing it for shipping. And, based on the sized of his heart, shipping costs will be minimal.
rickrickMember
quote:
This is an awesome service but I'm really worried about the horror stories I've read.
Hate to get serious in this thread, but DO consider that those “horror stories” are somewhat dated, and somewhat minimal. With thousands of snipes happening daily, and people’s propensity (especially Americans) for complaining, if there was really something to worry about there would be an endless stream of complaining posts. The key phrase is, “It’s relative”.
L laitfrappeMember
I suppose I'm being a bit rash but it's better to be a pessimist and to create a plan for all the contingencies rather than being an optimist and merely hoping for the best.

I always appreciate symmetry and it seems that I went off in several tangents but somehow found myself back to the original question and purpose of this thread. So from my understanding, if I bid manually before my snipe is sent, nothing different from my manually setting a new bid will happen? That is, it'll be just what would happen if I bid back to back?

So... I bid $4333.55 at 10 seconds. My snipe is set to $4444.66 at 7 seconds. The only thing that happens is I increase my maximum bid to $4444.66 and ebay will automatically, incrementally go back and forth between all the bidders, until the highest bid is reached.

Highest Bid: $2000
Me: @10 seconds $4333.55.
@7 seconds--snipe-- $4444.66
Highest Bid: $2000+Increment = $2100
Bidder 2: @6 seconds $3000

EBAY--processing-- Bidder2+Increment<My max bid...Bidder2+Increment<My max bid etc. etc. until Me:$3000+Increment > Bidder 2.

@6 seconds: You have outbid bidder 2!

@5..4..3..2..1...

You have won a heart transplant!

@0 In a fury of excitement, I suffer from a stroke.
rickrickMember
quote:
So from my understanding, if I bid manually before my snipe is sent, nothing different from my manually setting a new bid will happen? That is, it'll be just what would happen if I bid back to back?
Yes. All AS does is place a single bid for the amount you specified and the results are the same as if you placed that bid.

Let me know about region2's heart (he has rarely used it). Someone already harvested his brain but seeing that it wasn’t considered a vital organ no one bid on it. And, region2 is functioning as usual without it.
L laitfrappeMember
Poor Region2. RICK, I have some ironic news... So, 10 seconds to go I enter in my bid but some one had already raised the price four fold. It wasn't a problem since my maximum bid was still higher, but F@#$, it took my brain a few seconds to process what was going on and to click CONFIRM. By the time I hit confirm?

"Sorry the auction has ended."

I'm stunned. Devastated. F$%^#. I refresh the page... "You have won the auction." Pay now?

J@#$% TAP DANCING C@#$%. THANK YOU AUCTIONSNIPER. THANK YOU RICK.
Last edited by snipersteve

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