[Cupid]

I would think that it is probably an easy update to allow all the offsets now available via the web interface in the GDM and that it has just been overlooked thus far.

As for the 'Timeout' the offset would not have affected this result, Gixen actually logs into your account with plenty of time to spare no matter how early or late the bid is scheduled to actually be placed... Those kind of failures happen from time to time on any specific server... that is the primary reason for having a Mirror subscription, the added reliability of that is, in my view, worth many times the $6 a year that it costs.

[rickajho]

Ehhh... once you realize it it's no big deal. If you set a snipe for 2 seconds via the gixen web site it will show the 2 second offset in Desktop.

I still don't know what the hell I'm doing yet regarding deciding what is the "best" offset. Hell, I had a mirror 6 second offset choke Sunday on EBAY ERROR: LOGIN TIMEOUT (1) Kinda making me paranoid about setting it for anything less than 10 seconds now. (I did win with the main server bid anyway so... magic bananas. :mrgreen: )

There is another post in which you mention that price refreshes done with Desktop don't place a load on the gixen server, using your (my) computer resources to update that info instead - which is another good thing to know. I'm not obsessive about checking for price updates, but knowing that I would certainly do it via Desktop when at home.

Perhaps just an update to a Desktop FAQ is in order instead?

[Cupid]

Ah yes, didn't realise you were talking about the Desktop... I guess Mario needs to update it in that respect.

[rickajho]

P.S. I only found out after I posted yesterday that the offset options are different on the web site than what are available on Gixen Desktop. The Desktop offset can't be set below three seconds.

[rickajho]

Thanks Mark - got it. It's just when you see these 10 second snipe frenzies with a new and singular snipe at the one second mark coming out the winner, it does make you wonder how "honest" an eBay computer really can be.

[Cupid]

Less than 3 is an option with a Mirror subscription... but not recommended, at least by me, due to the bid increment rule, as explained on here many times before.

Ebay never runs out of time to increase a proxy bid... a bid that is the highest, that has been accepted by Ebay, will always win, no matter how late anyone else bids. The Ebay software would never allow a lower bid to win an auction just because it was later... Can you imagine how much trouble they would be in with the bidders that placed earlier higher losing bids?... That never has, and never will happen. Ebay software, in this respect, is not written to take any notice of when a bid was submitted, 'proxy bidding' isn't a process of increments at all, no bid is ever promoted to be the highest bid on an auction unless it is for an amount higher than the currently accepted highest bid.

Of course the highest bid is often placed last by a sniper that knows the value of the item in question, that assumes the bid is accepted by Ebay at all... What can happen is that your bid gets rejected even though it is higher than the current auction price, because it is not at least one bid increment more than the auction price, that is more likely the more bids you allow to be placed before yours... that is the effect of the bid increment rule on sniping.

Also remember that, by default, Ebay shows the outbid amounts... it doesn't show proxy bids... So it doesn't show all the auction prices that happened throughout the auction, you can get it to do so buy selecting the 'Show automatic bids' link on the page that shows the bids. The displayed auction price is always at most one bid increment more than the second highest bid.

One thing you have always been able to be certain about with Ebay, if you get your bid accepted by them, it is impossible for anyone else to win the auction for an amount less than you have bid.

[bidwisley]

rickajho, You explained quite well what I was also wondering. when I have won my snipes and look at the automatic bid list, I never see that the other bidders exhausted their final/ highest bid from the time of their last bid until the time my snipe won. Is that because my snipe would go first if I placed my snipe at the beginning of the auction and they placed theirs later? I just wonder why they never show any more incremental bids before my snipe.

[rickajho]

[Cupid]

With a mirror subscription reliability is not the issue with 2 second snipes.

The issue for me is that I loose too many auctions at below what I am prepared to pay due to Ebays' bid increment rule... So I found that I win more auctions at lower prices with an offset higher than the average.

[X230]

I just purchased Gixen Mirror Service, and wanted to know if the 2 second sniping is reliable?

Any reason not to use it?

I do find it to be advantageous to snipe with less than 6 seconds left.