Sniped!

[hrh.princess]

I am losing a lot of auctions by last second snipes.

My settings are for six seconds, I think. Should I change them? Can I change them? Are there problems with bids being accepted if I do?

I'm not complaining, the service is fabulous. Just wondering if I'm doing things correctly.

Thanks!

[nochkin]

You are loosing because someone's bid is higher.
So if you want to win, then you have to increase your bid or look for another item.

[Cupid]

nochkin is correct.

If I were going to change my default offset settings (yes you can do so on the Settings page) I would make them higher than 6. That way you gain the advantage of the bid increment rule over other snipers, nidding slightly before other snipers your bid is more likely to be accepted by eBay because the price is less likely to have risen to the point where your bid amount is less than one increment above the currect auction price (that is the bid increment rule).

If your bid happens to be exactly the same as the next highest snipers' bid you also gain from the earlier bid rule, whereby if two bids of exactly the same amount are the highest accepted bids on an auction the earlier bid is the winner.

However the greatest impact you can have, as nochkin said, is to bid higher amounts... of course the disadvantage of that is that when you win it inevitably costs you more
_________________
Mark

[hrh.princess]

Well, I feel pretty dumb, having asked such a silly question.

Sorry.

[Gixen]

[Cupid]

I don't think it was a silly question...

Do you think that we treated it as silly?

If so, it is I that need to apologise.
_________________
Mark

[hrh.princess]

Goodness no, Cupid.

My question was answered very respectfully.

I felt dumb because the answer should have been obvious to me.

I appreciate your help!

[dyxlesic]

I have noticed that I have lost a number of times and the winning bid is the same maximum bid as mine. Has someone sniped me? In which case I might need to change my snipe time settings. I currently have 6 for one and 3 for the back up.

[Cupid]

dyxlesic,

What that means is that the current high bidder had already entered a bid of the same amount as yours before your bid was placed by Gixen. On eBay when that happens the earlier bid wins, so in those circumstances you might improve your chances by increasing your offset(s).

More likely to win though would be to increase your maximum bid by 1 cent because that would definitely have won.
_________________
Mark

[dyxlesic]

It's hard to predict what maximum others will put, so I guess I will add a few cents to my maximums, and also change my first bid to 8 seconds.
That should not be enough time for manual bidders to enter a larger bid right? And 3 seconds for the back up, or 6 seconds, which would be better?
Does the back-up bid congest the ebay server, so other last second bids are in a way blocked?
Thanks for your reply. I just renewed my premium membership after one year of gixening. BTW, how did the name Gixen come about?

[Cupid]

8 seconds is also my preferred offset for the reasons you state.

I also prefer offsets higher than 3 since they serve little purpose in sniping and slightly increase the chances of a late bid, so I personally would go for a 6 or 8 second offset for my backup.

The backup serves no purpose in sniping unless the larger offset snipe fails, then it is essential.

Marios explanation of how the name came about is here:

http://www.gixen.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=453
_________________
Mark

[dyxlesic]

Thanks Mark. Long live Gixen