LAST SECOND BIDS VERSUS MIRROR BIDS

[LARRYTOWN]

If I set my bids to be entered at a lower time frame.. say 3 seconds, and a mirror at 2 seconds.. will that cause a conflict? I am looking for the best method that will cause another interested bidder who may not have a snipe service to not be able to enter a higher bid when he sees mine. I recall my Pre gixen days when staying up till 3 in the midnight hours only to not have enough time or typing ability to enter a higher bid and lost out. Should I change the settings so that the main server and the mirror server will have the same time or does it not matter? Can I place bids on the main server at 6 seconds and the mirror at 3 seconds? Should they match? #284811995562

[Cupid]

There is no possible 'conflict' for any choice of offset times.

The one that you set with the highest value offset is considerably more likely to be the one that places the bid since that is the one trying earliest to place your bid.

The choice of offsets will always be personal preference, and that is why it's not fixed and the options are provided for you to set. Different offset values are better in different scenarios, however it's not easy to know what scenario any specific auction might fall into before the auction has ended.

Generally though an offset above about 10 seconds is more likely to give any bidder that happens to be sitting at their computer still wondering how much they value the item more of a chance to react to your bid.

Alternatively, an offset below about 6 seconds is more likely to fall foul of the bid increment rule as prices rise when each bid is placed, and hence the later Gixen tries to place the bid the more likely it is to be rejected as being too low because other snipers have got there bid in already, even though it may still be slightly more than the current auction price at that time and may indeed even be more than anyone else was willing to bid, but still not win.

So, it's often better to have a higher offset when you expect a high number of other automated snipers and a low offset if you expect a high number of people to be directly looking at the auction page on their computer in the last seconds of the auction.

Same offset or different between servers is again preference, if they are the same, occasionally you'll see your bid registered twice on Ebay, but other than that being an indication that you are using an automated sniper I don't think anyone has any issue with that.

This is one of the questions most often debated on this forum. so if you use the search feature you can find many many discussions, I don't imagine that will ever change, so it's not a criticism of your having started yet another thread on it.

My continued perception is that your time is much better sent researching the items you are interested in so that you have a better idea about what they are worth to you rather than stressing about the timing of the bid you decided to place. After all, it's always the highest accepted bid that wins on Ebay, no matter when that bid is placed. More research also tends to help avoid placing bids that are above the true value of the item and end up paying more for it than should be necessary. Though that's entirely contrary to the idea of sniping it still happens all the time.
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Mark