Welcome to the Auction Sniper Help Library
If you have questions or are experiencing problems, there are several ways we can help you. The items to the left will give you the knowledge you need to be successful with Auction Sniper.
What are your fees and how do I pay?
Auction Sniper gives each new user 3 free snipe credits. After these are used up, you must upgrade your account. If you use a credit card, Auction Sniper will then automatically bill your account monthly. We charge a modest fee of 1% of the final auction price, with a minimum of 25 cents and a maximum of $9.95 for each auction that we help you win.
It‘s under Products/How much? (don‘t log in to see this tab) and also under Help/Pricing and Payment Details. Please read the pricing information in the link below:
http://www.auctionsniper.com/help/auction-sniper-pricing/
Free? Yes free: if you get your friends or neighbors to sign up with us, each sign-up will net you 3 free snipes---and of course they get 3 free snipes for trying us too. Everybody wins! Use this link:
http://www.auctionsniper.com/refer.aspx
What if two or more of your customers snipe the same item?
Although the probability of this happening is very small, we have developed our software to give bidders an equal chance of winning in all possible cases.
In most cases, it’s very simple. The bidder with the highest max bid will win.
What is Lead Time?
Lead-time is the number of seconds FROM the end of an auction that you would like Auction Sniper to place your bid. We recommend lead times between 5 and 12 seconds. Currently, Auction Sniper successfully places 99.9% of all snipes with 5-second lead times.
We don't recommend anything less than 5 seconds. Although we send the snipe on time, during peak times an eBay server may not process it in time. This is not the fault of eBay nor us; internet traffic is just heavier at certain times. And during peak periods the default 5 second lead-time, while adequate for most weekday situations, often isn‘t enough for evenings and weekends. Anything under 5-seconds is not recommended. We synchronize from an atomic clock, which calibrates our servers.
We snipe every auction multiple times, from multiple servers and locations. These servers adjust for eBay server lag according to how long their average server is taking. Remember that it‘s in our interests for you to win.
You should increase your lead-time to 7-12 seconds on auctions that close 5-11 p.m. Pacific (eBay) time, and on weekends, when eBay traffic is heavier.
There are risks to sniping. No service or software guarantees your wins. Read more information about the risks of sniping: http://www.auctionsniper.com/help/ebay-sniping/risks/.
Even though the vast majority of these are due to not enough lead time, eBay server lag or heavier than usual internet traffic, you can redeem free snipes for Did Not Win or Not In Time messages at: http://www.auctionsniper.com/freeSnipes.aspx.
Is there a time when I can NOT add, modify, or cancel a snipe?
You cannot add, modify, or cancel a snipe if there is less than 5 minutes left until the auction ends. When the auction is about to end, you may notice that a lock will replace the Cancel and Modify links. In the event that you have not refreshed the page, and the Cancel and Modify links still exist for a snipe that is ending in less than 5 minutes, any changes made will not adhere. For reliability and performance, our bidding system prepares your snipes in advance, so you must make your changes before this time.
Do you bid in the currency of the auction?
Yes - We snipe in the currency of the auction. That‘s actually how eBay has it set up. No conversion is going on. So if the auction is in GBP, AU$, Euros or whatever---that‘s what your bid is in.
Can I bid against myself? Or, Can I bid myself up?
Our sniping system needs to be as efficient as possible when placing snipes. If we had to check to see if you are already the high bidder before we snipe it would add an extra step to the process. We like to be able to snipe no matter what to make sure we don't miss any snipes.
If you placed a bid on eBay for $10.00, then you sniped with us for $10.00, the user would get a "HIGH BIDDER" status message. But if you place a bid on eBay for $10.00, then snipe for $15.00, then you will be charged a snipe credit and the status will be "YOU WON!"
If you bid directly on eBay, you should cancel the snipe with us. There‘s not enough time to check to see if the customer is already high bidder and then snipe or not accordingly. We‘re down to seconds, and eBay can easily chew them up on the check, much less the snipe.
Some people have tried to use us just as a safety backup to an existing bid without paying. But our margins are slim and losing snipes aren‘t charged as it is, although the cost to us is the same whether you win or lose.