[juangrande]

As an addendum, let me repeat something Mark already mentioned.

"Timing is always less significant than amount."

Another way of saying this is: "It is not the last bid that wins, it is the *highest* bid wins."

Adjusting the timing will only affect the outcome of auctions in which the highest bids are less than a bid increment apart, and if you are trying to win by less than a bid increment, you will lose a substantial fraction of the time.

That's fine if the items you're bidding on are common and you know you'll have another chance soon; however, if you're bidding on very rare items, you should ask yourself if you're bidding enough.

Which goes back to Mark's original observation: "Timing is always less significant than amount."

[JMcMenemy316]

Thanks for your response Mark. I figured many folks have asked this but I went back a few pages on the forum and have not seen a recent discussion. I am new to Gixen so I have not had the experience you have had of discussing many times before.

With that said, the second part of your answer helped. I am going to lengthen my offset and see what happens. I have a very good idea of what 3 main/ 2 mirror does (with well over a 100 auctions) so will be easy to see the pattern and really curious to see if the 6/4 or 8/6 or 8/8 works better or worse. I will keep the forum informed as I work the various combinations. Even though everybody has a little different situation, it's helpful to get people's experience, such as your reply. So thanks for that and really all your help to us Gixen newbies. Hope your bids are the winning ones :)

[Cupid]

As discussed many times on this forum, there isn't a definitive answer to your question which applies to all auctions all the time and this is why the offset is configurable by the user. If there were always an optimum those values would just be hardwired or worked out automatically by the system.

For me personally since I bid on auctions with many snipers I find that offsets of slightly more than the default of 6 seconds work best for me for the reasons I've stated above, occasionally I get the advantage of the bid increment rule and other later snipes get blocked for not being at least one bid increment more than the current auction price at the late time they choose to attempt to place their bid. I therefore have my defaults set at 8 seconds for both the Main and the Mirror. Others prefer shorter offsets, I assume that works best in situations where someone might be sitting at their computer thinking about bidding at the last second, but they don't work as well for me where the snipers have already decided what they are going to bid on the last seconds, as have I.

[JMcMenemy316]

Thanks very much for your reply. Follow-up. Gixen has it's own default, I think is 6 seconds for the main and 3 seconds for the mirror. I have searched a bit through the Gixen forums to try and find what settings seem to work best. In my mind I would think just set Gixen at 1 second and get that final winning BID. Apparently it does not work that way. I am bidding on vintage baseball cards and there are many bidders and likely sniper programs cramming in bids at the last seconds. Literally, every second counts at times. And I say this because my current settings are 3 main/2 mirror and people are periodically outsniping (not outbidding) and I can see that it is a snipe because the winning bid is the next increment up from my bid. So tossing out to you all, if in a competitive e-bay auction market, what settings are working best to try and prevent being sniped (not outbid)? And by the way, I know I am outsniping other folks, so it is working. Loving the service just trying to get the program to work optimally. Thanks to all for your help and thoughts.

[Cupid]

Timing is always less significant than amount.

The only way that you can win an Ebay auction when someone else is prepared to pay more than you and either place a bid directly or schedule a snipe with a bid amount of more than one increment more than you is to bid more.

In my experience with auctions that attract a lot of snipers, like this one, you are actually better off increasing your offset not decreasing it, this is because occasionally you get the advantage of the bid increment rule and some other sniper gets their bid blocked because its not at least one bid increment more than the auction price, at the very late time that their bid is scheduled to be placed. This is most likely when the value is generally agreed by the higher bidders to be around the same amount and it wouldn't have helped in this case where the winning bid is at least a bid increment more than yours, my first paragraph is always the first thing to bear in mind.

[JMcMenemy316]

Forgot to give the Gixen post auction information:

Item: 312752776993
Title: 1968 Topps Set Break #500 Frank Robinson NR-MINT *GMCARDS*
Status (main): OUTSNIPED
Status (mirror): OUTBID
Your maximum bid: 45.77
Current price: 46.77

[JMcMenemy316]

Item number: 312752776993

Hello. Have mirror and fooling around with different settings. On this one it was set at offset of 3 and mirror of 2. I have had the settings at 6/4, 5/3, 4/2 and even 2/1. It does not seem to matter as I am still getting out sniped. This is third time on the 1968 Frank Robinson. I have copied the last part of the bid history here:

1***5(1029) $46.77 11 Sep 2019 at 8:17:10PM PDT
jomcme_20(28) $45.77 11 Sep 2019 at 8:17:10PM PDT
jomcme_20(28) $45.77 11 Sep 2019 at 8:17:10PM PDT
9***6(270) $31.65 11 Sep 2019 at 8:17:09PM PDT
5***e(2564) $25.76 11 Sep 2019 at 8:17:03PM PDT
p***9(682) $20.50 11 Sep 2019 at 8:09:59PM PDT
a***a(20) $20.00 11 Sep 2019 at 8:01:17PM PDT

It does not usually list my bid twice. I try to prevent this by putting a 1 or 2 second difference between offset and mirror. But somehow I was outsniped. Is there anyway I could have won this auction using Gixen?

Thanks for your time and a really great service that has helped me A LOT !!