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Search Options ►Should Auctions Have a Snipe Guard?
Site Update
Today's update brings you two polls (see the post below for the second) centered around Pet and Item Auctions!
Staff is wondering if users would like a snipe guard on pet and item Auctions. While we wait on the recode, the change would likely be static (just a set timeframe), but the ideal long term goal would be to make adding one an option toggle (so the auctioneer can opt in or out) and allow you to pick from common timeframes (or set a custom timeframe). If we add it as optional, it would be listed as part of the auction bid page, whether there is a snipe guard or not.
However, Staff also recognizes this would be a large change, since many users enjoy being able to snipe auctions to save currency and wait and time things appropriately.
A change like this would allow a more relaxed auction experience because you would not have to wait around and try to snipe and hope someone else isn't bidding more than you, or you forget when the auction you want to snipe is going to end, and you don't get to bid on it.
This change would benefit and encourage users to use Auctions more than forum posts, trade posts, or flat sales (in shops). Some users don't know what they want for items and don't want to manage a forum post, and being able to do an open auction and let the market dictate the sale is more favorable.
This change would also bring the feature more in line with how auctions typically work on many other sites now, and be more in line with what a new user might expect.
It would also come with a slight facelift to add the Knowledge Base link about Auctions with the new terms for transparency.
That said, the question is: is this something you want to see updated? Please also see the second poll (post below this) for what you would consider an ideal timeframe for a snipe gaurd/extention.
Please reply to this news post with questions or comments; the other poll will have comments disabled to prevent confusion.
Posted by Aywas Official
(#2) on Fri Sep 11, 2026 4:40pm
- Kandria
(#111)
-
Posted on: Fri Sep 11, 2026 7:45pm
Stargoon (#21268)
A Snipe guard extends the auction end time. For example, if the auction has 5 mins left and we have a 30 mins snipe guard. The end time would auto-extend by 30 mins, giving users 30 more mins to counter-bid.
Rinse and repeat; it only extends when a bid is placed within the guard's timeframe so that it doesn't extend for every bid- just bids placed right before the auction ends (commonly, people who snipe bid in the last 30-60 seconds, so no one can counterbid because it ends without time for users to see and bid).
For some auctioneers, it can be frustarting because if all users wait to try to snipe, the auction ends with a lower bid, and then if users have time to counter the highest bid.
For some users, it's frustrating because they might forget to come back and bid and fear they'll be sniped if they don't; if they lag, or the site lags, users can feel cheated by things beyond their control when trying to snipe, again out of fear someone will snipe them if they bid normally.
Honestly, the most ideal solution would be much like eBay does, where a user sets a max bid, and the system uses the minimum increase to automatically raise, but that's much more complex coding than the site can handle right now.
- Xenephos
(#55335)
-
Posted on: Fri Sep 11, 2026 7:47pm
Stargoon (#21268) Snipe guards usually will add the anti-snipe increment every time a bid gets placed near the end of the auction period, so if someone places a bid at 5 seconds, now the auction ends 5 minutes later and that gives people a chance to add a higher bid.
- Xenephos
(#55335)
-
Posted on: Fri Sep 11, 2026 7:48pm
... I got sniped myself LMFAO
- slothful
(#64472)
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Posted on: Fri Sep 11, 2026 8:26pm
the mayday/etc auctions tend to end at like 1 am my time orz. i would not mind if threre is like a 5 min reoccuring snipe guard. but 30 min+ snipeguards would basically make the auctions basically not okay for me as they never happen on the weekend either iirc so yeah... idk :/
Posted on: Fri Sep 11, 2026 7:28pm
I voted no, mostly because I don't see how that would actually change sniping rather than just make the sniping happen within the new time frame?
Also how do you tell the difference between someone who is sniping and someone who just logged on and happened to look at the auction house and want the pet a minute or two before it ended?
Maybe I just don't understand how a snipe guard actually works. It just seems like it wouldn't.