8 seconds before the end of time

My dyslexic friend wants to buy a military watch on eBay, but has trouble hitting the right button just before the right time, so I suggested he subscribed to 'JustSnipe'.

To avoid disappointment and waiting up half the night, you type in the item number of your desired thing, then type in your maximum bid and hit 'submit'. You then sit back and wait to see if you are a winner.

I gave him some advice, such as: If you think the thing is worth £50 but you stand a chance of getting it for £20, always bid over it's worth. So, I would bid over £50 if I really wanted it.

He said that some people would bid £20.01p, and I said they are idiots. Far better to use odd numbers which make no sense to an outsider. Therefore, an item you think you may get for £20 should have a bid of £53.58p, and then you will probably get it for £20.2p, and make the under-bidder really pissed-off at the same time.

I explained that if you use JustSnipe for free, you can get a bid in 8 seconds before close, but if you pay them for the service the bid is placed 3 seconds before close of sale. I used to manually bid two seconds before the end of sales, but it was bad for my health for various reasons, plus I just do not think he is capable of doing that. You have to set up a clock on one side of your screen to match eBay's time-piece for a start, then watch it with eagle eyes.

So he set up a JustSnipe account today, and I received the following message from him:

Can you cancel the bid 8 seconds before the end of time?

I thought, 'Of course, but you would never be asked to pay for it under those circumstances in any case, so why bother?'