Here's the official answer, from the Green Book, which many posters here have referred to:
a snap bid is only for houses not at quota. it happens right there at bid matching (ideally) for a woman who could not be placed with any of her preference choices because they already filled quota. A house that she did not preference, but that did list her on their bid list, or snap bid list, has the opportunity to offer her a bid right there before bid day occurs. Ideally, no one will ever even know she is a snap bid, although people often figure it out because she probably did not attend that chapter's preference.
COB is for houses that did not fill quota, even with attempted snap bids and/ or are not at house total. Most Nationals and NPC advise that any chapter that did not meet these standards should COB all year, if it takes that long, to get up to total/ quota. In most cases, COB cannot start till after Bid day, but some campuses let the groups do it so that anyone who is COB'ed can join in on the bid day festivities.
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