Bid Sniping

No Name-Calling Week is over and someone is taking advantage of that.

 

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OK guys...what's your End Game?

 

I feel to sleep looking at this thread

 

Trumped up charges huh? That means you don't even recognize that you highjacked the thread. Did you think that Duke's decision not to call you out for highjacking his thread gave you tacit approval. Perhaps he has seen you act this way so many times in the past that he simply decided not to bother to defend his own thread.

By your logic, it is impossible to criticize you for being off topic, because doing so is off topic. Well guess what troll boy, you have succeeded perfectly in destroying this thread. But at least now the topic of discussion is what the thread is really all about, you being a troll!

 

Just read this all through for the first time. Krispy, your argument is based on the assumption of people and/or software basically dueling. The bidding resembling a heartbeat, taking "human response time" into account: Bid, BID....... Bid, BID...... it's all about timing. No Whammy, no Whammy, STOP! We all saw that guy beat the system. What of the other bidders just checking out auctions about to end, who each tried to.... let's say.... sWipe .... at the last SECOND... this same item? Will you not agree that some people out there DO have impeccable reflexes and timing?

 

I could, but I won't, preset a bid leaving only the final, confirmation screen, and engineer a small machine to click my mouse button AUTOMATICALLY at the last SECOND. would that count?

 

Yep, as long as it's a machine doing it, it counts. As opposed to last-minute bidding, where you place the bid without the aid of a computer. I'm still trying to figure out exactly how the "using eBay without a computer" thing works, but...

 

You should put it to the test!!! Create an auction for us. Employ your favorite automated bidding system, choose the time you want your bid to be entered (which is to say, if you will snipe; very much the same as I and anyone else would determine whether using a finger, a machine, or whatever). I challenge my (and anyone else that cares to participate) puny human skills against your system. This will be fun! your logic is simply that your system should have placed the final bid, yes? Let's do this. Do a private auction for CT members and lets see who's bidder finger's the itchiest! everyone bids one cent to keep it easy? and yours is the last one received before the end right? the bid is still made even if it wouldn't be the winning bid right? so there could be no possible way anyone's bid could be received after yours is your contention? Thinking on my toes here... anyone care to contribute?

 

After reading this thread clearly through, again, I have learned much about sniping. There is a whole lot of it going on here, by a whole lot of folks, and honestly I am shocked a bit by it. Is it so much easier to offend, insult, be rude, say unkind things to people because you don't have to look them in the eye whilst operating through a computer? How many of the snipers here conduct themselves, say these type of things, when you are "up close and personal"? Seems like a personality contest is running.. who can slam the hardest.

I no longer want to know about bid sniping. This thread is shameful.

I'm out. (Boo hoo, right?) Better part of valor and all....

Hooey

 

:yes:

 

sorry if I upset you. I just really am intrigued with the idea of a contest of sorts with one of these services now... to prove or disprove the validity of the claim that they are superior to a person doing it the "old fashioned way." Chris made valid points regarding the conveniences these services provide: multiple auctions ending at once, inability to do it yourself for any reason, etc. But, for the sake of science, I'd like to try to best a system designed to beat me. Call that what you will. Sounds like a great contest idea for someone already subscribing to one of these services.... encil: Look! something positive may yet spawn from this discussion! I'm taking my idea to the Contests section...

 

I understand your point, but do you see that it doesn't matter whether you can get in with five seconds to spare or five milliseconds to spare? Either way, there isn't enough time for a human to react to your bid -- and sniping programs DON'T react to your bid, EVER. They just place the bid that you arranged in advance.

In fact, if your bid is the same as another sniper's, it's to your disadvantage to snipe later, because his earlier bid will take precedence over yours!

I'm just fundamentally baffled by the "faster than humanly possible" angle of this discussion. It's simply not the critical factor. Both humans and machines are more than fast enough.

For multiple auctions ending at once, auctions ending in the middle of the night, in the middle of your shift, in the middle of your commute -- automation/scheduling is clearly superior. Even if you're sitting right there, you might get distracted, or your network connection might hiccup, and most sniping services are more reliable than that. So there's definitely a place for them, and I use one myself.

 

Find it out yourself. If your want to snipe do your own research. What I am gonna spoon feed it to you. Get outta here LOL.

I snipe everything I bid on and the service I use does a good job. I know how to price coins and currency and do my own homework in coming up as to what my high bid will be. Many ebayers are too ignorant or lazy to do the necessary research or homework to calculate what their best bid should be. Others think they can throw some hail mary at the last minute. Then a lot of them are too ignorant to bid period without following the herd. Well too bad so sad. I love beating people like that in bidding and have no empathy for them.

I have won a lot of things bc my snipe beat somebody in the last 15 seconds. There are instances where my margin of success was less than a few cents.

However, any you auction you win, you paid more than anyone else in the country. Not a very comforting thought. So the ones I lose don't really bother me. I bid based on what I can sell the coin for and make a decent profit retailing it somewhere whether my shop, at a show or online store.

When I am going thru a slow period on the Bay, it makes me start looking what out there for me to buy and get real cheap. When they are out of money, its a good time to bid.

 

I agree with you, and have never used one; never even considered it until those couple points of interest were pointed out. I may use one in the future. I don't know if you can set it to bid with a half a second remaining or if you are limited to seconds, or what. Please refer to my new thread in the Contests section so the idea can be discussed under the proper context. Thanks!

 

One other drawback for the "manual bidder" who places their bid early that I forgot to mention is that sometimes they can be lulled into a false sense of security when there is very little activity (bids) for a listing. They have no idea how many others may be lurking.

Even when I used Bidnapper, I always liked to check the "Watch Count" to see how many views a listing received. Even though there may only be a small number of manual bids placed, if a listing has been viewed by dozens of people, there is a good chance that a sniper or two may be "waiting in the wings".

http://www.watchcount.com/

Chris

 

I have 2 screens open. One has my lower bid amount in it, and a second slightly higher for 1 click bid in the case someone attemps to snipe me. And that bickering in previous pages is a pretty big disappointment, we're all in it for the same cause.

 

If someone is using a bidding service, and their bid is initiated (note that I did not say "entered") with 3 seconds left, by the time it posts and you see it on your screen, the auction will have already ended.

Chris

 

Oh well most of past history has proven robots and machines can beat humans (not always though). I just personally like to snipe, not use a service, makes me feel better

 

Why not just put in max bid to start out with and go read a book or watch some tv rather than sit there and try to snipe. Right know i went thru and put in my bid for 30 auctions that came in today if someone outbids in last sec i don't care I will get the same coin a month later for the price i want.

 

In theory you're right. I haven't read through all the posts in this thread, and this might have been said, but when you bid your max early you start getting people who want to be "competitive" and beat your bid, also alot of bidders examine one auction closely and decide that thats the one they want. You'd think that they'd have enough sense to hold onto their money and would rather pay less for the same thing from another auction, but thats not the case. I think its especially true for more unusual items, they get the hype and feel that they are even more rare than they are.

But its pretty common for people who buy stuff off ebay for resale or restoration to just go through listings and do what you're saying, putting their (usually low) max bids on alot of items early assuming they'll be outbid on 99% of them.