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The mkiv Supra Owners Club

Automatic "bidding" software for e-bay?


Chris Wilson

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Getting into this e-bay lark a bit now, is there software or a third party who people recommend to automatically bid up to a fixed limit whilst you do something more productive (like fit a turbo on a MKIV...)? Cheers.

It will bid up to your set amount. The interesting bit is watching it to see if someone bids just a few pence more than you. Many a time I've set alarms to go off in the middle of the night to watch bidding end (much to Vickis annoyance!)

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Guest slapmatt
Mmm...not to sure about giving a third party access to my E-Bay user name and password

I'm the same as you - but I guess it depends how desparately you want to win something!

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i agree with carl0s, i always prefer to manually bid just before auction ends. better to rely on yourself, imo.

 

normally i set two windows with 2 bids, and a 3rd with the max bid i want, 99% of the time it works a treat. hit the first one about a minute before auction ends, next about 30secs, and final one in last few secs. rarely do i get outbid, have been on ebay since early 1999, made around 700 purchases, and only lost a very few in number, and those i wasnt really worried about.

 

remember, sometimes eBay can suffer from server lag, and bids may not go through before auction ends.

 

the other thing, i never max bid at $0.05 or $0.50 higher, so for e.g. $25, wouldn't do $25.05 or$25.50. better to do $27.25 or $27.90 or so, as most people bid in 0.05 or 0.50 gaps.

 

not sure if this helps, but its worked for me pretty much 100%

 

Ebay is my second home, lol

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lol, i am in a generous frame of mind today :D

 

and if anyone outbids me, i will play a guilt trip on them for free Supra parts, j/k :haha:

 

i got so much useful info from here, and its a great place to hang out with everyone, happy to be able make an input for a change, rather than just my bad jokes.

 

haven't looked back since joining

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What is the advantage with this rather than just placing your highest bid. I collect vinyl and as far as I can see I loose a lot of items purely down to being outbid by a higher bidder willing to pay more money.

 

The other thing with e bay and certainly the collectable vinyl listed, is the stupid money people are prepared to pay, way above what it's worth.

i agree with carl0s, i always prefer to manually bid just before auction ends. better to rely on yourself, imo.

 

normally i set two windows with 2 bids, and a 3rd with the max bid i want, 99% of the time it works a treat. hit the first one about a minute before auction ends, next about 30secs, and final one in last few secs. rarely do i get outbid, have been on ebay since early 1999, made around 700 purchases, and only lost a very few in number, and those i wasnt really worried about.

 

remember, sometimes eBay can suffer from server lag, and bids may not go through before auction ends.

 

the other thing, i never max bid at $0.05 or $0.50 higher, so for e.g. $25, wouldn't do $25.05 or$25.50. better to do $27.25 or $27.90 or so, as most people bid in 0.05 or 0.50 gaps.

 

not sure if this helps, but its worked for me pretty much 100%

 

Ebay is my second home, lol

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hi Barney,

 

well, its really down to who you are bidding against. you can normally see how they are bidding by the 'history'.

 

e.g if i want an item and its currently at $5.00 and cheap i would wait until the way i suggested. then in first window try it at a minute with say $6.95. someone may have proxied up to $9.99. so you get outbid. in next window already set up, i would have input $12.99 ready to go, and try that one.

9 times out of 10 you will win the item, and not have to fork out a large sum.

if someone outbids me (which is rare), i would have in 3rd window a really high price for the last few seconds. and that will win the item 99% of the time.

 

main reason i do this, is after first window, someone will think you are no longer interested, and think they won. then you hit them in last few seconds. if they re-bid, then you go to the 3rd option, and this normally is the killer for them. they think they are safe, and no one will outbid them again

 

but i lurk in the shadows ready to pounce, lol

 

if you do it automatically, you would lose the middle stage, and just proxy bid a high amount. where my way you have more chance of saving a fair bit in costs. and only go high as last resort (chances are they will get scared off from further bids)

 

some vinyl really can be a rip off with what people ask as starting bid, a friend wanted a rare Ayumi Hamasaki (J-pop) single, it was a US remix 12inch. he paid 44UK for it, and had second thoughts and hoping he got outbid, he didn't. lol

i didnt buy them, but wanted the first set of Marillion 12inch singles, from Script For a Jester's Tear, they were only a pound or two. sometimes you save other times get ripped off.

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Thanks K

 

I see where your coming from, unfortunately for me the records I'm losing out on nearly all of the time go to people who are prepared to pay silly money for them, I think even using your system I would still loose out. Example: An lp is sitting at £13 until the last few minutes, I place a maximum bid of say £20 within the last 30 seconds, I'm outbid straight away and the item finishes in excess of £30-40 plus. Can't see me winning that even using your system, unless I wack in silly money, which I'm not prepared to do.

 

I can see your way of thinking though, yours is a good way of keepng the price down with the rapid bids, I'm certainly going to try it and see how I get on, perhaps it would work on items that don't have such a high interest?

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Soon even this wont really work as a ten day auction will have no bids until the last few seconds. Its amazing how much some of the stuff on ebay goes for when people get carried away. I've been looking at new speakers and often see people paying the new price if not more than the new price!

 

I know, I've watched lp's valued at a couple of hundred quid go for over £500, auction fevor at it's worst.

 

In my experience, the most sought after items on e bay attract almost all of their bids in the last few minutes.............he who has the biggest wallet wins (sadly)

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Getting into this e-bay lark a bit now, is there software or a third party who people recommend to automatically bid up to a fixed limit whilst you do something more productive (like fit a turbo on a MKIV...)? Cheers.

 

 

 

oi oi oi never mind the ebay lark get on with my turbo, i dunno you just cant get the staff these days :p :p :p :rlol: :rlol: :rlol: :rlol:

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if i want an item and its currently at $5.00 and cheap i would wait until the way i suggested. then in first window try it at a minute with say $6.95. someone may have proxied up to $9.99. so you get outbid. in next window already set up, i would have input $12.99 ready to go, and try that one.

9 times out of 10 you will win the item, and not have to fork out a large sum.

if someone outbids me (which is rare), i would have in 3rd window a really high price for the last few seconds. and that will win the item 99% of the time.

Why don't you just not bother with the the first two bids and just do step three? i.e. bid the max you're willing to pay at the last minute?

That's what I do. I can't see any point or advantage in this three window business.

Am I missing something here?

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