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eBay "intelligence" software idea

A angeloMember
I don't know if this exists, but it sure seems like it would be a nice set of add-on features for AS.

I've searched these forums and have seen suggestions for feedback sniper and maintaining common pricing sheets, and auto-sniffing out scams.

Here's some features that would be nice to add to the "golden ebay tool" feature list.

1) Viewing an item - Have the ability to find recent closing auctions of all of these (prices), all other open auctions of these (prices), and intelligent pattern matching that would say something like a particular buyer always buys these up and seems to put in a bid at $255.

2) Viewing an item - have the ability to research the seller a little -- show not only what items they have for sale, but a quick % of buying vs selling. (e.g. Instead of "xyz123 (123)", show "xyz123 (123) Transactions: 93% Seller"

3) Viewing an item, having the ability to research the highest max bid input (not the winning bid price) on closed items. This would let you know how high some bidders have been willing to pay without infringing on the rights of any parties of this particular auction item. It need not name names, just historic max bid amounts.

4) If I'm set up to snipe item 2345678 at $250 and another AS member has a $260 snipe set on the same item, at least tell me so I can keep looking for other similar items. Maybe something like "Alert: Other AS members have higher snipes set on this item." -- no amounts, no member names, just a friendly "you should keep looking because you're not winning this" type of message.


Anyhow, I love the AS service, and wanted to share some of the things I have to do Manually now so that maybe someone can work those things into the tool or a tool someday.
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P petroniusMember
Not sure about 1 and 2, but I'd think that 3 and 4 surely aren't acceptable, as they obviously undermine the purposes of sealed bidding on ebay and sniping here, respectively. For example, it seems to me your suggestion 3 cannot avoid giving away the max bid of winning bidders (and everyone can see who that is) for the items. Yes, that is valuable information from one point of view--but it seems to me such a feature would unquestionably complicate and distort the whole bidding system (introducting uncomfortable strategic considerations when otherwise one could live happily on the simple "just bid the most you're willing to pay" rule), tend to inflate bidding, and change the world as we know it for the worse, and I doubt that any ebay bidder out there who has had some measure of success would find it palatable. Or consider for a second your suggestion 4: For example, if it were implemented, and I bid the $250 and got this message, why should I not place another snipe for $300? (My snipes are not binding after all, I can cancel them at any time.) And keep upping my snipe. Eventually, under your scheme, I would cease to get a warning message from AS--and then I would know what the highest snipe had been! Thus the suggestion would defeat the very purpose of placing a snipe in the first place. This example just scrapes the tip of the iceberg of the reasons for objecting to the suggestions. Seems to me the whole system would become a wreck.

Relating to suggestion 2, there are some useful resources at toolhaus.org , though perhaps not exactly what your suggestion 2 points to.
rickrickMember
quote:
2) Viewing an item - have the ability to research the seller a little -- show not only what items they have for sale, but a quick % of buying vs selling. (e.g. Instead of "xyz123 (123)", show "xyz123 (123) Transactions: 93% Seller"
That might be a good idea, Angelo. Currently I, and probably you do the same, have to click on “From Buyers” on a seller’s feedback to insure that the seller hasn’t hyped up their feedback by purchasing a bunch of small-ticketed items. Maybe ebay will add that.
H hobycat2Member
I recently found something that might do some of the things you're talking about. I hope it's ok that I post it here... http://www.auctionshadow.com/shadowtooltext.php
It goes on your toolbar, and pulls out info like negatives and buyer/seller percentages. (The main website is some sort of search utility that I haven't tried yet, I just find their utility useful. I'm so glad I found auctionsniper and this thing, my life is so much easier now Smile

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