Hello everyone,
Consider this snipe !
Item # 2924403926
My Max Bid : 40
Current Higher Bid : 41.00
Status : Ready
Why don't I have neither any warning message nor E-Mail ?
Olivier
Original Post
Replies sorted oldest to newest
From AS faq:
"31. How come I’m outbid but my snipe doesn’t know it yet?
We check if you are outbid in certain waves. This is a HUGE bandwidth waster and costs us money, so we do it the most economical way we can:
If the item ends within 30 min, we may check 10 every min
If the item ends in an hour, we may check every 20 min
If the item ends in a day, we may check every 12 hours
If the item ends in 7 days, we may not check yet.
Please note that you can click on View Extended Info just above your snipes, and it will give you this information immediately, so you're only one click away from the info you want."
"31. How come I’m outbid but my snipe doesn’t know it yet?
We check if you are outbid in certain waves. This is a HUGE bandwidth waster and costs us money, so we do it the most economical way we can:
If the item ends within 30 min, we may check 10 every min
If the item ends in an hour, we may check every 20 min
If the item ends in a day, we may check every 12 hours
If the item ends in 7 days, we may not check yet.
Please note that you can click on View Extended Info just above your snipes, and it will give you this information immediately, so you're only one click away from the info you want."
Just decide what amount you are going to bid, your absolute max, set the snipe for that amount, and be done with it. Since the point is to bid your max (since you only have one shot, so to speak), a sniper should not really rely on outbid notices. If the bid goes higher, you were not going to pay it, anyway, right? Otherwise, it is not really sniping. 
Hello Chatter163 and rick,
Thanks a lot for your answers. Rick, please forgive me for not reading the faq's. Next time, I will :-(
Chatter163 : Your question let me think that maybe I did not understand something.
Consider the following :
I wanna buy an item and my max bid (I mean the maximum i wanna spend for this item) is 50.
Just before this item is snipped, it is, let's say 20.
If I do place a bid at 50, will I pay it 50 or will I pay it the next bid step after 20 ?
Sorry if this question should hav been asked in ebay forum, but I must admit my english isn't that good and here in france, ebay support is not the best customer support in the world :-(
Thanks
Olivier
Thanks a lot for your answers. Rick, please forgive me for not reading the faq's. Next time, I will :-(
Chatter163 : Your question let me think that maybe I did not understand something.
Consider the following :
I wanna buy an item and my max bid (I mean the maximum i wanna spend for this item) is 50.
Just before this item is snipped, it is, let's say 20.
If I do place a bid at 50, will I pay it 50 or will I pay it the next bid step after 20 ?
Sorry if this question should hav been asked in ebay forum, but I must admit my english isn't that good and here in france, ebay support is not the best customer support in the world :-(
Thanks
Olivier
Olivier asks, "If I do place a bid at 50, will I pay it 50 or will I pay it the next bid step after 20 ?"
You will pay one bid increment above the next highest bid, up to your max of 50. In order to beat you, someone will have to have bid one increment above 50, or at least 51. (That person could be the person who bid 20, which is not necessarily the whole amount he bid.)
You will pay one bid increment above the next highest bid, up to your max of 50. In order to beat you, someone will have to have bid one increment above 50, or at least 51. (That person could be the person who bid 20, which is not necessarily the whole amount he bid.)
Thanks a lot steve
It's such more clear for me now
Olivier
It's such more clear for me now
Olivier
As I understand it the FAQ says that AS only downloads current bid price from Ebay at scarce intervals. But, in what olivieraudrey posted, clearly AS knew the bid price, the only thing it has to do to see he was outbid is compare the two numbers, which takes like one CPU clock cycle and no bandwidth.
But you're right, it doesn't matter since you should just put your max anyway.
But you're right, it doesn't matter since you should just put your max anyway.
AS checks on auction status at varying intervals, depending on how much time is left in a given auction. If there are more than 3 days left, AS may not check your bid against the current high bid on the item at all. Then as time winds down in the auction AS checks your bid against the current high bid more frequently. If at any time a comparison reveals that your max bid has been topped by a current high bid, AS notifies you to that effect. Thus, outbid notices are far more likely to be sent when the time in the auction is short and AS is comparing more frequently. AS still may not catch an outbid situation, but it's more likely that it will. I just had one such notice waiting for me this morning; it said there were "20 hours, 31 mins +" left in the auction at the time the outbid notice was sent. I cancelled my snipe, but the warning came with plenty of time to increase my max bid if I had been so inclined. 
Allright, but in his example AS already knew that he was outbid, By "knew" I mean that it has the necessary information, all that's left is putting 2 and 2 together and sending a warning or displaying a warning when I load the my snipes page, but it does neither. That's fine if it doesn't email me right away for the reasons you described, but when I load the my snipes page, and AS lists the current high bid right next to my max bid, and the current high is clearly higher, AS should not have the green ready label there. It would only take a few lines of code and little overhead to compare (not download pages from Ebay) but just compare the two numbers that are displayed in front of you. and change the snipe status accordingly. This would make more sense when I look at my 10 snipes and I see that 5 of them have been outbid, but still 9 of them are listed as green "ready".
Hope that makes sense.
Hope that makes sense.
Scott,
No disrespect, but I'm trying to understand some of your earlier posts in relationship to your more recent posts. The following are some comments that you made:
May 28, 2003 08:52 PM:
"... Auction sniper is already kinda shady in my eyes already since it defies the purpose of the Ebay bidding system. It bids late so that people have no chance to outbid you. That's already kinda low and dirty, and hurts sellers. ..."
"I'm somewhat against AS in the first place cause it gives an unfair advantage to those who use it ........"
May 28, 2003 10:03 PM:
"... And basically YOU ARE ALL WRONG. sonofagunk has a very good point. It is only practical not to place that extra bid which is guaranteed not to win. ...."
"(1) AS's job is to provide an alternate way to bid on Ebay, It is their 'JOB' to enact any enhancements which may save their clients money. Don't talk bull**** about AS's 'job'.
(2) Like my ass it won't affect the lower bidder, the 'lower bidder' reaps the awards when he is the 'higher bidder' and then ANOTHER SNIPE is cancelled which would have only boosted the price.
(3) Yes, some people would probably get their undergarments all up in a bunch over their snipe being cancelled. But hopefully, they would realize it is saving them money at the expense of the poor poor sellers. ..."
"SO, clearly this is a great money saving (for AS'ers) thing which is great!! You all seemed to miss this fact somehow, and instead brought up inane points about how your snipe is sacred, and shall not be cancelled without your full written consent. ..."
"Basically, any third party system which saves bidders money by lowering winning prices in an underhanded way is subject to scrutiny. And that is exactly the whole idea behind AS. I suspect that if AS becomes too popular then Ebay will take steps to disallow it. ......"
I don't consider you a "foe". I'm really trying to understand.
No disrespect, but I'm trying to understand some of your earlier posts in relationship to your more recent posts. The following are some comments that you made:
May 28, 2003 08:52 PM:
"... Auction sniper is already kinda shady in my eyes already since it defies the purpose of the Ebay bidding system. It bids late so that people have no chance to outbid you. That's already kinda low and dirty, and hurts sellers. ..."
"I'm somewhat against AS in the first place cause it gives an unfair advantage to those who use it ........"
May 28, 2003 10:03 PM:
"... And basically YOU ARE ALL WRONG. sonofagunk has a very good point. It is only practical not to place that extra bid which is guaranteed not to win. ...."
"(1) AS's job is to provide an alternate way to bid on Ebay, It is their 'JOB' to enact any enhancements which may save their clients money. Don't talk bull**** about AS's 'job'.
(2) Like my ass it won't affect the lower bidder, the 'lower bidder' reaps the awards when he is the 'higher bidder' and then ANOTHER SNIPE is cancelled which would have only boosted the price.
(3) Yes, some people would probably get their undergarments all up in a bunch over their snipe being cancelled. But hopefully, they would realize it is saving them money at the expense of the poor poor sellers. ..."
"SO, clearly this is a great money saving (for AS'ers) thing which is great!! You all seemed to miss this fact somehow, and instead brought up inane points about how your snipe is sacred, and shall not be cancelled without your full written consent. ..."
"Basically, any third party system which saves bidders money by lowering winning prices in an underhanded way is subject to scrutiny. And that is exactly the whole idea behind AS. I suspect that if AS becomes too popular then Ebay will take steps to disallow it. ......"
I don't consider you a "foe". I'm really trying to understand.
Well, it's not like this is offtopic or anything, but let's give it a go...
May 28, 2003 08:52 PM:
"... Auction sniper is already kinda shady in my eyes already since it defies the purpose of the Ebay bidding system. It bids late so that people have no chance to outbid you. That's already kinda low and dirty, and hurts sellers. ..."
Ya, that sounds contradictory. When I wrote the post outlining how ebay bidding actually works, that brought a lot of stuff from the back of my mind to the front. And apparently I did not write this with the-back-of-my-mind in mind. That should make sense.
"I'm somewhat against AS in the first place cause it gives an unfair advantage to those who use it ........"
Well, it does.. given the current bidding system, the traditional way of sit out the last few minutes and reload a lot is bound to get you screwed by snipers. I'm anti getting screwed. Those people must turn to new methods now, like actually bidding their true max, which is why I'll admit the problem is not with the snipers, but the people who bid not their true max. Does that sound contradicting? In the big picture, sniping exposes a problem with the way people usually bid and is therefore probably a good thing. In the small picture, it screws some poeple over given the current bidding mechanics, but only stupid people, and who cares about them.
And in that first apparently contradictory quote of mine, I was just trying to reword the problems I saw in the "small picture". Seems I chose some bad words.
May 28, 2003 10:03 PM:
"... And basically YOU ARE ALL WRONG. sonofagunk has a very good point. It is only practical not to place that extra bid which is guaranteed not to win. ...."
My point here is that YES, it is practical to do what he proposed. but NO, it is not something that should be implemented by AS. The reason I posted this was because none of the previous posters seemed to realize that YES, it is practical.
"(1) AS's job is to provide an alternate way to bid on Ebay, It is their 'JOB' to enact any enhancements which may save their clients money. Don't talk bull**** about AS's 'job'.
(2) Like my ass it won't affect the lower bidder, the 'lower bidder' reaps the awards when he is the 'higher bidder' and then ANOTHER SNIPE is cancelled which would have only boosted the price.
(3) Yes, some people would probably get their undergarments all up in a bunch over their snipe being cancelled. But hopefully, they would realize it is saving them money at the expense of the poor poor sellers. ..."
...This is why his idea was a practical one, and would save money, (although somewhat illegally and immorally).
"SO, clearly this is a great money saving (for AS'ers) thing which is great!! You all seemed to miss this fact somehow, and instead brought up inane points about how your snipe is sacred, and shall not be cancelled without your full written consent. ..."
ya, people seemed bothered that AS might ever consider canceling THEIR bid, I mean, the horror!
"Basically, any third party system which saves bidders money by lowering winning prices in an underhanded way is subject to scrutiny. And that is exactly the whole idea behind AS. I suspect that if AS becomes too popular then Ebay will take steps to disallow it. ......"
The first statement is true because it IS underhanded to bid late specifically with the purpose of not giving poeple time to outbid you. That's the small picture interpretation. The second statement is true because Ebay should try to regulate or outrule underhanded systems. Therefore what I said is true. QED.
This makes me think, people try to beat them (snipers) by joining them. And I was thinking earlier that perhaps Ebay could solve any of these bidding problems by not showing you anyone else's bid or the current bid price. Then I realized that that is effectively what is achieved when a bunch of poeple all snipe.
"I don't consider you a "foe". I'm really trying to understand." -Rick
Glad to hear that
May 28, 2003 08:52 PM:
"... Auction sniper is already kinda shady in my eyes already since it defies the purpose of the Ebay bidding system. It bids late so that people have no chance to outbid you. That's already kinda low and dirty, and hurts sellers. ..."
Ya, that sounds contradictory. When I wrote the post outlining how ebay bidding actually works, that brought a lot of stuff from the back of my mind to the front. And apparently I did not write this with the-back-of-my-mind in mind. That should make sense.
"I'm somewhat against AS in the first place cause it gives an unfair advantage to those who use it ........"
Well, it does.. given the current bidding system, the traditional way of sit out the last few minutes and reload a lot is bound to get you screwed by snipers. I'm anti getting screwed. Those people must turn to new methods now, like actually bidding their true max, which is why I'll admit the problem is not with the snipers, but the people who bid not their true max. Does that sound contradicting? In the big picture, sniping exposes a problem with the way people usually bid and is therefore probably a good thing. In the small picture, it screws some poeple over given the current bidding mechanics, but only stupid people, and who cares about them.
And in that first apparently contradictory quote of mine, I was just trying to reword the problems I saw in the "small picture". Seems I chose some bad words.
May 28, 2003 10:03 PM:
"... And basically YOU ARE ALL WRONG. sonofagunk has a very good point. It is only practical not to place that extra bid which is guaranteed not to win. ...."
My point here is that YES, it is practical to do what he proposed. but NO, it is not something that should be implemented by AS. The reason I posted this was because none of the previous posters seemed to realize that YES, it is practical.
"(1) AS's job is to provide an alternate way to bid on Ebay, It is their 'JOB' to enact any enhancements which may save their clients money. Don't talk bull**** about AS's 'job'.
(2) Like my ass it won't affect the lower bidder, the 'lower bidder' reaps the awards when he is the 'higher bidder' and then ANOTHER SNIPE is cancelled which would have only boosted the price.
(3) Yes, some people would probably get their undergarments all up in a bunch over their snipe being cancelled. But hopefully, they would realize it is saving them money at the expense of the poor poor sellers. ..."
...This is why his idea was a practical one, and would save money, (although somewhat illegally and immorally).
"SO, clearly this is a great money saving (for AS'ers) thing which is great!! You all seemed to miss this fact somehow, and instead brought up inane points about how your snipe is sacred, and shall not be cancelled without your full written consent. ..."
ya, people seemed bothered that AS might ever consider canceling THEIR bid, I mean, the horror!
"Basically, any third party system which saves bidders money by lowering winning prices in an underhanded way is subject to scrutiny. And that is exactly the whole idea behind AS. I suspect that if AS becomes too popular then Ebay will take steps to disallow it. ......"
The first statement is true because it IS underhanded to bid late specifically with the purpose of not giving poeple time to outbid you. That's the small picture interpretation. The second statement is true because Ebay should try to regulate or outrule underhanded systems. Therefore what I said is true. QED.
This makes me think, people try to beat them (snipers) by joining them. And I was thinking earlier that perhaps Ebay could solve any of these bidding problems by not showing you anyone else's bid or the current bid price. Then I realized that that is effectively what is achieved when a bunch of poeple all snipe.
"I don't consider you a "foe". I'm really trying to understand." -Rick
Glad to hear that
Scott,
Thank you for clearing that up.
Thank you for clearing that up.
Scott, you said: "The first statement is true because it IS underhanded to bid late specifically with the purpose of not giving poeple time to outbid you. That's the small picture interpretation."
Big or small, wouldn't that cease to be a consideration if everyone, proxy or sniper, bid their max?
Big or small, wouldn't that cease to be a consideration if everyone, proxy or sniper, bid their max?
"Big or small, wouldn't that cease to be a consideration if everyone, proxy or sniper, bid their max?"
Scott,
I agree with Steve.
But, maybe you could tell us in 30 words or less, what question or statement you would like to make.
Scott,
I agree with Steve.
But, maybe you could tell us in 30 words or less, what question or statement you would like to make.
quote:
Originally posted by Rick:
But, maybe you could tell us in 30 words or less, what question or statement you would like to make.
Then again, maybe he can't.
sorry to outlive your attention span, chatter163, but i'll try, just for you.
in answer to steve's question:
Yes of course that's obvious, but unless Ebay changes their system, people will never all bid max. (Therefore, the snipe always screws someone (maybe someone not great at bid-theory))
[This message was edited by scottopoly on June 08, 2003 at 02:10 AM.]
in answer to steve's question:
Yes of course that's obvious, but unless Ebay changes their system, people will never all bid max. (Therefore, the snipe always screws someone (maybe someone not great at bid-theory))
[This message was edited by scottopoly on June 08, 2003 at 02:10 AM.]
Chatter;
Exactly 30 words (if you count "bid-theory as 2 words)!!!
Spooky. My post count is "666" (the devil made me do it).
Exactly 30 words (if you count "bid-theory as 2 words)!!!
Spooky. My post count is "666" (the devil made me do it).
quote:
Originally posted by Rick:
Spooky. My post count is "666" (the devil made me do it).
Get out of my house!