The Geneva Convention should outlaw Snipers - Rant

[ausimax]

Bidding this morning on a clapped out Bellmatic, been trying to get hold of one for ages, 10 sec out I'm the highest bidder, 5 sec out I'm still the highest bidder, count goes down to zero seconds, no higher bids - wait about 15 sec - You have been outbid!

There were 3 bids in the last 5 sec, with the latency of WiFi connection I don't stand a chance, if I bid after the 10 sec mark my bid does not register.

So much for the Governments much vaunted NBN, for the non Oz members this is The National Broadband Network costing somewhere in the vicinity of $80 million that is going to bring ALL Australians high speed Internet, the best I will still be able to get is "Sky Muster" a satellite service that still has high latency.

I had a satellite service about 10 years ago and ditched it as it was not much better than Dial-up.

For me it is like trying to be a "Sniper" with a pop gun.

[Henry]

Well my internet is pretty quick so I like sniping but It sucks about your bellmatic...

I wonder if there is a market for a bid on service I could provide 


Best thing..... Just don't bid at all till the end, Smack on your best dollar and be prepared to lose.

Bad luck mate.

[estrickland]

Yeah, eBay's auction system makes for an exciting finish but it's not very efficient - leads to sniping as the best way to participate.

Out of that has sprung up a bunch of automated sniper services like Gixen, which synchronizes clocks and submits your bid in the last 3 seconds, from their servers.

So, your local network conditions won't matter.
It is useful in helping you avoid a back-and-forth dynamic - you just set your max and see what happens.

[cd_god]

I remember the old days of 2001 when there were no sniping programs and there was no "add to watch list" and the only way to keep tabs on something you wanted to win was to put the minimum bid on it and wait till the last second and use your watch since there was no "bid countdown timer" like now if you don';t have a sniping software.

Unfortunately for me at the time I worked second shift and sat behind a monitor not doing shit all shift and collected Bulova's so I could last minute win all West Coast auctions. 

Just think how many classic Seiko's I could have retired with today if only there has been ANY Seiko forum back in 1999 to sway me away from Bulova back in the old days.     

[tritto]

Is this the one you mean Max?

I was the first bidder, but wouldn't have paid the $56AUD it finished at given it's just a non-running movement donor with no movement shots.

[Deleted]

Apr 2, 2017 19:30:15 GMT -8 cd_god said:

I remember the old days of 2001 when there were no sniping programs and there was no "add to watch list" and the only way to keep tabs on something you wanted to win was to put the minimum bid on it and wait till the last second and use your watch since there was no "bid countdown timer" like now if you don';t have a sniping software.

Unfortunately for me at the time I worked second shift and sat behind a monitor not doing shit all shift and collected Bulova's so I could last minute win all West Coast auctions. 

Just think how many classic Seiko's I could have retired with today if only there has been ANY Seiko forum back in 1999 to sway me away from Bulova back in the old days.     

Wait 20 years bulova is going to make you lots of fortune.

[Deleted]

estricalnd is right I would put out my max then just sit back relax and enjoy the show.

[ausimax]

Apr 2, 2017 19:21:01 GMT -8 Henry said:

Well my internet is pretty quick so I like sniping but It sucks about your bellmatic...

I wonder if there is a market for a bid on service I could provide 


Best thing..... Just don't bid at all till the end, Smack on your best dollar and be prepared to lose.

Bad luck mate.

Thanks, I'll get over it just a bit of a p@s off, wouldn't have paid the end price anyway.

[ausimax]

Apr 2, 2017 19:25:37 GMT -8 estrickland said:

Yeah, eBay's auction system makes for an exciting finish but it's not very efficient - leads to sniping as the best way to participate.

Out of that has sprung up a bunch of automated sniper services like Gixen, which synchronizes clocks and submits your bid in the last 3 seconds, from their servers.

So, your local network conditions won't matter.
It is useful in helping you avoid a back-and-forth dynamic - you just set your max and see what happens.

Didn't even know they existed, may give them a try if I get real serious, thanks!

[ausimax]

Apr 2, 2017 20:28:54 GMT -8 tritto said:

Is this the one you mean Max?

I was the first bidder, but wouldn't have paid the $56AUD it finished at given it's just a non-running movement donor with no movement shots.

Yeah, that's the one, I wouldn't have paid the final price for it only wanted it as a learning measure, I don't want to spend That much on going watches.

[cobrajet25]

Apr 2, 2017 20:59:15 GMT -8 @sel said:

estricalnd is right I would put out my max then just sit back relax and enjoy the show.

That's the way to do it...HIGH bidder still wins, not last bidder.

[small]

I don't know why eBay hasn't gone the way of the 15 minute rule. Gunbroker an online auction site for firearms and stuff adds 15 minutes to the end of an auction if there's a bid placed in the last 15 minutes. So waiting util there's only three seconds left just adds 15 minutes to the clock, giving other bidders opportunity to increase their bid. Sellers seem to enjoy it as they get the most out of it. Downside I've heard is that when people "over Bid" in the heat of the moment, end up not following through with the auction. Leaving the seller on the hook to relist. Another Auction site allowed a "haggle". You would set a reserve and see where the auction went, if it wasn't met then the seller could enter a haggle with the highest bidder it was allowed to back and forth one time each I believe. Seller could drop his price and then the bidder could either accept or counter. I think there are many better ways of doing it then how it's done on eBay now. I can see the "auctions I didn't win" and 90% of them they went cheap and only the next highest amount over mine, maybe $.50 took the prize. Sure I'd have bid again but I have no idea what the others max was, so...Now if I notice it's ending soon and I'm at the PC I'll keep tabs on it with a "real Max" not one of my courtesy bids "IF" I really want it. Although I have used the autobid to increase my max by just clicking and clicking in the last few minutes until I'm the high bidder. Again the heat of the moment if there's another there doing the same. The sellers makes out that's for sure. I understand the terms and always follow through with the purchase I've never tried to cancel the  purchase because I thought I'd bid too much.    

Agree that snipers take some of enjoyment away from the whole experience. Like others have said, set your max and walk away. There will be another down the road.

[catkicker]

I set my snipe max $ and 3 seconds
And forget about it.

[GuyJ]

www.biddingscheduler.com/cgi-bin/ebay_homepage.pl?ref=freeroms.com

I used to use this, but tend not to anymore, if someone wants whatever it is for more than I'm willing to pay then so be it.

[ausimax]

General reply, just a bit of a rant not so much at sniping but at my internet speed, sitting there watching the clock count down to zero showing you as the highest bidder - then you don't win.

I set my limit to what I will bid, if I'm busy I bid my max, usually I snipe at 14 sec, end of section, if I'm outbid  I don't have time to bid again.

[GuyJ]

Hmm yeh having a slow speed will hamper things. That site is free max and works well that I listed. If you're doing a lot of bidding and doing it relatively early due to your connection, then I'd set that site to take care of it within the last 3 or 5 seconds and forget it.

[Mr.Jones]

Yahoo Japan also does the extension when there was a bid in the last few minutes. I think it resets to 10 minutes.
It's quite the rush to see the timer ticking down and hoping no one else bids again...