On 2009-02-17, Joe Pfeiffer wrote:
"DoN. Nichols" writes:

When I (really my wife is doing the bidding since she has the
account, I am simply doing the selecting and providing the money) am
interested in something, I decide what it is worth to me -- usually
with a bit of a fudge factor to make sure that I am above people bidding
an even amount), and try to get that bid in as close to the last minute
as practical with the current net response time.

[ ... ]

I use a sniping tool called jbidwatcher. I decide what the item is
worth to me, set a snipe to go off a few seconds before the auction
expiration, and try not to think about it until after the expiration.

Great! I tried another sniping tool some years ago, and it
failed me when eBay played games with the format close to the last
minute. Not long after that, the author gave up trying to keep track of
eBay's changes. I suspect that it might be easier to make it more
adaptable in java, which jbidwatcher is written in -- which also means
that it happily runs in my Solaris as well as the more "popular" OS's.

I recently got a cylindrical slide rule -- I was second bidder for
something like half a dozen of them before I finally won. And I got
one in basically "new" condition for quite a bit less than one of the
people who'd beat me got a terribly beat up one a couple of weeks
earlier. That's the way the game works....

Indeed so. I once got a nice set of Tri-Mikes (forget whether
it was a three-mike or a four-mike set) which was one of two almost
identical sets up for auction at the same time. One was wonderfully
photographed, wonderfully described, and was going to close later. The
other has poorer photos (though good enough to tell me that the set had
a more complete set of wrenches), a much less elaborate description
(they assumed that you knew what it was, or you would not be bidding on
it), and closed sooner.

At the time of the close of the first auction, it was about
$200.00 less than the fancy description one, and we got it. The other
kept going up over the next two hours, and eventually closed for
something like $350.00 more -- for a slightly less complete set.

So -- you neve know -- but it helps to know what you are bidding
on, and not to depend too strongly on the descriptions and photos. (The
one which went really high has the feel (in memory) of a Reliable Tools
auction. :-)

Enjoy,
DoN.

--
Email: | Voice (all times): (703) 938-4564
(too) near Washington D.C. | http://www.d-and-d.com/dnichols/DoN.html
--- Black Holes are where God is dividing by zero ---