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astrorat
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 Posted: Thu Oct 10, 2013 2:12 am Post subject: Allow to change default time to snipe |
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A nice enhancement would be to allow users to choose a default sniping time rather than having the only default be 6 seconds. Perhaps this could be an enhancement for those folks who upgrade to the mirror site?
Thanks for creating gixen.com. |
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mario
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Joined: 03 Oct 2006
Posts: 7126
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| Posted: Thu Oct 10, 2013 3:14 am Post subject: |
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| This already exists for mirror subscribers. Options are 3, 6, 8, 10, 12 and 15 seconds. |
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zerodarkthirty
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| Posted: Tue Nov 12, 2013 10:39 pm Post subject: |
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| mario wrote: | | This already exists for mirror subscribers. Options are 3, 6, 8, 10, 12 and 15 seconds. |
I'd really like to see options other than 3 and 6 seconds. 3 seconds is too late. 6 seconds is about right but...
The reason I'd like 4 or 5 seconds is that I bid on a lot of similar or identical items spread over a few minutes or hours. If I bid too low I really don't want to reveal my high price to other bidders. Since most sniping services come in at 6 seconds I'd like to be just a little late so that my bid fails if it's too low.
Sounds minor, but it can make a big difference against aggressive and well informed bidding opponents. |
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mario
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Joined: 03 Oct 2006
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| Posted: Tue Nov 12, 2013 11:44 pm Post subject: |
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| Why do you think that 3 seconds is too late then? Too late for what? |
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Gixen
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| Posted: Tue Nov 12, 2013 11:44 pm Post subject: |
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zerodarkthirty
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| Posted: Wed Nov 13, 2013 12:58 am Post subject: |
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| mario wrote: | | Why do you think that 3 seconds is too late then? Too late for what? |
Posting at 3 seconds is too likely to make your bid fail due to a delay. I still want the bid to go in, just after the "six second rush" from sniping services. The point is to wait for most "final" sniped bids to go in at 6 seconds and post slightly after them.
The idea is to not reveal your bid price if someone is going to snipe a higher price than you. When I snipe manually I usually wait until after 6 seconds before I bid. |
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mario
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Joined: 03 Oct 2006
Posts: 7126
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| Posted: Wed Nov 13, 2013 1:30 am Post subject: |
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First, Gixen 3-second snipes are not more likely to fail than 6-second snipes. A while ago I made an analysis of this and found no increased failure rate. Note that it still exists for both 6 and 3 second snipes if Gixen mirror is not used.
Second, all these snipes that you want your snipe to be submitted after are pre-scheduled, and not a reaction to your snipe. They will be submitted regardless of what you do. Hence, due to ebay bid increment rules, you are better off if your snipe is submitted *before* them, not after. This is why my favourite snipe time is 8 seconds. |
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zerodarkthirty
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| Posted: Wed Nov 13, 2013 2:03 am Post subject: |
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| mario wrote: | | First, Gixen 3-second snipes are not more likely to fail than 6-second snipes. |
Well that's good to hear, and I'll probably use the 3 second snipes if that holds. I only signed up today and was basing my information on another thread where you discouraged people from using 3 second snipes, if I read it correctly.
I understand how the bidding and increments work and that bidding earlier helps with increment issues, but my issue is hiding my maximum price.
Lets say I bid higher than other snipes. I win and due to increment rules the other bidders (usually) don't know exactly what the maximum price I entered is.
Lets say I bid too low but early:
8 sec: $50 my bid
6 sec: $47 underbid
6 sec: $60 winning bid
5 sec: $40 underbid
Other bidders can look at the bidding history and see that my maximum price is $50.
Lets say I bid too low but late:
6 sec: $47 underbid
6 sec: $60 winning bid
5 sec: $40 underbid
4 sec: $50 my bid
Of course I still lose but now the bidding history will not show my maximum price of $50 because it was below the current price when it was placed.
The reason it's important to me is because the sellers who I buy from list multiple identical items over several minutes, hours or days. If the other bidders can get a handle on my maximum price (range) they can take advantage of that. |
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Cupid
Joined: 09 Aug 2007
Posts: 7596
Location: Bristol, UK
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| Posted: Wed Nov 13, 2013 2:37 am Post subject: |
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The 3 second snipe offset is only discouraged because it is less likely to be successful than an 8 second snipe offset, due to the Ebay bid increment rule especially when there are other snipes that have scheduled bids on the same items. It is not discouraged here due to any Gixen or Ebay limitations or reliability issues.
Therefore your requirement for bid hiding should be met by the three second snipes.
As you acknowledge, in cases where your bid is less than one bid increment more than the highest bid you will loose with a 3 second snipe, since it is more likely to be blocked by Ebay due to the bid increment rule. Whereas you would have won with exactly the same bid with an 8 second offset snipe, when the bid that was within one bid increment of yours would have been placed later than that, the opposing bid is then more likely than yours to be blocked by the Ebay bid increment rule.
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mario
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Joined: 03 Oct 2006
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| Posted: Wed Nov 13, 2013 2:41 am Post subject: |
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| I am not sure what to think, you know better - this depends on kind of items you bid on. For most items with many sellers and buyers, it doesn't matter, but if you bid on rare collectibles it may make some sense. I would be surprised, however, if sellers analyze bid history that closely as you describe. |
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Cupid
Joined: 09 Aug 2007
Posts: 7596
Location: Bristol, UK
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| Posted: Wed Nov 13, 2013 2:53 am Post subject: |
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I think the proposal is that other buyers analyse bidding patterns, as you say sellers are not generally interested since there is very little they can learn that is of use to them.
My own experience is that buyers certainly look at outcomes, that is, the final selling price. But buyers are not very likely to analyse exactly which bidders are providing that final price with their bidding activity... particularly since for other bidders Ebay has made it much more difficult to identify which bids are coming from where... in the last few years.
As you say though, maybe that is dependant on exactly which items you are sniping.
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zerodarkthirty
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| Posted: Wed Nov 13, 2013 3:29 am Post subject: |
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| mario wrote: | | I would be surprised, however, if sellers analyze bid history that closely as you describe. |
It's the buyers who analyze, the seller doesn't much care, they just want to get rid of the stock because they have more coming in.
There are only about 4 regular buyers. There is a recycler who only offers local pickup so only a limited audience and the items are older high end rack servers which are a niche product. The servers are almost always of the same two or three types.
The seller constantly sells these, not every week but most weeks, and the regular bidders will buy an unlimited number of them at the right price. It's easy to identify buyers by their two letters and the number of reviews or private status and bidding history.
Each buyer wants to get the items as cheaply as possible, but doesn't care about any one particular item, because they know more are coming. They want to pay just a little over what everyone else will pay. They can't just bid very high and rely on paying what the underbidder pays plus the minimum increment because there is sometimes a new bidder who will overpay wildly, not realizing the servers go cheaply. They also don't want to go on forever without winning an auction.
If you know what everyone else will pay you can win most of the auctions cheaply. I win 95% of them because I've studied the other bidders and, of course, because I snipe. |
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