Email from Gixen \"Gixen Stats: How Much Gixen Saves Y

[BATorok]

While your stats are interesting, the bigger issue for me is how many times I've won the item within my price range when I otherwise would not have.

I recently won an item in the $450 range. The bid increment was $5. I typically add my lucky number, in this case $1.07, to my max bid. I watched the bidding and there was a bidding war between several people in the last 30 seconds. I won by my lucky add-on amount which was less than the bid increment.

That tells me that my snipe was not the last bid, but likely the second last bid. And, if allowed more time, one of the other bidders would have come back and outbid me.

I'm not as happy as I could be when I win at the top of my bid range, but still happy that I won.

[spiritsoul]

After the Gixen Stats email I went and checked my history. Very happy with results and savings from high bid. While that is fantastic, just the benefit of not babysitting the bid is so worth the membership. Thanks Mario for Gixen. It has made my life so much easier. You have good karma coming to you!

[adyj1]

The stats email is interesting, however I would be wary of drawing too many conclusions from it.

I use sniping software for three reasons;

1. If my bid maximum is higher than another bidder's bid maximum, I don't give the other bidder the chance to change their mind and submit a higher bid.

2. If I am interested in an item that is being sold in many active auctions, I can monitor a number of auctions, sniping at a lower bid than I think would be needed to win, and if Gixen manages to snipe a quiet auction at a give-away price, I've got what I wanted and Gixen stops trying to win auctions within that group.

3. I don't let other bidders (if there are any) know that there is another bidder (me) on the scene, which might make them think that by submitting a low maximum bid they will bag themselves a bargain.

(And all this can be done days in advance of the auction end. )

I am a big fan of Gixen, but if the highest I will pay for an item is lower than what another bidder is willing to pay, then I won't win it. And if they won't pay as much as I am willing to, then I will win it. Sniping or no sniping. For this reason, I can't actually say how many of my successful purchases Gixen has, although I definitely believe that Gixen has given me an advantage in *some* of them, and I am happy to use any advantage that I can get...

Ady