Last Possible Bid

[Zelda 64]

I'm new to Gixen and I'm wondering if Gixen will put in the last possible bid for an item by taking into consideration my high bid & the bid increment?

Example: My high Bid on an item is $140, the current bid is $136 & the bid increment set by seller is $2.50. Will Gixen place a bid for me knowing that it is my last chance to place a bid in my acceptable price range (because if someone else bids up to $38.50 then I can no longer place a bid = or < my $140 limit.)?

[Newbie12345]

Gixen will bid 140 at 6 seconds before the end of the auction. If the price was 136 then the bid will be placed and you might win it depending on the what the other bidders had as max price.
If the price was up to 138.50 then the bid of 140 can't be placed and you will not win the auction.

[mario]

Bid increment is not determined by the seller, but by ebay, and it goes up as the price goes up.

Gixen always submits your maximum bid, and then ebay proxy bidding system takes over to determine the amount necessary to win.

[Zelda 64]

Would it be a lot of work for Gixen to scrape the current bid & current bid increment data in order to add the feature I described above? Is it worth me posting in the suggestion section? Placing a "last possible bid" is definitely a useful technique, I just wonder if it's an technique that is financially and technically feasible for Gixen to implement. Thanks for your time and the info, it is appreciated.

[Gixen]

[Cupid]

Basing bidding on the current auction price (which is all that is available to Gixen) is not a feasible strategy.

Most of the time the current price is just the second highest bidders bid plus one bid increment, the actual bid you are competing with might be much higher. If that were the case many bids might be required before a bid lower than you were prepared to pay was the highest bid... there is not enough time for Gixen to do that even if the extra computing resources required were cheap enough to provide at a reasonable cost.

Even if that were possible.. you then leave yourself open to someone placing a bid after you have become the highest bidder and then winning the auction at a price that is still lower than you were prepared to pay. It would not be possible for Gixen to monitor and react (by placing even more bids) to later bids on a millisecond by millisecond basis up to the end of the auction.

The current Gixen implementation has hardly any disadvantages and is the only feasible one for Ebay auctions.
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Mark

[Zelda 64]

I'm talking about Gixen using 3 pieces of data; the CURRENT BID, MY MAX BID and the CURRENT BID INCREMENT. The bid increment is fixed by price interval as mentioned by Mario (I checked to confirm) but it could be scraped in case of a unannounced site change.

Using those 3 pieces of data Gixen could calculate the following:

MY MAX BID - CURRENT BID INCREMENT = Y
Y - (CURRENT BID INCREMENT - $0.01) = X
notice interval [X,Y]

given MY MAX BID, Gixen should place a bid ASAP when the CURRENT BID is in the price interval [X,Y]. This is desirable because if another user bids then it will be impossible to place a bid = or < MY MAX BID.

I have snipped plenty of auctions manually and I agree that placing a bid at the last second is usually the best strategy but not always.

[Zelda 64]

I'm aware that it would be a trade off as a result. You would have less of a "Sniping Effect" which gives others time to bid higher and rethink things but it would ensure a bid placement that is = or < MY MAX BID and prevent someone else from placing the "Last Possible Bid" within your price limit. I think it's something to consider when bidding.

[Cupid]

I understand what you are saying... I often place manual bids myself when, for instance, the starting price is within one bid increment of my maximum bid.

It works well when the value of the item is very well established. I usually find that items with such a profile are also generally available though, and then bidding strategy is not so significant.

It isn't something I personally have wanted to be automated... but if others do want such a feature then they should and can say so here, and if you get enough support I'm sure it would be considered.

It also is not a feature that could be considered sniping, as you have already acknowledged, and the primary purpose of this site has always been the placing of snipes on Ebay.
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Mark

[mario]

Zelda 64, now I got it, what you are proposing makes sense, indeed. I am concerned, however, that some users will be upset because Gixen placed their bid too early, not understanding that it was the best strategy to follow given their maximum bid.

In addition, despite the fact that Gixen users are more rational than most, it still happens that some users they don't set their maximum bid right away, and want to increase it when they notice they are outbid. If Gixen places a bid before auction end, they may not end up liking it.

I could make it a configurable option. Note that such functionality would still be imperfect, as Gixen check for price updates every few hours, not continuously.

[Zelda 64]

You guys both (Mari & Cupid) touched on a huge assumption of my idea and it says something about how I usually shop. My idea assumes that the user knows the exact price of their max bid and won't increase it.

I agree with you Mario, because there is in fact pros and cons to my idea I thought it would be best implemented as an option the user could toggle. Thanks again for the info guys.