RE: OT: ebay sniping

["Alan Kroeger" <alan@akroeger.com>]

You are forgeting about one issue no matter how you might try to be the
last bidder it still may fail due to network and web application (eBay
web interface) latency, so it still ends up being very random as to
predictability of timing. Your network path to eBay could be swamped due
to any number of issues including a DNS update to a router.

-----Original Message-----
From: Dennis Leas [mailto:dennis@mail.worldserver.com] 
Sent: Wednesday, February 26, 2003 1:07 PM
To: Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com
Subject: Re: OT: ebay sniping


> and what about in the final moment of the cutoff, lets say  2 proxy
bidders
> jump in at the very last second with higher maximums, entirely 
> possible. Does the timer cut off the automatic  proxy bidding system  
> at the
official
> deadline or does it let the system run to completion if both bidders 
> got
in
> before the deadline?

DISCLAIMER: I didn't write the automatic proxy bidding code, so I don't
know for certain...

However, I'm 99% certain that it is really not an iterative process when
two
or more auto proxy bids "compete."   Ebay explains the auto proxy bidder
as
if it were a real auction with the auto bidding going back and forth,
but I find it highly doubtful that it truly functions that way.

Say that Ebay has several auto proxy bids  that it needs to resolve.  It
computes the maximum each proxy bid offers, then it takes the *second*
highest value and permits the highest bidder to out bid it by one step.

It's simpler to write and it maximizes the sale price (since the auto
proxy bidding never "runs out of time"), both in the best interest of
Ebay.

Dennis Leas
-------------------
dennis@mail.worldserver.com