Re: OT: ebay sniping

["Dennis Leas" <dennis@mail.worldserver.com>]

> 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