On 1/08/2012 11:38 AM, Jim Elbrecht wrote:
> On Tue, 31 Jul 2012 19:03:26 -0500, Sqwertz >
> wrote:
>
>> On Tue, 31 Jul 2012 19:32:08 -0400, Cheryl wrote:
>>
>>> On 7/30/2012 3:53 PM, Sqwertz wrote:
>>>
>>>> I don't Ebay, but what's to keep people from bidding $1 higher just
>>>> seconds before the end of the bidding? Does each bid within the last
>>>> 5 minutes extend the deadline 3-5 minutes?
>>>
>>> People can put in their highest bid and it will auto-update by
>>> increments as each person bids and if your auto-update beats someone
>>> elses auto-update in time, you win. In no way is the deadline extended.
>>
>> Oh, OK. Nobody mentioned that. Will all the bidders autobids be
>> processed in the last few seconds until somebody's high bid wins? Or
>> is it still possible to lose to somebody with a lower bid than your
>> autobid maximum?
>
> It is rare, but it does [or used to] happen that all your auto bids
> don't get processed.
>
> The snipers work the same way. If I tell it to bid $10 but all that
> is needed is $5.50- that's what it will bid. [and repeat if needed and
> there is time]
>
> Jim
>
I don't use Snipers but I bid in the last 2 or 3 seconds. It's possible
to do that with very fast broadband. I open a second window in which I
place the bid and watch the countdown in the first window. At the very
last moment, I flick back to the bidding window and hit the bid
confirmation. Managed to get myself a very nice MacPro a few months
back. My old Powermac G5 was getting long in the tooth and a more recent
replacement was looking like $4,000 new. Wasn't worth paying that much
for something I might only use for a year or so. Saw this MacPro on EBay
so I thought, what the heck, I'll put a bid on it. The owner didn't know
what it was and had minimal info on the EBay ad, just a model number and
a few pics. That model number. A1186, was all I needed to know just what
it was and the pics showed that it had been a server in a graphics
design studio and was in good nick. I put a max bid of $912.50 on it and
got it for $911. If the next highest bidder had put in just $2.50 more,
he'd have won it. Since it was located in a suburb just a few kilometres
from here, I drove down and picked it up. It weighs a ton! When I got it
home, I removed all the server software from it, did a fresh OS install,
doubled the RAM to 8GB and put in 4 x 2 TB hard disks. It is running
Dual Quadcore Xeon processors at 2.8 GHz (total 8 cores) and, for my
usage, never seems to load up above 15% so it's way overkill for my
needs. It is very nice to use however and will probably see me out. I
suppose I might just put my 8 year old G5 PowerMac on EBay and pass it
along to someone who might find it useful.

;-)

--

Krypsis