[rescue] SparcCenter 2000E on Ebay

[Curtis H. Wilbar Jr.]

>From: Phil Stracchino <alaric at caerllewys.net>
>
>On Fri, Jun 20, 2003 at 03:13:25PM -0400, Dave McGuire wrote:
>> On Friday, June 20, 2003, at 03:02 PM, Phil Stracchino wrote:
>> >>Looks like noone's bidding.  I'd certainly give it a home, if I had 
>> >>the
>> >>room.  :-|
>> >
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>
>And how much bandwidth do you have?  That's my limiting factor.  I've
>got to guess how much time to allow for latency and still get in too
>close to the end to be sniped, and usually what happens is I just miss
>the end of the auction.

Bandwidth should not be a major limiting factor... the route between
you and ebay would be more of a factor.  Since all your doing is a simple
http post, the bandwidth is not as important as how good a route you
have to the server.  The second hand on a watch is an adequate enough
timer.... so IMHO those sniping services are wastes of money/time.... I
do just as well with my watch and a mouse.

>
>I guess it's not the sniping *per se* that I consider unfair but the
>automated sniping programs and the "we will snipe your auction for you, 
>for a monthly fee" sites running on OC12s.  Hand-sniping is still an
>approximately-level playing field, but having some commercial site with
>bandwidth out the wazoo that you can tell to bid on your behalf two
>seconds before the end of the auction is just unfair.

again, bandwidth is not likely the issue.... but if someone has an OC12
connection, they probably have good routes... which is more important.

If your connection is consistent, you can still compensate for it... you
simply want your post packet to get there at the time you want it to.

>
>I seem to recall that at one time, eBay outlawed bid-sniping robots for
>exactly that reason, but they couldn't make it stick.

Tough to make it stick... how to diffentiate a program from a user...
that and if the system plain allows it they don't have a lot of options
without changing the way things work.

The only thing that might make a difference is in sniping... so that it
works more like a real auction.... going once... going twice... *bid*...
ok... now going once... going twice... *bid*... going once... goinge
twice... *sold*....

If they extended the end of the auction by 30 seconds whenever a high bid
is displaced that would make sniping almost impossible....  would probably
drive pricing up a bit, and allow ebay to make more money (% on closing
price).... wonder why they haven't done it... ??? :-)

>
>

-- Curt

Curtis Wilbar
Hawk Mountain Networks
rescue at hawkmountain.net

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