Author Topic: How to work around Ebay autobidder bots?  (Read 19693 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline DJ Omnimaga

  • Clacualters are teh gr33t
  • CoT Emeritus
  • LV15 Omnimagician (Next: --)
  • *
  • Posts: 55941
  • Rating: +3154/-232
  • CodeWalrus founder & retired Omnimaga founder
    • View Profile
    • Dream of Omnimaga Music
How to work around Ebay autobidder bots?
« on: November 03, 2008, 10:56:53 pm »
I noticed that on Ebay when I bid on an item sometimes I get outbid but if I bid again I automatically get outbid everytime by the same person who bidded before me. If I repeat the process over and over, I keep getting outbid again and again instantly. It seems most people are using bots on Ebay to make sure they have the highest bid on everything, making it impossible for legitimate buyers to get the item. I am wondering if there is a legit way to get around this? Because it is an even bigger problem for me in Canada when I search for an item in particular, about only 5 out of 50 ships outside USA, leaving me with very few choices and often the "Buy Now" items are ridiculously expensive and I wouldn't want to have to resort on getting someone else in USA to buy an item that won't ship in Canada for me then I pay the person and he ships it back to me because it might take ages to arrive and be extremly expensive in term of shipping costs. ATM I am trying to get a TI-80, 82 and 85. I got lucky with the TI-80 because there was a very cheap one that I could buy instantly but so far 82/85s are a big challenge

Offline Speler

  • LV8 Addict (Next: 1000)
  • ********
  • Posts: 857
  • Rating: +6/-2
    • View Profile
Re: How to work around Ebay autobidder bots?
« Reply #1 on: November 04, 2008, 11:13:57 am »
I can't think of any solutions honestly.

However, what would happen if you bid $1,000?  It would be hilarious if the bot bid $1,001 then the owner got screwed.  Lol.

Offline DJ Omnimaga

  • Clacualters are teh gr33t
  • CoT Emeritus
  • LV15 Omnimagician (Next: --)
  • *
  • Posts: 55941
  • Rating: +3154/-232
  • CodeWalrus founder & retired Omnimaga founder
    • View Profile
    • Dream of Omnimaga Music
Re: How to work around Ebay autobidder bots?
« Reply #2 on: November 04, 2008, 01:06:03 pm »
I'M sure these bots has a max bid settings defined by the member, I wouldn't take any chance, but it would be funny if it wasn't the case, it would teach the bot users a lesson since if I saw correctly it's against Ebay rules to use bots to bid

Offline TIfanx1999

  • ಠ_ಠ ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
  • CoT Emeritus
  • LV13 Extreme Addict (Next: 9001)
  • *
  • Posts: 6173
  • Rating: +191/-9
    • View Profile
Re: How to work around Ebay autobidder bots?
« Reply #3 on: November 04, 2008, 07:38:26 pm »
If it is against the rules I suppose you could report it case by case. Can't say I can really think of a work around though unless you use one yourself.

Offline Madskillz

  • LV6 Super Member (Next: 500)
  • ******
  • Posts: 488
  • Rating: +32/-2
    • View Profile
Re: How to work around Ebay autobidder bots?
« Reply #4 on: November 04, 2008, 10:43:05 pm »
That's the max bid option...If I put in a max bid of say 200 and the bidding is only at 2 dollars and you bid 2.50 it automatically kicks it up just enough to beat you out say 3 dollars and so on and so forth until that 200 limit is reached. That's done right by ebay there is really nothing you can do except out bid the seller who has the max bid set

Offline DJ Omnimaga

  • Clacualters are teh gr33t
  • CoT Emeritus
  • LV15 Omnimagician (Next: --)
  • *
  • Posts: 55941
  • Rating: +3154/-232
  • CodeWalrus founder & retired Omnimaga founder
    • View Profile
    • Dream of Omnimaga Music
Re: How to work around Ebay autobidder bots?
« Reply #5 on: November 04, 2008, 11:36:24 pm »
oh well, I guess I'll need to search for even longer or buy stuff at higher price. It's hard because canadian currency dropped a lot lately so when I buy stuff on Ebay it costs me much more than it would cost for you. With shipping it doesn't help. Some people will charge $12 higher to ship internationally

Offline TIfanx1999

  • ಠ_ಠ ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
  • CoT Emeritus
  • LV13 Extreme Addict (Next: 9001)
  • *
  • Posts: 6173
  • Rating: +191/-9
    • View Profile
Re: How to work around Ebay autobidder bots?
« Reply #6 on: November 06, 2008, 12:11:26 am »
Quote
That's the max bid option...If I put in a max bid of say 200 and the bidding is only at 2 dollars and you bid 2.50 it automatically kicks it up just enough to beat you out say 3 dollars and so on and so forth until that 200 limit is reached.
@Madskillz
I can't belive I forgot about that, although I rarely use ebay.

@DJOmnimaga
I wouldn't worry about it too much though, just be paitent. I find if you wait long enough you will eventually come across the right item with the right price. That's how I got my 83+ SE. =)

Offline Madskillz

  • LV6 Super Member (Next: 500)
  • ******
  • Posts: 488
  • Rating: +32/-2
    • View Profile
Re: How to work around Ebay autobidder bots?
« Reply #7 on: November 06, 2008, 12:38:44 am »
It has been a while since I used ebay, but when I first found it and started using it I was hooked. With the economy crappy everywhere especially when it causes the currency difference to be big, I can understand your frustration. Like Art said I would wait if you could and try and get it at a low price

Offline DJ Omnimaga

  • Clacualters are teh gr33t
  • CoT Emeritus
  • LV15 Omnimagician (Next: --)
  • *
  • Posts: 55941
  • Rating: +3154/-232
  • CodeWalrus founder & retired Omnimaga founder
    • View Profile
    • Dream of Omnimaga Music
Re: How to work around Ebay autobidder bots?
« Reply #8 on: November 06, 2008, 02:14:04 am »
True, I also think lot of people will try to sell their stuff at higher price on ebay to make more money so they can still afford essential stuff and other less essential stuff due to economy. So far I never saw a TI-73 under $80 (with shipping included)

Offline Rowan_Dark

  • LV0 Newcomer (Next: 5)
  • Posts: 1
  • Rating: +0/-0
    • View Profile
Re: How to work around Ebay autobidder bots?
« Reply #9 on: October 14, 2011, 09:18:27 am »
There is one trick I've used three times so far and beaten the auto-bids.  This may not work for everyone the same way due to connection speeds and processor speeds, etc.  I wait until the auction has only 4 seconds left before I make a bid.  It takes approximately 3.3 seconds to update which leaves only .7 seconds for the auction which isn't enough time for the autobidder to counter you.  It's worked for me three times so far.

Offline Deep Toaster

  • So much to do, so much time, so little motivation
  • Administrator
  • LV13 Extreme Addict (Next: 9001)
  • *************
  • Posts: 8217
  • Rating: +758/-15
    • View Profile
    • ClrHome
Re: How to work around Ebay autobidder bots?
« Reply #10 on: October 14, 2011, 12:38:38 pm »
That's a useful trick to know, Rowan_Dark, and welcome to Omnimaga! But I'd suggest checking the date of the last post (under each post title) before posting -- this thread was from three years ago.




Offline diseasex

  • LV0 Newcomer (Next: 5)
  • Posts: 1
  • Rating: +0/-0
    • View Profile
Re: How to work around Ebay autobidder bots?
« Reply #11 on: October 16, 2013, 12:59:48 pm »
If you are interested theres buy it now ebay bot available here : www.byteasset.com

Offline DJ Omnimaga

  • Clacualters are teh gr33t
  • CoT Emeritus
  • LV15 Omnimagician (Next: --)
  • *
  • Posts: 55941
  • Rating: +3154/-232
  • CodeWalrus founder & retired Omnimaga founder
    • View Profile
    • Dream of Omnimaga Music
Re: How to work around Ebay autobidder bots?
« Reply #12 on: October 16, 2013, 05:41:01 pm »
Holy necropost batman! O.O (unless it's a bot?)

That said I found out that the auto-bidding stuff for the most part is because Ebay allows you to setup automatic bidding up to a certain amount of money, so for example if someone tries to outbid me with $100 on an item but my max bid is $1200, then he'll automatically be outbid until he reaches an higher amount. However he won't know the max that I bidded for so to most Ebay users it might look like it's a bot or something and that it'll autobid forever. THere are also troll bids, like that one copy of Battletoads on which someone bidded $10000 once.