I have noticed that the current bid is incorrect and never gets updated...

It doesn't give a true reflection of how much an item is currently selling...

This is normal and does not affect sniping anyway.
Please check this FAQ section for more information:
http://www.myibay.com/login/faq/4/#q13

You keep saying that the current bid has nothing to do with sniping, but you are wrong. When a person is sniping, they know what the latest bid is before the submit their bid in the last few seconds, and because they can see what the current bid is, they can decide whether to bid higher, or to let it go.

I just lost a bid using your program because the current bid was not automatically updated. If I would have known the current bid, I might have raised my bid. You say that using this program that we should always bid our highest amount. Sometimes, we don't always know what our highest amount is. If we have more information, such as with current bid, we can make that decision. You are not allowing us to make that decision.

The time to end of auction updates constantly. Why not current bid? This application would be so much more useful if it would automatically update current bid.

I am currently using the demo version of the program. I will not pay for this, because it won't automatically update the current bid.

When you say it does not affect sniping, you are wrong. In order to snipe successfully you need full and accurate information. If 1 hour or 1/2 hour or 15 minutes or even 5 minutes prior to the end of an auction, I have already been outbid, I would like to know, so that I can choose to adjust my bid. Your program does not give me that choice.

christy wrote:
You keep saying that the current bid has nothing to do with sniping, but you are wrong. When a person is sniping, they know what the latest bid is before the submit their bid in the last few seconds, and because they can see what the current bid is, they can decide whether to bid higher, or to let it go.

In this case you should put your absolute maximum amount and let the sniping process work.
If you won -- you get a good deal. If you lost -- someone else is paying too much.
That's the trick -- you have to decide what's your absolute maximum.

If you don't realize your max and willing to increase your bid by increments, then you are getting into bidding wars and that defeats the whole purpose of sniping so you will loose.
If you increase your snipe amount, that means that your absolute maximum was not really your maximum or you may end up paying more than you wanted.

I'm not forcing to buy the software, that's up to you (my Web-service is free after all), I just want you to feel how sniping works -- you have to set your absolute maximum and let it roll. You either get a good deal or someone else is overpaying.

I must admit sniping is all about putting your highest bid and if you win you win, but I still like to see what the current highest bid is. Surely it must be able to be done in a future updates...

kirkie wrote:
I must admit sniping is all about putting your highest bid and if you win you win

I'm glad we came to a mutual agreement here

Anyway, sniping is done on higher priority basis compared to updating current bid information. The current bid information is updated about 1-2 times per day based on the server load.
http://www.myibay.com/login/faq/4/#q13

There are thousands of item in the database and if the server will be updating each item in the real time, then most of your snipes will be late.
Your in-time snipes are more important that updated current bids.

P.S.: I personally never watch the current bid. I just know my budget for that particular item and never bid higher. Sometimes I add a few increments to cover little increases and let it go.

I think my question belongs here (not to create a new thread):

this FAQ wrote:
Manually, you can do it by clicking "Refresh" button in the "Snipe" window or by adding the item id anew.

It's clear. But very inconvenient. And takes a long to do it singly.

I only have a suggestion to create a very small button "refresh all" to make that manually, but for all watching items. It'd be done singular and couldn't load the server so much. But it'll be a very useful feature!


PS: I personally change my highest bid, if I see somebody already has a higher one and I really want that item.

c3210735 wrote:
I personally change my highest bid, if I see somebody already has a higher one and I really want that item.

In this case your absolute maximum was not really your maximum. Most of the time bid increases in the last seconds so you won't have time to increase your snipe.
That's why it's important to consider your absolute maximum before your item is gone, otherwise you won't have time to do it.

Sashka wrote:
In this case your absolute maximum was not really your maximum. Most of the time bid increases in the last seconds so you won't have time to increase your snipe.
That's why it's important to consider your absolute maximum before your item is gone, otherwise you won't have time to do it.

That was not the message. The main idea of what I've wrote was the all-watching-items-refresh-per-one-click-button

And that wasn't a demand, in no case, that was only a wish! I will use your super product without that button too...
It could be helpful and easy, but if you don't want to implement that - what can we do?

c3210735,
I feel your pain, I really do.
The thing is that I have to set a list of priorities so I can't refresh items information once per minute or so, there are just too many items so the server won't be able to handle it with such a high rate.

Having a button to refresh all items... That's a different kind of issue. Let's say each item take about 1 second to refresh. There are many users who have hundreds items in the list. I personally have about 400 items so the refresh would take about 7 minutes at least.. and that's considering that I'm the only one who clicked "refresh all". If two users would do the same thing, each item would take twice longer..

That's not just I don't want to push this suggestion (that's a nice thing to do), but your snipes will be affected by overall slowness of the servers while others will be refreshing their lists.

I hope that will make more sense now.
Thanks for using the service and good luck sniping! Don't forget your own holiday's gifts on eBay

ok, I haven't so much items, but 5-20.

understanding your care for the server too..
so I wrote that script myself

PS: oh, and I see the standalone version does have this feature

c3210735 wrote:
so I wrote that script myself

PS: oh, and I see the standalone version does have this feature

This is not a majority so I'm fine with it