New features on eBay don't come up too often. Oh, there's enhancements and changes to current features now and then, of course. My World, for example, is just an enhanced version of the old user profile. eBay just doesn't mess with the formula much. And that's a Good Thing. It's simple, it's easy, it works. Don't mess with it.
Bid Assistant, recently introduced by eBay, is a new feature that works just as simply as the rest of the service. It automatically bids on a group of items for you, up to ten, until you win one. Pretty slick actually.
What this means for CoCo Collectors is that now you can easily group up some CoCo items, and you'll like win one. I can see this as a boon against snipers particularly. Sniping is using an automated program to hit an auction repeatedly a few seconds before it ends, bidding it up and making it difficult for someone doing considered and thoughtfully bidding to get a win. If you've ever been out bid at the last second, there's a pretty good chance (not necessarily, but pretty good) that you've been sniped.
Example: Let's say there's four disk drive units up for auction. You're willing to bid $50.00 for one, but that your max. Previously, you would need to find the one ending soonest and bid on it. You would then monitor the auction until you won or got outbid. In the latter case you would bid again, up to your maximum. (Never bid you maximum initially... save that toward the end of the auction! There are actually people out there that will bid up an item just to see how high they can make it go. They think they're teaching a lesson or exposing foolishness, or whatever. They don't get the concept of an auction.) If you loose the auction, you then have to move on to the next drive and start all over.
Bid Assistant helps a bit here. Now, you could group all 4 drives together and the system will bid on those items, in chronological order, until you win one. It only bids in the minimum increments until it gets outbid. Then keeps bidding until your preset max is reached. Obviously, if someone is using Bidding Assistant on the same, you're going to hit your max pretty quick. For this reason, you can set different bid maximums for each item in a group. Or you can set a single maximum for each item in the group and "adjust it" as necessary. Ebay emails you when your max is hit, but close to the end of an auction those emails are too late more often than not. Either way, once your maximum is set, you're good to go.
Now, it still seems to me that you're not going to want to bid your max right off. You'll still want to edge it up. But now you can do that for a whole range of items instead of having to go through them separately. It is designed, and most useful, for items of a similar nature (8 CoCo 2s, 4 disk drive, 6 program paks, etc). If you loose one, you've probably eliminated a competitor (hey, they got theirs!) and Bidding Assistant will immediately place an appropriate bid on they next item in line.
Bidding Assistant won't fix problems people have with eBay. But it's not really intended to do so. It's a convenience tool that makes getting a specific item, from a range of choices, a touch easier. Give it shot!
Information on using Bidding Assistant is located here:
Using Bid Assistant
Angel's Luck,
Capt
Bid Assistant, recently introduced by eBay, is a new feature that works just as simply as the rest of the service. It automatically bids on a group of items for you, up to ten, until you win one. Pretty slick actually.
What this means for CoCo Collectors is that now you can easily group up some CoCo items, and you'll like win one. I can see this as a boon against snipers particularly. Sniping is using an automated program to hit an auction repeatedly a few seconds before it ends, bidding it up and making it difficult for someone doing considered and thoughtfully bidding to get a win. If you've ever been out bid at the last second, there's a pretty good chance (not necessarily, but pretty good) that you've been sniped.
Example: Let's say there's four disk drive units up for auction. You're willing to bid $50.00 for one, but that your max. Previously, you would need to find the one ending soonest and bid on it. You would then monitor the auction until you won or got outbid. In the latter case you would bid again, up to your maximum. (Never bid you maximum initially... save that toward the end of the auction! There are actually people out there that will bid up an item just to see how high they can make it go. They think they're teaching a lesson or exposing foolishness, or whatever. They don't get the concept of an auction.) If you loose the auction, you then have to move on to the next drive and start all over.
Bid Assistant helps a bit here. Now, you could group all 4 drives together and the system will bid on those items, in chronological order, until you win one. It only bids in the minimum increments until it gets outbid. Then keeps bidding until your preset max is reached. Obviously, if someone is using Bidding Assistant on the same, you're going to hit your max pretty quick. For this reason, you can set different bid maximums for each item in a group. Or you can set a single maximum for each item in the group and "adjust it" as necessary. Ebay emails you when your max is hit, but close to the end of an auction those emails are too late more often than not. Either way, once your maximum is set, you're good to go.
Now, it still seems to me that you're not going to want to bid your max right off. You'll still want to edge it up. But now you can do that for a whole range of items instead of having to go through them separately. It is designed, and most useful, for items of a similar nature (8 CoCo 2s, 4 disk drive, 6 program paks, etc). If you loose one, you've probably eliminated a competitor (hey, they got theirs!) and Bidding Assistant will immediately place an appropriate bid on they next item in line.
Bidding Assistant won't fix problems people have with eBay. But it's not really intended to do so. It's a convenience tool that makes getting a specific item, from a range of choices, a touch easier. Give it shot!
Information on using Bidding Assistant is located here:
Using Bid Assistant
Angel's Luck,
Capt
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