Your idea will not work because as soon as you place your bid, time gets added to the countdown clock; and when it ticks down to the last 30 seconds the autobids will place their bid on top of yours. Get it?Originally Posted by stevewar
Your idea will not work because as soon as you place your bid, time gets added to the countdown clock; and when it ticks down to the last 30 seconds the autobids will place their bid on top of yours. Get it?Originally Posted by stevewar
Originally Posted by tigar19
I've read the link, and of course this is what it says; the forum is attached to the website. It's designed to make Mike money (which I can't blame him for that).
The best way to win penny auctions is to be willing to stick out your head to head bidding longer than the next guy. Unfortunately, if somebody like Mike tampers with the bid cost system (IE, gives out free bids, or auctions off bid packs), then people don't have any insight into the cost per bid the person their bidding against is paying.
So tampering with bid pricing is a big issue, which is why I called out collusion as being a problem as well. I'm not saying this IS happening, but the following is certainly a plausible scenario.
Let's assume for this scenario that CrewNYC and Kiabuckets are actually real people who are Mike friends or cohorts. If Mike were to make their bids cheap enough, or was to give them bids, then they could setup their autobids with insane max price and max bid numbers without costing them much, and either guarantee they win the auction, or, massively drive the bid counts up, extending auctions, and increasing the number of legit bids for items. This is the reason why the videos these guys put up showing the products they received from markerbids doesn't prove anything. It also explains how / why they're willing to waste literally THOUSANDS of bids which if legit would cost them MORE than the merchandise than they're bidding to win.
When I called this scenario into quesiton, mike explained their bidding history as buiding or protecting some kind of reputation as experienced and serious players on the site. You can see why I didn't accept his answer. Somebody who has experience isn't going to waste their money at the beginning of an auction.
I get it far better than you think. Watch the actual auctions in progress. The bid timer resets at EXACLTY the same time remaining every time one of the people with the red star next to their name (indicating they're an autobid) places a bid. Since their bid timing is predictable, it would be easy to beat programatically.Originally Posted by tigar19
Get it?
OK, let's say the autobidder places a bid at exactly 18 seconds left. You manually place your bid when you're notified that there are only 10 seconds left. You now have the winning bid and the timer gets pushed back from 10 seconds to 45 seconds. Once again at the 18 second mark, the autobidders place their bids outbidding you and once again time gets added to the clock. You are no longer the winner.
You're also not taking into account anyone else who may be watching and for one of the autobidders to run out of bids before he manually places a bid.
So I still don't see how you're going to beat the system. Maybe I just don't understand your idea.
Originally Posted by shooter311
I misunderstood, I thougth that was the count of ALL the bids those users have put in, not just the bids on a single item...
Sounds like a Bot scam to me or Mike's shipping bricks of pot or heroine with the guns
Styg
Sometimes It's Good to be EVIL
i like this idea the bestOriginally Posted by StygShore
This thread is hilarious.
now we have penny bid ads on the top of the AO site popping up
I myself think this is not the place to bring this up, this is what Id expect to see on Techpb or PBN sites not here...
I appreciate what you're saying.. However, if you know the autobid system ALWAYS bids at 18 seconds, then you know by bidding at 10 seconds that there isn't an autobid in the queue. Conceptually someone else could create a new autobid, but that just means you start the process over only having spent 1 bid.Originally Posted by tigar19
The entire purpose of my script would be to beat autobidders, and to root out the shills that have been put into place to either 1) increase the length of the auction and hence the number of legit bids, or 2) to actually wiin all of the auctions; it wouldn't be useful, nor should it be used against manual bidders.
I appreciate what you're saying, but I also think that trying to go to a bunch of Mike Phillips supporters for perspective isn't going to be very constructive.Originally Posted by kcombs9
wow, thats insulting.Originally Posted by stevewar
I didn't mean it to be so. PBNation would also be valid, but I didn't feel there could be an unbiased discussion on techpb.Originally Posted by cockerpunk
my apologies for being insulting.
I don't mean for you to go to those sites, my point was this is not normal discussion for AO forum. imhoOriginally Posted by stevewar
thank you.Originally Posted by stevewar
i find most folks who think techpb is a bunch of mike blowers havn't really met anyone or been on techpb very long. there is hardly a legion of 14 year olds all beating it to mike on techpb. and i find it insulting when otherwise respectable and rational poeple allude to that.
Puts another bag of popcorn in the microwave...
Are you not entertainedOriginally Posted by TOTShadowCompany
Last edited by stevewar; 10-27-2011 at 01:06 PM.
Originally Posted by TOTShadowCompany
I always feel scammed when I buy microwave popcorn because not all of the kernels POP. I am not a botanist, but I know fake popcorn kernels when I see one. I have fired off a letter to Mr. Orville demanding a full disclosure of his quality control program.Originally Posted by TOTShadowCompany
Occupy Popcorn and protest the 1% unpopped.
You know, unpopped kernels are called "old maids". Seriously. They're dried up. I mean, there's a lack of moisture in them, which prohibits the buildup of steam that causes them to pop.
And you can save them up and then re-use them as stove-top popcorn. It just takes longer to pop them.
what abotu soaking them in water for a couple of days?Originally Posted by Justus
I did this once and popped them in my air popper. I think I soaked them in too much water because they swelled to twice their original size and they didn't pop...they exploded. It sounded like a tommygun, there was popcorn everywhere. The dorm manager confiscated my popper...True story.Originally Posted by cockerpunk
Wait, I've got an air popper somewhere... and an unsuspecting wife. This could get interesting.
If I don't post back for a few weeks, just assume I'm in a coma due to a beating with a frying pan.
First off... Orville is his FIRST name... It would be Mr. Redenbacher. Not Mr. Orville.
Secondly... ummmm screw it!
You can also cut open a bag of microwave popcorn and pop it on the stove top complete with the flavoring on the inside if you do it properly.
DM
Bump.....
why? there is already a relevant thread if you feel the need. unless, of course, you wanted to talk about popcorn...
Cuz the other thread was that ****ty microwave popcorn while watching a direct to video sequel while this thread has that good movie theater popcorn from the original.