[Android] Trade Me Auction Reminder App

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Enervation

5 posts

Wannabe Geek

Topic # 100161 4-Apr-2012 11:58
Hi fellas! For a while I've wanted an app that would automatically remind me when a Trade Me auction is about to close. So as nothing already exists (as far as I'm aware of), I created one. You can get it here: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.tloten.android.trademe.lite Basically it automatically downloads your watchlist once a day, and alerts you (vibrate/sound) a few minutes before the auction closes - click on the notification to be taken straight to the auction. Once it is setup (logged into trademe) it will do everything else automatically. Hopefully some other people find it useful as well - or if you are an avid trade-me-er you may even buy the version that supports lots of watchlist items at once! Any feedback is also appreciated!

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1385 posts

Uber Geek

Subscriber

Reply # 605017 4-Apr-2012 12:38
Nice. Will have to give it a go. Offense can never be given, only taken ...

kiwijunglist

1948 posts

Uber Geek

Reply # 605069 4-Apr-2012 14:04
Feature Request: Auction sniping Automatically place an auto-bid for $XX.XX 2 minutes before the auction ends. When setting up auction snipe you would have to also scrape the shipping methods so that the bidder could pre-choose the shipping method. HTPC - Intel i3-2100 / 12GB DDR3 / GA-Z77X-UD5H / HD4670 1GB / HVR2200 / 750GB + 4 x 3TB / Win 7 x64 / MediaPortal 1.4 PC - Intel e8600 / 8GB DDR2 / HD5830 1GB / Win7 x64

nzgeek

386 posts

Ultimate Geek

Reply # 605084 4-Apr-2012 14:22
kiwijunglist: Feature Request: Auction sniping I vote against this functionality, on both moral and technical grounds. From a moral standpoint, sniping is playing dirty with the auction process. It's bad for the seller, and bad for all other buyers. It's annoying enough when someone at a keyboard does it, and will be far more irritating if it's done automatically. As far as technical issues go, the most important is that your cellphone's clock need to be accurate to make the sniping worthwhile. If your clock is fast, you'll snipe too early and can easily get outbid. If your clock is slow, you'll either end up extending the auction or possibly trying to place a bid after it has closed. There's also the up-front selection of shipping details, and detection of whether your sniping bid is high enough to meet the minimum bid. I say that if someone wants to snipe, they should follow the reminder and go in and do it manually. Alienware M17x R2: i7-740QM \| AMD 5870M 1GB CrossfireX \| 6GB DDR3-1333 \| 1TB HDD \| BD-ROM Samsung Galaxy S II: CyanogenMod 10.1 nightlies

kiwitrc

2844 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Subscriber

Reply # 605089 4-Apr-2012 14:32
nzgeek: kiwijunglist: Feature Request: Auction sniping I vote against this functionality, on both moral and technical grounds. From a moral standpoint, sniping is playing dirty with the auction process. It's bad for the seller, and bad for all other buyers. It's annoying enough when someone at a keyboard does it, and will be far more irritating if it's done automatically. As far as technical issues go, the most important is that your cellphone's clock need to be accurate to make the sniping worthwhile. If your clock is fast, you'll snipe too early and can easily get outbid. If your clock is slow, you'll either end up extending the auction or possibly trying to place a bid after it has closed. There's also the up-front selection of shipping details, and detection of whether your sniping bid is high enough to meet the minimum bid. I say that if someone wants to snipe, they should follow the reminder and go in and do it manually. Yeah or they could use this https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.densoft.troid&feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDEsImNvbS5kZW5zb2Z0LnRyb2lkIl0.

nzgeek

386 posts

Ultimate Geek

Reply # 605092 4-Apr-2012 14:37
kiwitrc: Yeah or they could use this https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.densoft.troid&feature=search_result At least that's a paid app, which is less likely to be used. Still, auction snipers grumble mumble mutter... Alienware M17x R2: i7-740QM \| AMD 5870M 1GB CrossfireX \| 6GB DDR3-1333 \| 1TB HDD \| BD-ROM Samsung Galaxy S II: CyanogenMod 10.1 nightlies

kiwitrc

2844 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

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Reply # 605095 4-Apr-2012 14:40
My bot can beat your bot :0) Yeah I know what you mean.

kiwijunglist

1948 posts

Uber Geek

Reply # 605110 4-Apr-2012 15:05
nzgeek: [ As far as technical issues go, the most important is that your cellphone's clock need to be accurate to make the sniping worthwhile. If your clock is fast, you'll snipe too early and can easily get outbid. If your clock is slow, you'll either end up extending the auction or possibly trying to place a bid after it has closed. There's also the up-front selection of shipping details, and detection of whether your sniping bid is high enough to meet the minimum bid. I don't think you understand how auto bid works. An auto bid is the maximun amount you would pay for an item, trademe automatically tries to bid as low as possible when using an auto bid. 1. Placing a bid early doesn't lead to being out bid, because you are placing an auto bid for the max you would pay. 2. An auto bid would only extend an auction if it is placed between 0-2 mins before the auction ends. If someone else bids in this time slot, then your auto bid is processed immediately so doesn't extend the auction anymore than the other person that placed a bid in the final 2 minutes. 2. If your auto bid doesn't meet the minimum bid then obviously the item is to expensive for you. HTPC - Intel i3-2100 / 12GB DDR3 / GA-Z77X-UD5H / HD4670 1GB / HVR2200 / 750GB + 4 x 3TB / Win 7 x64 / MediaPortal 1.4 PC - Intel e8600 / 8GB DDR2 / HD5830 1GB / Win7 x64

Enervation

5 posts

Wannabe Geek

Reply # 605120 4-Apr-2012 15:24
Fortunately now all auctions seem to have auto-extend enabled, which puts an end to bid sniping. Unless your definition of bid sniping is 'within a few minutes of the auction closing' - every popular auction seems to have most of the bidding in the last few minutes. Seem as though one can't win an auction these days without being present at the end.

mxpress

300 posts

Ultimate Geek

Reply # 605124 4-Apr-2012 15:26
Enervation: Hi fellas! For a while I've wanted an app that would automatically remind me when a Trade Me auction is about to close. So as nothing already exists (as far as I'm aware of), I created one. You can get it here: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.tloten.android.trademe.lite Basically it automatically downloads your watchlist once a day, and alerts you (vibrate/sound) a few minutes before the auction closes - click on the notification to be taken straight to the auction. Once it is setup (logged into trademe) it will do everything else automatically. Hopefully some other people find it useful as well - or if you are an avid trade-me-er you may even buy the version that supports lots of watchlist items at once! Any feedback is also appreciated! Well done. Thank you. I will try it and then most likely update to the full version. mxpress

kiwijunglist

1948 posts

Uber Geek

Reply # 605134 4-Apr-2012 15:42
Your best chance of winning an auction while paying the lowest possible price is to auto bid the maximum you would pay 2 minutes before the auction ends. This is regardless of whether the auction has auto extend (which I believe is enabled by default) HTPC - Intel i3-2100 / 12GB DDR3 / GA-Z77X-UD5H / HD4670 1GB / HVR2200 / 750GB + 4 x 3TB / Win 7 x64 / MediaPortal 1.4 PC - Intel e8600 / 8GB DDR2 / HD5830 1GB / Win7 x64

nzgeek

386 posts

Ultimate Geek

Reply # 605151 4-Apr-2012 16:10
kiwijunglist: I don't think you understand how auto bid works. An auto bid is the maximun amount you would pay for an item, trademe automatically tries to bid as low as possible when using an auto bid. 1. Placing a bid early doesn't lead to being out bid, because you are placing an auto bid for the max you would pay. 2. An auto bid would only extend an auction if it is placed between 0-2 mins before the auction ends. If someone else bids in this time slot, then your auto bid is processed immediately so doesn't extend the auction anymore than the other person that placed a bid in the final 2 minutes. 2. If your auto bid doesn't meet the minimum bid then obviously the item is to expensive for you. I understand how the auto-bid process works. I was commenting on the other stuff that happens when you're bidding that close to the end of the auction. 1. If you're not there to watch what's happening with the bidding, someone can see your bid come in and exceed your auto-bid limit. You have no chance to response because the software made the bid for you, and you may not even be aware that the bid was made until after the auction closes. 2. If the clock on your phone is out, your bid might be made 10 seconds before the bidding closes. That will auto-extend the auction, making it easier for someone who's watching to out-bid you. In other words, someone has had to increase their bid to get around your late auto-snipe, but you obviously don't care enough about winning the auction to actually go in there and watch what happened. 3. If you're only auto-bidding up to a preset limit, why can't you make your auto-bid half an hour before the auction closes? It doesn't matter what point in time that your bid gets exceeded, because you were never going to increase it anyway. Sniping really doesn't gain your much on TradeMe, given that all auctions auto-extend. If someone really wants the item, they'll be watching and will see your bid come in. If they had a hard limit themselves, they won't try to out-bid you no matter when your bid is placed. The only time you might make any gains is if you're bidding on something with very few people interested, and none of the other bidders have bothered to watch the end of the auction. In these cases you probably could have made the bid 30 minutes before the end and had the same result. Alienware M17x R2: i7-740QM \| AMD 5870M 1GB CrossfireX \| 6GB DDR3-1333 \| 1TB HDD \| BD-ROM Samsung Galaxy S II: CyanogenMod 10.1 nightlies

nzgeek

386 posts

Ultimate Geek

Reply # 605155 4-Apr-2012 16:13
kiwijunglist: Your best chance of winning an auction while paying the lowest possible price is to auto bid the maximum you would pay 2 minutes before the auction ends. This is regardless of whether the auction has auto extend (which I believe is enabled by default) I've heard this argument before, but I'm pretty sure it's psychosomatic. By jumping in at the end, you think you're getting a better price, but in reality you're only fighting against everyone else who's doing the same thing, with all of you thinking you're getting a better deal. If you have any hard evidence that proves otherwise, I'd love to see it. Alienware M17x R2: i7-740QM \| AMD 5870M 1GB CrossfireX \| 6GB DDR3-1333 \| 1TB HDD \| BD-ROM Samsung Galaxy S II: CyanogenMod 10.1 nightlies

dolsen

624 posts

Ultimate Geek

Subscriber

Reply # 605156 4-Apr-2012 16:13
kiwijunglist: Your best chance of winning an auction while paying the lowest possible price is to auto bid the maximum you would pay 2 minutes before the auction ends. This is regardless of whether the auction has auto extend (which I believe is enabled by default) All auctions have auto extend now (it used to be an option you had to select, but, it's now universal). Sad for me, I used to autobid the highest I would bid in the last few seconds. I would NEVER not auto extend when selling though, that would be stupid... I liked sniping.... As to the above advice, I usually do an autobid for a bit less than the maximum so that I have a bit of room for competitive bidding... Ie, bid in a manor to annoy other bidders who are there, first few times if they bid, immediately bid against them. Let them know they have competition, if they persist, wait until they are about to win and then out bid. Do this a few times and they generally get annoyed and give up (unless they are stubborn, where you may need to evaluate how much you want the item, and remembering the value of the item). No point winning at a greater cost than you could buy it elsewhere. Guess this makes me a bad person according to some of the comments?

nzgeek

386 posts

Ultimate Geek

Reply # 605157 4-Apr-2012 16:18
dolsen: Guess this makes me a bad person according to some of the comments? Annoying, certainly, but at least you care enough to watch the outcome of the auction. As a bidder, there's nothing more annoying than having someone come in at the last minute and making a half-hearted effort at trying to win. If you're not that interested in the item, why bother making the snipe? Alienware M17x R2: i7-740QM \| AMD 5870M 1GB CrossfireX \| 6GB DDR3-1333 \| 1TB HDD \| BD-ROM Samsung Galaxy S II: CyanogenMod 10.1 nightlies

kiwijunglist

1948 posts

Uber Geek

Reply # 605200 4-Apr-2012 17:36
nzgeek: kiwijunglist: Your best chance of winning an auction while paying the lowest possible price is to auto bid the maximum you would pay 2 minutes before the auction ends. This is regardless of whether the auction has auto extend (which I believe is enabled by default) I've heard this argument before, but I'm pretty sure it's psychosomatic. By jumping in at the end, you think you're getting a better price, but in reality you're only fighting against everyone else who's doing the same thing, with all of you thinking you're getting a better deal. If you have any hard evidence that proves otherwise, I'd love to see it. Your argument is based on the assumptions that 1. EVERYONE jumps in and bids in the final 2 minutes 2. People don't forget to bid Some people falsely believe that if they have the leading bid and the auction ends soon that they have won, or are the only person interested in the auction at that price. This false assumption leads to the advantage of bidding 2 minutes prior to auctions ending. "Psychosomatic" ??? There is no somatic involvement with online auctions. HTPC - Intel i3-2100 / 12GB DDR3 / GA-Z77X-UD5H / HD4670 1GB / HVR2200 / 750GB + 4 x 3TB / Win 7 x64 / MediaPortal 1.4 PC - Intel e8600 / 8GB DDR2 / HD5830 1GB / Win7 x64

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