HP Forum Archive 07

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ebay bidder tracking feature Message #1 Posted by Erik Wahlin (USA) on 18 Jan 2002, 9:46 p.m. Don't know if this has ever been brought up, but it seems kind of unfair if a guy that does his research on ebay and makes bids that someone else can simply shadow his bidding by using the ebay bidder id tracking feature. If I spend a lot of time for instance looking for a HP calculator (including mispelled words etc..) and bid, a guy that knows my ID (or many other HP collector ID's) can see where I/we bid. It makes those rare finds harder to keep a secret. I know that everyone will suggest that I bid late, but my time is very limited to do Ebay bidding, and I usually have to bid my maximum early on. I know that this feature is used a lot by people to track people like TOMD or other HP collectors that don't snipe.

Searching eBay Message #2 Posted by Mike on 18 Jan 2002, 11:37 p.m., in response to message #1 by Erik Wahlin (USA) You use "tomd" as an example. That suggests that you use this feature yourself. Nothing wrong with that. I suspect that if everyone was honest, they would admit they do also. Also, eBay will never change that policy. Why? It benefits them. It makes for higher prices. However, I have a tip for all. You are very correct that the key to finding treasures is to search for the usual items by HP Calculator, HP Calculators, HP-XX, HP XX, brand, type, model, etc. But you also have to search by commonly misspelled words. You can do all of this in less than 15 minutes, without relying on someone else finding something for you. How? Whenever you perform a search, set a bookmark for that search. You can put them all in an eBay folder, for eBay searches. Each day, you can go down your list of items, including all the misspellings and make all of your searches in about 15 minutes. Each time you find a new query that work, add it to the list. No need to "reinvent the wheel" each time you want to look for something. Hewlett Packard 15c 15C Calculator 42S Calculator So, set a bookmark for each and run them both. Sometimes, you find things in one that are not in the other and visa versa, so it's a good idea to over search. See how easy and fast that is. If you really want to get trick, you can create a web page that has every link you use and don't have to bother with bookmarks. I have a link to a page that I use, that has quick searches to just about anything you need. I may post a link to it. There are ways to keep track of auctions without having to put up a bid that lets everyone know what you have found or running into the 20 mark limit.

Re: Searching eBay Message #3 Posted by Erik Wahlin on 19 Jan 2002, 12:59 a.m., in response to message #2 by Mike Thanks Mike for the tips. Actually, I have never tracked anyone before because I did not know about this feature until recently. I used Tomd as an example because he bids on a lot of HP auctions. He's a great guy by the way. I have had a lot of satisfactory deals with him. One common mispell that always gives me a laugh is Hewlitt for Hewlett. Packerd might be another one Right now there are 10 auctions going on with the Hewlitt name! One great way to get good deals on Ebay by the way is to watch for new buy it now auctions.Sometimes you can get lucky. I bought a mint HP-42S once with manual for $50.

Re: Searching eBay Message #4 Posted by tomd on 19 Jan 2002, 9:14 a.m., in response to message #3 by Erik Wahlin Don't forget "caculator" and "calulator". Amazing.

Tracking Tomd has been mentioned before Message #5 Posted by Dave Hicks on 18 Jan 2002, 11:52 p.m., in response to message #1 by Erik Wahlin (USA) And Tom once told me that a dozen people have told him they do it and that it didn't bother him. If it bothers you and you're too busy to bid late yourself you might consider a bidding/sniping bot. You can find a recent discussion here I've seen several versions - some on websites and some that you run on your own PC. Some people dislike sniping but I believe some bots are sufficiently configurable so that you can set them up for polite-yet-still-late-ish bids if you prefer.

Re: Tracking Tomd has been mentioned before Message #6 Posted by Thibaut.be on 19 Jan 2002, 2:52 a.m., in response to message #5 by Dave Hicks Yes, indeed tomd is a very nice guy, definitely an asset to our community. I purchased several calcs from him, amongst ather to mention my pride of being now the owner of a 27. I hated sniping in the past but after having been sniped so many times I guess it is the only way to purchase adtmoderate prices (don't blame me with my recent $400 HP65 ;-) ) Actually to bid to an acceptable limit and then you have no time to react emotionally...

Ebay search algorithm Message #7 Posted by David H Thompson on 19 Jan 2002, 8:36 p.m., in response to message #6 by Thibaut.be Shouldn't sites like Ebay make available a search algorithm similar to soundex? David

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