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View Full Version : How to place automatic bid on Ebay?

mrloofer
04-15-2003, 03:05 PM
Does anyone know how to do this?

I am trying to write a sniping program for Ebay. I can POST a URL through an inet control to login and create a new session. But I cannot figure out how to make a bid. If I go to the make a bid screen and do a "view source" I can pull out the URL from the form tag as such:

http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?mfcISAPICommand=MakeBid&item=3321530202&maxbid=4.00&quant=1&userid=myuserid&acceptbinbid=0&javascriptenabled=0

But if I paste this into the URL it doesnt do anything.

Does anyone know the trick?

Thanks!
putts
04-16-2003, 02:46 PM
I've thought about this a couple of times and have thought there's probably a way of doing - the problem is that if someone out here has figured it out, they're not gonna tell anyone else - that would just make it more difficult for them.
Dr. Web
04-17-2003, 09:30 PM
it doesn't sound like what your trying to do is in any way ethical or right. Trying to autobid on ebay? why would you do this? To run up the price on something?

anyway, ebay already has a feature that ajusts your bid by small increments up to a limit set by you. So, since the feature is already there (built by ebay) you need to recreate it.
mrloofer
04-17-2003, 09:45 PM
It's perfectly legal, don't know about ethical though.. it's actually called sniping: The ability to place that last minute bid on an item. It's certainly not for driving the price up.
Dr. Web
04-19-2003, 01:10 PM
you can already do that. Just log in at the last minute and bid. Its pretty easy, I have dont that on occaison to make sure that there wasn't a bidding war between myself and two other people, when I really wanted a piece. However, What may not be supported by ebay is having a third party application bid for you.

Yes, its probably possible (though ebay now requires you to 'sign' each bid with a login).
NymRod
04-20-2003, 09:44 PM
Sniping is fun, nothing unethical about it.
I like the manual snipe, the anticipation gets me going.

There are a few websites that will place automatic snipe bids for you.
HammerTap and Vrane and a few others.
I found a good one but I'm not tellin. :D
It's only one server hop from ebay, least that's what they claim.

Automatic snipe bids are good for when you can't be at your puter when the auction ends.

Snipe bids don't always win, the highest bid always wins, no matter when it was placed.


NymRod