Hard Light Productions Forums
Off-Topic Discussion => General Discussion => Topic started by: demon442 on September 12, 2002, 10:07:04 pm
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I feel that i must express my extreme disgust over ebay, so here goes...
Two days ago i went to ebay and did a search for freespace 2. It came up with a few auctions, you know nothing special. Well I decided on an auction and set up an account, right from the beginning there was problems that reflect not the biggest online marketplace but a little known startup site pedaling cheap software and old, broken furniture. When I clicked on the link in the generic registration email it came up not with the user name i had selected nor the password. What i got was a distorted account name at my isp and my email password. This immediately upset me, i mean, how much effort did the account manager put into writing the registration code? Anyway, I got over it and placed my bid (the previous bid was from the day before), and everything went fine for the rest of the night. The next day I checked it at about the same time as i bidded and there was no change. So im all goin ”Sweet im getting that ****...” and ****. So I checked again this afternoon about an hour before the auction ended to see if i needed to up my bid and all. I was still top bidder. Two hours later I go in to see if i got the confirmation\billing email yet, I open my inbox only to find that there is an outbid notice there. It read something like this: “Dear [garbled s\n], [faggit that outbid me] has outbid you on auction #[dont remember the number] “FreeSpace 2”. Hurry and visit the auction here. [mass of ads]”. Im thinkin dammit, dammit, dammit, mutha****er outbid me. I check his bid time and its 5 minutes before the auction closed. 5 ****ING MINUTES! His cocksucking ass was makin sure i didn't outbid him! So I promptly said “**** this ****ing ****. If this gay ass site will allow this to happen, I can steal the ****ing game from someone.”
Doing what that fag did is spam, plain and simple. And if a major site willingly allows its users to spam their auctions, then they should be shut down or something.
Now to the point of this post. Does anyone think that ebay should put a bid block for the last 30 minutes of an auction? And can anyone(in USA) FedEx a copy of their disks to me for oh, say $15(thats just for the disks, i can pay postage if necessary)? Also, i'd like to hear some of your own horror stories about ebay.
PS: Forget about linking to another auction or telling me to try again. I have put that site on my unwritten list of sites that should not exist. And I will never willingly go to it again.
-”Demonic Goat Killa”
Demon442
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if you're mad about people outbidding you the last minute then i can completely agree with you, it's very annoying, and most of those people have no life... things you can do to remedy that problem:
1) Ebay has a feature called "Proxy Bidding"... if let's say the minimum you can bid is $4.99 and you bid $20.00, the auction price doesn't jump to $20.00... instead it stays at around $5.50 or something (higher than the minimum by 50 cents i think it is)... and no one sees that you've bid up to $20.00
Now if someone else comes along and bids, say, $6.00 (cause the minimum price is at $5.50 now that you've bid) Ebay automatically places a bid for you of an incremement of 50 cents (or something)... it will always keep bidding for you (automatically) until someone bids HIGHER than your set price... of $20.00. this is handy if someone waits till the last minute to bid and outbid you, they don't know you've made a proxy bid, so they waste time bidding, then rebidding, then rebidding, and each time ebay bids for you
2) There's programs you can get (could get anyway) that would bid for you (at a pre-set time and price, etc.) like 20 seconds before the auction closed (this can be changed)... may want to look to see if they still have these
3) Many auctions (especially things that the auctioneer wants to get rid of... i.e. an old Freespace 2 game) have a 'BUY IT NOW' option. if you have over 10 positive feedback, you can click the 'buy it now' button, and the auction automatically closes, and you win :D
sounds like a plan, doesn't it? well there's a catch. not only do you have to have over 10 positive feedback, but the 'buy it now' price is usually, if not always, higher than the minimum bid price. for example, you could bid on an auction for $12.99, (but then you'd have to wait DAYS till the auction actually ends, risking time, and the fact that you could get outbid) and the 'buy it now' price is like $19.99.
That's all the advice i can give :) lol, let me know :D
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Originally posted by demon442
Now to the point of this post. Does anyone think that ebay should put a bid block for the last 30 minutes of an auction? And can anyone(in USA) FedEx a copy of their disks to me for oh, say $15(thats just for the disks, i can pay postage if necessary)? Also, i'd like to hear some of your own horror stories about ebay.
if they place a block on bidding for the last 30 minutes of an auction not only do they lose money (less bidders) but someone'd bid 32 minutes before the auction closes and you'd be in the same situation :p
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Awwww muffin, I got outbid at 5 seconds before the auction closed... I was refreshing the page constantly as the seconds ticked out... then im like oh ****! i flimsily typed in my new bid in the box while i fumbled around on the hub switches trying to shunt the T1.4 line away from my server to this computer, but dispite my efforts, the page didn't process the bid fast enough. O well, It was for a MMX2 cartridge that I later didn't need thanks to zsnes.
Personally I like the coke auctions bid system (Although its in 'coke credits'), if a bid is received when the auction has less then 5 minutes left on it, then the auction is extended to 5 minutes again.
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Originally posted by vadar_1
Personally I like the coke auctions bid system (Although its in 'coke credits'), if a bid is received when the auction has less then 5 minutes left on it, then the auction is extended to 5 minutes again.
oh yeah :D
yeah, if it's an auction i REALLY want i usually refresh every 5 seconds, but i proxy bid at least $10.00 more than my regular bid :p to stall last minute bidders :D
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I enter auctions there for discontinued Lego sets all the time; that proxy bidding system is not all that great but I cannot think of any better system for an internet-based thing. One time this item was up for seven days, and nobody bid on it until the last hour. In the last five minutes everyone was going for it, and I was able to outbid another guy and win with three seconds to spare. He would have probably placed a higher bid right then but I guess his browser window loaded too slowly. :D A fast internet connection is a must there; you will need to refresh the page every second or two (no exaggeration), and it is absolutely necessary to be there for the last few minutes of any auction, especially a popular one. In fact, I never enter an auction at all until in the last 10 or 15 seconds so that nobody is expecting another player. ;7 Also, do not put in round numbers when bidding; for example, if you want to bid for $100, put in something like $105.57 instead. Finally, keep a different browser window open for bidding then viewing so that you will not waste time loading up these windows at a time when every second is crucial.
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I often wait till the last second the POUNCE! Dammit Stealth! You proxy bid....... Oh well I didn't want it THAT bad anyway...
;)
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Originally posted by Star Dragon
I often wait till the last second the POUNCE! Dammit Stealth! You proxy bid....... Oh well I didn't want it THAT bad anyway...
;)
actually i don't Proxy bid on purpose... it's just that if the 'minimum bid' is $2.99 i NEVER, EVER bid $2.99 for the item... i bid like $3.05. don't ask me why, i just do :D if it's an item i won't be there for the finish them i do proxy bid though :p
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when I want something, I always wait for the last minute. If I want the thing, I get it. If you have a pb with that, i don't give a ****, it's my money we're talking about, and also stuff I might not find again. period.
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Originally posted by Stealth
if you're mad about people outbidding you the last minute
That's what I do.
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Last minute? I wait until at least the last 15 seconds, sometimes even later. :D
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Rumour has it that there is a complete series descent/freespace pack being made and released in the coming months. This would include descents 1,2 and 3 as well as both FS titles and ST expansion.
This comes from a friend who works at EB not far from where I live. So hopefully if this proves to be true it might help FS2 get going again.
But that aside for a moment, EB still sells joint freespace 1 & 2 packs for about £10 (which is about $15) via order. I'll ask alex next time I'm down in town and if they can still get stock for this in I'll see about picking up a few copies to pass along (but don't bug me till I know I can get hold of some).
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That sounds quite interesting but EB is publishing this? I thought it would be Interplay or whoever owns them now...
BTW if anyone sees an unopened Lego 5571 set there, don't bother trying for it... ;7 :D