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How to Win on Ebay: Snipe

grammar fascist writes "A study by South Korean physicists confirms what some of us have taken for granted for a long time: a single bid at end of auction nets the most wins. From the article: 'Plugging all those data into the model and testing the outcome in terms of how the auctions turned out, the team found that the probability of submitting a winning bid on an item indeed drops with each bid. "Our analysis explicitly shows that the winning strategy is to bid at the last moment as the first attempt rather than incremental bidding from the start." The study appears in the current Physical Review E journal.'"

19 of 676 comments (clear)

  1. So... by gsfprez · · Score: 4, Funny

    should i wait to say "First Post" 7 days from now?

    --
    guns kill people like spoons make Rosie O'Donnell fat.
    1. Re:So... by Redwin · · Score: 2, Funny

      Yes, and it will be just about in time for the dupe. ;-)

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      Warning, comments may not have been passed by the sanity department of my brain.
  2. In other news . . . by Orange+Crush · · Score: 4, Funny

    . . . East Ukrainian dentists declare in their recent study that "Manned spaceflight is more difficult than they thought."

    (Seriously . . . shouldn't physists be studying . . . I dunno . . . physics?)

  3. One Step Back... by TheRequiem13 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Studying ebay counts as physics in South Korea?

    What's the probability of overpriced shipping?

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    What?
  4. Steps to profit by BertieBaggio · · Score: 5, Funny

    1 Snipe eBay auctions
    2 ?????
    3 Profit!

    Actually, I have a forumla that gives the best chance of winning an auction: bid 10x what the item is worth. Can I have some money to study the obvious^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H research the tricky questions of our age now please?

    The fact that this was tagged as duh before it had any comments is very telling.

    --
    If all you have is a grenade, pretty soon every problem looks like a foxhole -- MightyYar
  5. Re:And this is indeed a serious problem with EBay. by Kaenneth · · Score: 5, Funny

    Heisenbidding: You can know how much you will pay, OR if you'll get the item or not, but you can't know both.

  6. eBay: by Shadow+Wrought · · Score: 2, Funny

    One bid, one win.

    --
    If brevity is the soul of wit, then how does one explain Twitter?
  7. Re:Old news by dark-br · · Score: 2, Funny

    Slashdot. News for the amnesiac, stuff that mattered.

  8. I LOVE Korea by DysenteryInTheRanks · · Score: 5, Funny

    South Korea!

    First they had a veterinarian who claimed to clone the first human!

    Now they have a PHYSICIST who claims to be an expert on EBAY AUCTIONS!

    Next up: a lawyer who can communicate with dolphins!

    Yay Korea! Insane on both halves of the peninsla!

  9. Re:Say WHAT? by misanthrope101 · · Score: 3, Funny

    There is no global warming, and only environazis dislike petroleum-based fuel sources. Why do you hate America? The article is about making money and creating the illusion that you got a good deal by "beating" the other guy. Can we please get back to talking about what makes America great, and stop focusing on trendy extremo-far-far-really-left-wing fear-mongering? Why do you want to kill babies? You are a bad person!

    Wow, I actually do feel a little better. Maybe there's something to that after all.

  10. "A study by South Korean physicists confirms...." by Eric+Damron · · Score: 2, Funny

    Wow! Physics has really changed since I was in college!

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    The race isn't always to the swift... but that's the way to bet!
  11. Re:Another strategy to add to this by sheldon · · Score: 5, Funny

    Which is why I bid $20.25!

  12. Re:And this is indeed a serious problem with EBay. by Red+Flayer · · Score: 5, Funny

    Schrodinger's Bid:
    You either won the auction at the moment you placed your bid, or you lost. Until you view the auction results, both are true.
    Oh yeah, also, you were bidding on a cat that was possibly gassed to death.

    Fermi's Bid:
    As long as your result is within an order of magnitude of the highest bid, you win.

    --
    "Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
  13. Article SHOULD read by iJed · · Score: 4, Funny

    "A study by South Korean physicists confirms that people can in fact make money out of stating what is blatantly obvious to everyone"

  14. AAAAAAA++++++++++ by wheany · · Score: 5, Funny

    A+A+A+AAAAAAA++++++ Great article, would read again.

  15. Re:Physicists? by SlashSquatch · · Score: 2, Funny
    there's a lot of work that can be done by people who aren't experts in the field but who do bring expertise from their own. Like physicists and their mathematical models.

    You know that and I know that, but try telling that to someone in HR.

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    Autonomous Retard -- Is your camp safe? UnsafeCamp.com
  16. Re:Another strategy to add to this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    And I, $20.26!

  17. Last Post! by The_Pey · · Score: 4, Funny

    Regarding eBay sniping...

    LAST POST!!!


    What do you mean, someone posted after me?

    Damn.

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    Hmmm...
  18. Re:From the seller's perspective: 1 cent auctions? by Legion303 · · Score: 2, Funny

    "Of course, this strategy can backfire if only one person wants your item, then you end up selling it at a loss"

    And this is how I ended up with a box of never-used OKI cell phones (11 of them, I believe) with batteries and chargers, for a penny. Good times.