Slashdot Mirror


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.'"

11 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.
  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?

    --
    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. 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!

  7. Re:Another strategy to add to this by sheldon · · Score: 5, Funny

    Which is why I bid $20.25!

  8. 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
  9. 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"

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

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

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

    Regarding eBay sniping...

    LAST POST!!!


    What do you mean, someone posted after me?

    Damn.

    --
    Hmmm...