Frequently Asked Questions

How can I win more auctions and pay less for items I win?

Various magazines, books and on-line auction experts have acknowledged that you can win more auctions and pay less for the items you win simply by bidding only in the final moments of an auction. Last-minute-bidding hides your interest in an item until the final moments of an auction. It is impossible for another bidder to keep raising the price of an item when he doesn't even know you have an interest in it! Your last minute bid will suprise other bidders who have been watching the item for days and will prevent them from making larger counter bids before the auction ends.

How can you prove that last-minute-bidding wins more auctions?

Look at the bid history of any popular item and you will likely see that the winning bidder submitted the winning bid in the final moments of the auction. Then, look at the bidding history of the winning bidder. You will notice that he has won a very high percent of his auctions and generally paid less for the items he has won. Consistantly winning bidders continue to bid in the final moments because their wins reinforce the fact that their last-minute-bidding wins more auctions.

What is BidRobot and what does it do?

BidRobot(tm) is the name for a group of programs running on multiple high-performance servers that do nothing but place bids on eBay at the time you specify, check the status of the bid, and email you with the results. BidRobot uses proprietary BidRobot technology to deal with slow server performance, BidRobot and eBay network bottlenecks, peak bid placement periods, and the many other real-time performance issues that threaten the integrity of your bid. BidRobot is constantly being tuned and improved to distribute its load over multiple processes on multiple computers, running on multiple Internet backbones, on several different databases.

Of course it's not always convenient to place last-minute-bids when many auctions end at all times of the day and night! Before BidRobot was available, overseas and east coast people would need to stay up in the middle of the night to place last-minute bids.

Instead of placing your bids directly with eBay, you place them at the BidRobot site. BidRobot will store your bid information and then automatically submit it to eBay, on your behalf, in the final moments of the auction. eBay cannot tell the difference between a bid that you placed manually and a bid that is submitted for you by BidRobot so all the standard eBay bidding rules apply. BidRobot can submit bids more reliably and consistantly that any other last-minute-bidding method.

What are BidRobot's benefits to bidders of Collectables?

BidRobot protects your privacy and promotes secrecy of your intended bids. Collectors often watch what other collectors are bidding on. Collectors can avoid creating interest in an item by waiting until the final moments to bid on a collectable.

Are there any other BidRobot benefits?

eBay’s terms of agreement consider any bid you place at eBay as a contract to buy. So, if you cancel a bid you place at eBay you could be penalized or suspended. However, if you place your bid at BidRobot you may cancel it anytime up until 5 minutes before the end of the auction with absolutely no penalty or consequences.

What is Sniping? How long has sniping been around?

To insiders, the practice of last-minute-bidding is known as "sniping." Manual sniping has been widely practiced for about as long has online auctions have existed. In the early days bidders would watch auctions expirations with a stopwatch in one hand and the mousebutton in the other. Of course the smarter way is to get BidRobot to automatically do your last minute bidding for you.

Do sellers hate last-minute-bidding?

Many do. For one thing, sellers are unable to gauge the interest in ongoing auctions because last-minute bidders are delaying their bids until the flurry of bids at very last moment. For another thing, last minute bidding often forces sellers to sell items for less than what they would like. There is nothing a seller likes more than to see a several day long bidding war at the expense of several bidders. In the early days, sellers unsuccessfully lobbied eBay to prohibit last minute bidding. Some sellers understand that while BidRobot may keep the prices of items down, it also attracts last-minute bidders who might not otherwise bid for an item. Whether sellers like it or not, last minute bidding wins more auctions and is here to stay.

Will BidRobot work with my computer?

BidRobot is a web site, not a computer application. BidRobot will work on any computer than can connect to the internet including Macintosh and WebTV.

Do I have to leave my computer on for BidRobot to place a bid?

No, once you have placed your bid at BidRobot you can switch off your computer and let the BidRobot service place your last minute bid for you.

Can I use BidRobot when I am away from home?

Yes. All of your bids are stored at the BidRobot website not on your personal computer. So, you can log in and use BidRobot from any computer that has internet access. It doesn't matter if the computer is at your home, a relatives home, at the library, or at the airport. Simply go to BidRobot.com then log in to access your account and place or review your bids.

What are the risks of last-minute-bidding? Is there a BidRobot bid guarantee?

No one can promise 100% reliability on the Internet. BidRobot can't guarantee a bid will be placed. Also be aware that because BidRobot places your bid in the last few moments of an auction, you will not have any warning if your bid fails for a technical reason. Some of the ways your last minute bid can fail are detailed below:

After some highly publicized outages, you are probably well aware thateBay, eTrade, Amazon, and many other highly evolved web sites had highly publicized outages last year. If eBay is broke down, no last minute bid can arrive either manually or automatically In some of these outages sellers have been outraged and eBay has automatically extended the closing times of the auctions.

The reason is simple: BidRobot can't control the rest of the Web. What if eBay servers are down when your bid is supposed to be placed? What if either BidRobot or eBay is a victim of a denial of service attack? Even network traffic can cause bids to be lost.

• eBay could have an outage or technical problem in the final moments of the auction. eBay has had outages in the past. They are infrequent but it does happen.
• The BidRobot servers could have a technical problem while you were adding or editing a pending bid.
• BidRobot's servers prepare your bid 5 minutes before your bid time. If you attempt to edit the bid within 5 minutes of your bid time then the edit will fail.
• The internet or eBay's servers could be slowed by heavy traffic. These slowdowns can affect last minute bidding whether they are automatic or placed manually. This is why we recommend a buffer of 5 to 10 seconds.

Risks are also discussed in our Member terms page.

What is the ideal buffer time for a last-minute-bid?

A "buffer" is the number of seconds before the end of the auction that BidRobot attempts to place your bid. The ideal buffer time is about five seconds. Keep in mind that the shorter the buffer time, the more likely your bid may be submitted after an auction ends. If your bid buffer is greater than 30 seconds, then another last minute bidder may be able to see your bid and outbid you. If you are concerned that eBay or the internet may be busy at the time an auction ends then you may want to set the buffer to 10 seconds to be safe.

How does BidRobot synchronize with eBay's clock?

Both BidRobot and eBay synchronize to the U.S. Naval Observatory Master Clock You can verify BidRobot's accuracy by comparing the email you get from BidRobot with the bid times shown on eBay's bid history screen.

Can I still bid manually? Can I outbid myself?

Yes you can bid manually. No you cannot outbid yourself. Even though BidRobot will be submitting a bid for you at the end of the auction, you may still manually bid on the same auction or any other auction. eBay's proxy bidding limits the winning bid to an increment just slightly above the next highest bidder or just above the item's reserve price (whichever is greater).

• If an item's reserve is $10 and you place three last minute bids at $15, $20, and $30 dollars, eBay's proxy bidding mechanism will limit you to winning the auction at $10, which was the reserve price.
• If another bidder's high bid is $10 and you place three last minute bids at $15, $20 and $30, eBay's proxy bidding mechanism will cause you to win the auction at $10.50 which is fify-cents more than the next highest bidder (other than yourself).
  

BidRobot email said my bid was placed so why does eBay not show my bid?

Ebay will not accept your bid if it is not higher than the current high bid. For example, if another last-minute bidder places a higher bid than you, and he's one second earlier than you, then your lower bid is not accepted by eBay and will not show up on the auction history.

eBay will also reject your bid if your bid doesn't meet or exceed the minimum bid increment established by eBay. For example, an auction showing a high bid of $300 has a bid increment of $5, according to eBay rules. In this auction, eBay would reject any new bid less than $305 which is the current high bid ($300) plus the minimum allowed increment ($5). You can see eBay's minimum increment table by clicking here

What happens if two BidRobot users bid on the same item?

Remember that proxy bidding rules favor the highest bidder, which trumps bidding at whatever time, sniped or not. So what you're really asking is "what if multiple BidRobot users bid the exact same amount on the same item with the exact same buffer time"? (If it helps you, we've only observed this a couple times in the last million or so bids.)

The answer: it's undefined--just whichever user's bid is retrieved from our database first. BidRobot makes no attempt to arbitrate among BidRobot users sniping on the same item. Any such attempt would result in a privacy breach, since BidRobot promises not to disclose your individual bids to a third party.

Does BidRobot work with adult auctions and dutch auctions?

Yes and Yes.

Why doesn't the BidRobot screen automatically update the current high price of an item?

BidRobot doesn't automatically update the current high bid, but you can press your F5 key to retrieve the current high bid. Here are the reasons it doesn't update the high bid automatically:

• The high bid displayed at eBay isn't necessarily the maximum bid amount that the high bidder has submitted. A high bidder's true high bid amount may be hidden by eBay's proxy bidding system. You can read about proxy bidding by clicking here. The best philosophy for placing your bids is to place them once at the maximum you are willing to pay for an item. If you win, that's great! if you lose then the winner paid too much for the item.
• Not even eBay's servers can keep bid prices current. For example, search for an item then compare the high bid shown on the search page with the high bid in the item listing. More often than not, eBay's two high bid amounts disagree.
  

Do you support eBay Premier and eBay's Butterfields?

Not yet. We plan to support them in the future.

How do I change, delete, or cancel a bid?

You can change, delete, or cancel any bid waiting at BidRobot up to 5 minutes before the auction is scheduled to close. Simply Log-in then click the "edit" or "delete" button that is displayed below the item number in your list of items with pending bids.

Can BidRobot place bids at other auction sites?

No. Some auction sites have auctions that automatically extend the closing time to defeat sniping. Also, bidding applications are somewhat complex and our focus is on eBay where 90% of online auctions take place.

How do I change my password or email address?

Log in then click on the "My Settings" link at the top of the screen. You may change any account information that appears on the MySettings screen.

How can I stop BidRobot from sending me emails?

We recommend that you keep receiving "after-bid" emails since they provide diagnostic information if there is a problem with your bid. However, if you want to stop the emails, Log in then click on the "My Settings" link at the top of the screen. You may select and un-select the check box indicating which emails you will receive from BidRobot.

Why does BidRobot require my eBay ID and password?

BidRobot requires your ID and password to place a bid at eBay on your behalf. eBay cannot tell the difference between a bid you place and a bid that BidRobot places for you.

What if I forget my password?

You can request your password here and we will email it to your registered email address.

What does BidRobot do with my personal information?

Your personal information is never provided for sales or advertising purposes to any vendor, market or other third party. You can read our privacy policy by clicking Here