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Re: variac via E-bay (offtopic but necessary)



> Potential E-bay bidders,
> 
> What is likely to be happening is that your competitors are using special
> software programs which automatically submit bids at the last possible
> second.  If you browse around the web, and I think in the software section
> of E-bay, you can find sources for these programs to use yourself.  Fight
> fire with fire!
> --Steve

I would like to caution against this.  Ebay will kick you off their service
permanently if they determine you are using bid sniping software.  Ebay's
rules specifically forbid using any software, bots, scripts, etc... other
than a browser, to monitor and/or submit bids.  Just because people sell
this software through Ebay does not consitute endorsement by ebay--the fact
that it's allowed is a free enterprise issue.

Will eBay know if you use it? Well, the monitoring/bidding mechanism of the
sniping software does have a telltale M.O., a signature if you will.  Sloppy
bidding software might not send a convincing set of HTTP headers either.
Ebay no doubt has their log analyzers set up to look for cheaters, since the
integrity of their system depends on it.

-Adam
adamsmith-at-mediaone-dot-net