From: inexorabletash@gmail.com   
      
   On Wednesday, December 15, 2021 at 3:52:44 PM UTC-8, magnusfalkirk wrote:   
   > On Wednesday, December 15, 2021 at 7:54:44 AM UTC-6, Steven Hirsch wrote:    
   > > On 12/14/21 1:54 AM, Michael J. Mahon wrote:    
   > >    
   > > > When I first started bidding on eBay auctions I had several experiences    
   > > > very similar to yours. It took me a while to understand that the rapid    
   > > > “outbids” were the result of eBay’s autobid feature.    
   > > >    
   > > > The current bid price is actually set by the second highest bidder,   
   because    
   > > > if the high bidder has bid a high number, autobid will raise the high   
   bid    
   > > > not to the high bidder’s actual bid, but to one bid increment over the    
   > > > second highest bidder’s bid.    
   > > >    
   > > > If the second highest bidder (or someone else) enters a higher bid,    
   > > > assuming it is not more than the high bidder’s bid, the bid will rise   
   to    
   > > > the latest bidder’s bid *plus one bid increment* attributed to the   
   high    
   > > > bidder.    
   > > >    
   > > > This might seem like a “bid fight” with an aggressive highest   
   bidder, but    
   > > > it’s just the autobid algorithm responding to your bid(s). If you bid   
   more    
   > > > than one bid increment over the high bidder’s bid, your bid will take   
   the    
   > > > lead—but you have no way of knowing what the high bidder’s actual   
   bid was    
   > > > unless you see the name of the high bidder change. Then you know that   
   their    
   > > > actual bid was one bid increment less than the bid shown by the new high    
   > > > bidder.    
   > > >    
   > > > If someone watching the auction sees that the are no longer the high    
   > > > bidder, they may raise their bid in a bid fight, but they also don’t   
   know    
   > > > the actual bid entered by the new high bidder, only that it looks like   
   the    
   > > > new high bidder just bid one bid increment over the previous leader   
   (maybe    
   > > > you!). This is emotionally annoying, so the fight may be on!    
   > > >    
   > > > After several disappointments, I realized that emotional bidding was    
   > > > dangerous and a better strategy was to simply “lurk” until about   
   20-30    
   > > > seconds remained, then enter my only bid, which was the highest price I    
   > > > would be happy to pay for the item.    
   > > (snip..)    
   > >    
   > > Rather than lurk over the bid button, I use eSnipe to automatically bid a   
   few    
   > > seconds before auction close. From experience I've found that holding   
   cards    
   > > close in this manner reduces activity and improves my win stats. As   
   Michael    
   > > suggests, the one-shot, last-minute bid lets you decide just how much the   
   item    
   > > is really worth to you and keeps emotions out of the mix.   
   > Thanks for all the replies. My main motivation for bidding on the program   
   was to get it preserved for the few people, like myself, who might play the   
   Traveller RPG and also have an Apple II. There are very few Apple II programs   
   for Traveller, less tha    
   a dozen that I have found and downloaded. In fact Edu-Ware got sued by Game   
   Designers Workshop, the company behind Traveller, for releasing two games,   
   Space 1 & 2, which was basically Traveller on the computer, without getting   
   permission from GDW.   
      
   I checked with Marc Miller (creator of Traveller); unfortunately he doesn't   
   have that FASA utility in his archives either.   
      
   I left a note for the auction seller (to pass on to the winner) that Marc   
   would be interested in a scan of the manual and copy of the disk, for   
   posterity.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)