International Aroid Society

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-----Original Message-----
From: Jason Hernandez <jason.hernandez74@yahoo.com>
To: aroid-l <aroid-l@www.gizmoworks.com>
Sent: Thu, Feb 23, 2012 1:45 am
Subject: Re: [Aroid-l] Off-Topic ebay question

Has anyone else but me noticed the "bidding bot"? I can bid on an item that has seen no bids in days, and in a matter of seconds, I receive an email saying I have been outbid. The first time it happened, I wet back to bid again, only to get the email again in a matter of seconds. I didn't feel like upping my bid again, so I let it go. Lo and behold, as soon as the auction expired, I got a different email, this one saying I had a second chance to buy the item at the price of my last bid. I did. So after that, I took a different approach: bid once, and ignore the notice saying I had been outbid. Sure enough, as soon as the auction expires, I always get the notice of my "second chance" to buy at the price I bid.

Now, I cannot prove there is a bot involved -- certainly don't know the name of any such bot -- but I can think of no other explanation. Also, it seems to be used mainly by sellers located in Asia (selling things other than plants).

Jason Hernandez

Naturalist-at-Large

Message: 1
Date: Wed, 22 Feb 2012 10:57:51 -0500 (EST)
From: The Silent Seed <santoury@aol.com>
Subject: Re: [Aroid-l] Off-Topic ebay question
To: aroid-l@www.gizmoworks.com
Message-ID: <8CEBF91DDBA8C60-1D34-4C375@webmail-d029.sysops.aol.com>