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All Snipes Adjusted for Time Change

posted: Mar 10, 2024

Notice: All snipes have been adjusted (refreshed) for the time change.

Fun fact #1: Most apps store dates in something called the "Unix Timestamp." It is an integer depicting the number of seconds that have passed since January 1, 1970, "the epoch." This number is based on UTC and is immune to the time change without having to constantly convert the date.

But we've found it so much easier to put everything in Pacific time, which eBay uses. So all of our computers and databases use Pacific time. It is far, far easier to respond to emergency situations when you can match things directly up to the time stamped on an eBay item page. It's hard enough to constantly account for the two-hour difference, as we're in Central time.

Fun fact #2: The above comes with a tradeoff. Twice a year, we have to get up early and be there at 5:00am to refresh all the snipes. Why 5am? Because the Pacific time zone hasn't experienced the change yet, but Central has. The time change itself moves from east to west across the globe an hour at a time. So at 2am PST, it's already 5am for us.

Developers know a LOT about time zones, but no one developer knows everything. Except for maybe this guy on Computerphile's YouTube channel. He says "you should never, ever, deal with time zones if you can help it." If you are technically minded, it's a great video, and worth the 10-minute investment.

Hope you enjoyed this little anecdote.

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New Features and Mobile Friendliness

posted: Dec 25, 2023

Good news – our site is now (mostly) rocking it on mobile. We've expanded the pages to full width and streamlined everything into the left-side navigation bar. For a smoother experience, we've also consolidated “Preferences” into a single page on the dashboard. Plus, the search engine has been integrated into the experience.

Charts Are Now Free

In line with our new layout, we've rolled out some neat new features. Here's the best part: Our charting functions---including that handy mini-chart in the item preview that shows the bidding activity over time---are now free for everyone.

Other New Features:

• Countdown Timers: A ticking clock for snipes ending soon, plus a pulsating auction as the snipe is executed, to add to the nail-biting suspense of winning that rare item.
• New Log Feature: Want to see the history of your snipe? Just click the new “log” icon for a detailed view of its journey.
• Authorization Checks: We’re now double-checking your eBay authorization 8, 16, and 24 hours before the auction ends, to ensure your snipes are all set.
• Improved Searching: For your saved searches, you can now specify min and max prices. The search also gets smarter with suggestions and spell checks.
• New API Call for Developers: For the tech-savvy, we've added a new API call, `checkSnipeStatus`, to keep you updated on your snipe's outcome.
• SMS Alerts: Win an auction? You'll get an immediate SMS alert, working perfectly now.
• Various Bug Fixes: We've ironed out the kinks for a smoother, more reliable experience.

We're excited about these updates and hope you find them as useful as we do. Enjoy the new and improved experience!

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Yet More New Features

posted: Aug 29, 2020

Last month, when we announced BidSlammer's last set of new features, we said we still have a few irons in the fire. Here is the next round of features!

TL;DR: Screen Shots

If you prefer, you can skip this article and go directly to the new BidSlammer screenshots page that showcases all of our new features.

Update to the Preview Box

Last release, we introduced a preview box that opens underneath the form. It summarizes several need-to-know parameters for the auction of interest.

We have added the following to the Preview:

• Relists - if you try to enter a snipe into the Add Snipe box for an auction that has ended, it will direct you to load the relisted item instead (if it was relisted).
• Item Conditions - these are now displayed. Example values are New, Used, Broken, etc. Item Conditions also show in the search results.
• Buyer Requirements - we will pre-check the item for seller blocks. When possible, we will see if you are eligible to bid on the seller's listing, for example, if the seller does not ship to your country.
• Bidding History Charts - one of our coolest features yet. See below for details.

Remove from Watch List

For auctions listed in your Watched tab, there is now a Remove from Watch List button. This will remove the auction from both BidSlammer and eBay.

Message Browser

The next feature is the Message Browser, which is an improved way to read through your emails, Gmail-style. This is a Power Pack feature. No more sifting through My eBay and waiting for all those page loads! Through us, you now have the ability to load up to 3 months and see them on one page. After 3 months, messages are deleted permanently from our system.

This feature is disabled by default for privacy reasons. You must turn it on first in BidSlammer Preferences.

The Message Browser also has the ability to search through all of your messages simultaneously. It is very fast, because we used technology that caches the messages in your browser.

Where applicable, each message has a "Reply" link, which takes you directly to the message on My eBay. But we do not send the messages. You will still use eBay's system to send messages, so that the emails use eBay's masthead. We are not involved in the sending in any way. After you send messages, you can import them into BidSlammer, too.

Image Gallery and Inspector

In the left sidebar on your Dashboard, you will see two new options for photos: Image Gallery and Photo Inspector.

The Image Gallery, shown in the snapshot below, is a spread of every photo from every auction, styled in the popular Pinterest format.

Your Image Gallery defaults to private, but you can set it to Public in your BidSlammer Preferences and share the link with others. None of your personal information ever appears -- only the public URLs to the photos.

The Image Inspector is a slideshow, but with the ability to zoom in on high-definition images.

Real-Time Bidding History Charts

We saved the best for last! We think this next feature is so cool that even eBay might eventually try to adopt it. Surely someone will.

We want to make this feature available to all users, but it use one heck of a lot of CPU power to crunch the data to make it available in real time. So instead of requiring an upgrade, we're offering it FREE via promotional offer. We are still in the testing phase and starting the process of enabling this for all accounts, which will require several months. Watch for your invitation in the upcoming month or two.

A picture says a thousand words. We think this is true of our new Bid History Charts that are now built into the Preview box when you load a new snipe.

We think these charts provide far more insight into the data than a table of data. Charting the bid history gives a whole new perspective on the auction. The charts betray the bid patterns and the strategies your competition uses. A lot of neat patterns arise.

Customers tell us that in general, they look at the bid history for these reasons:

• To see if Proxy bids lurking in the shadows.
• To see if their snipe prevailed in a last-second bidding war.
• To see how many bidders are interested in the auction.

We think the charts show all of that in a single glance:

The X-axis is linear time, going left to right. However, to make things interesting, we connect the dots in the order that the bids were placed. This brings attention to how the proxy bidding system calculates the current price, i.e., the second-highest bid plus one bid increment.

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We hope that you enjoy the new features. Good luck sniping!

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