Hidbid.com - The eBay Auction Sniper

freddy · Site Admin Joined: 29 Sep 2007 Posts: 61

Question:

When you put in the e-bay item number, your system says it can't locate it.

Reply:

I'm guessing that the item can only be purchased as a "buy it now", meaning there would be no bidding. Hidbid does not work with such eBay listings. There would be no benefit to sniping these listings anyway.

It would probably be a good idea for us to change that notice to better explain the cause of the error.

If this is incorrect, and the item is listed as an auction, please let us know and we can further investigate.

Nick · Joined: 27 May 2008 Posts: 6

I'm having the same problem with all of my snipes. I haven't been able to use this site in over 2 weeks now.

The auctions I have been trying to snipe are not buy it nows. What else could be going on?

Thanks

freddy · Site Admin Joined: 29 Sep 2007 Posts: 61

Hello

I don't know what the cause could be.

Can you give me any item number that you have tried so I can also try it?

Are you typing the item numbers in, or copying and pasting?

Are the items mature in nature? Hidbid will not work with mature auctions because of the extra verification step involved.

If you can give me an item number, we can start there.

Nick · Joined: 27 May 2008 Posts: 6

OK,

I Copied and Pasted this item number,

220239518622

I also Hand typed this item number

220239514975

Both are in Ebay Motors, and Both are regular auctions. I still got Item Not Found.

Let me know what else I can help you with.
Nick

Nick · Joined: 27 May 2008 Posts: 6

I just tried an item outside of Ebay motors and it popped right up.

So now my question is why won't the site find items listed in Ebay Motors for me.

Nick

freddy · Site Admin Joined: 29 Sep 2007 Posts: 61

Hello

Ok, I'm also getting "Item not found" for those listings.

I tried other item #s that work ok that were not listed in eBay Motors, so the problem seems to involve eBay Motors items only.

Maybe eBay recently made a change for eBay Motors only, I don't know right now.

I'll forward this to our programmer and hopefully have this fixed shortly.

Nick · Joined: 27 May 2008 Posts: 6

Thanks,

I only use ebay motors so it will be a relief to hear that it is fixed.

Nick

freddy · Site Admin Joined: 29 Sep 2007 Posts: 61

Our programmer and I are on different schedules, hoping this will be taken care of tomorrow.

In the meantime, -- I should have mentioned this before-- you can do an eBay keyword search from hidbid for the item and then set your snipe up that way.

Just don't use the full title, as it will not show up if you do. Maybe just use the first three words or a couple of the words that are in the title that are not usually grouped together, so you don't have to search through a long list of results.

That should get you sniping until the item # search is fixed.

freddy · Site Admin Joined: 29 Sep 2007 Posts: 61

Okay, we have a temporary fix for the ebay motors search problem until a better and more efficient solution can be created.

Now when you search for eBay items by item #, the item information will not show up on the snipe setup page as it does when you search for an item with a keyword search. You'll just see the maximum bid field, time left to bid field, your eBay information fields and the "snipe" button.

The item information being absent is not a big deal, but we still hope to get it figured out and have that added back shortly.

Nick · Joined: 27 May 2008 Posts: 6

I tried to make a snipe and it at least did what you said it was going to do, (Item number, time left), minus the snipe.

It is showing on my snipes as the auction still running. Item number 320260342583. My snipe was higher than the final bid.

It seems as you guys are making progress. I will try with a few auctions that I don't mind losing and see what happens and pass the results on to you. Maybe it was a fluke with that one.

Thanks

Nick · Joined: 27 May 2008 Posts: 6

I tried to make a snipe and it at least did what you said it was going to do, (Item number, time left), minus the snipe which it didn't place.

It is showing on my snipes as the auction still running. Item number 320260342583. My snipe was higher than the final bid.

It seems as you guys are making progress. I will try with a few auctions that I don't mind losing and see what happens and pass the results on to you. Maybe it was a fluke with that one.

Thanks

freddy · Site Admin Joined: 29 Sep 2007 Posts: 61

I have received a couple of messages today regarding this, it looks like snipes now set up by item #are not executing, at least some of them are not.

I'm going to bring in another programmer on this and hopefully get it fixed tomorrow.

It will take some time to bring the new programmer up to speed, so until further notice:

Set up snipes using the keyword search only -- do not use the item number search -- snipes set up by item #search will not execute

freddy · Site Admin Joined: 29 Sep 2007 Posts: 61

You can set up snipes by item # again.

The item # search problem was caused by item #'s being entered incorrectly(I'm guessing the small design change was the reason for that, while the text "item #" was included inside the search field instead of next to it), and so many were entered incorrectly, hidbid could no longer update itself correctly.