eBay Game Sniper - See newly listed games below their value

jjgames

jjgames

CAGiversary!
We created this tool last week and it is right up CAG's alley.  The tool tracks every video game auction on ebay and updates the page when one is found that is a good deal.  A good deal is either:

a) a Buy It Now price below the market value.

b) an auction ending in next 90 seconds with bid below market value

http://videogames.pricecharting.com/snipe/

I've been testing with it for a while and found some deals like Earthbound for $110 and my favorite Complete in Box, mint condition Panzer Dragoon trilogy for Sega Saturn (1, Zwei, and Saga) for $260.

It's kind of like the fun of finding a sweet deal at a garage sale, but on eBay.

Would love to hear people's feedback and any good deals you win.

 
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This is interesting for sure. It took me a few minutes to realize that it's pulling ALL games. It would be nice to be able to set up games I wanted to monitor, or limit it to certain consoles. Otherwise pretty cool though!

 
beard. said:
This is interesting for sure. It took me a few minutes to realize that it's pulling ALL games. It would be nice to be able to set up games I wanted to monitor, or limit it to certain consoles. Otherwise pretty cool though!
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Great feedback. This has been the most requested addition so far. We are working to make this happen and hopefully can have it shortly.

thecobb8 said:
Something I just saw: http://www.ebay.com/itm/281240913116

Black ops for .99 but shipping is $23 and change.

Maybe find a way to integrate the shipping cost and this would be a much more efficient tool. Cool concept tho!!
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We are working to integrate shipping costs too so it will be included in the calculation of the savings. Thanks for the feedback.

 
I know it isn't just as simple as asking for it, but here are a few things that would be great.

1. Make a buffer of sorts, say of the last 5 minutes so that when you go to the page or refresh the page, or such, that it just isn't a blank page. (Also not everything will sell instantly, so you might still find deals that you would have missed, but that are still new).

2. If possible, I figure the search terms are hard coded into the tool, but if you are able to add options to search for certain "terms" so that when looking for a specific game, it would be able to find it in lot listings using the tool, that would be amazing. (Should that be possible, the "savings" requirement might need to be switched off, as when in a lot there are other games to factor in, and a $40 lot for three $30 games, might not appear to the tool as savings. Not to mention there are times when a game isn't actually listed with the product on ebay, so it would be able to find stray listings that won't pop up under the regular page for a game.

 
Hemi said:
I know it isn't just as simple as asking for it, but here are a few things that would be great.

1. Make a buffer of sorts, say of the last 5 minutes so that when you go to the page or refresh the page, or such, that it just isn't a blank page. (Also not everything will sell instantly, so you might still find deals that you would have missed, but that are still new).

2. If possible, I figure the search terms are hard coded into the tool, but if you are able to add options to search for certain "terms" so that when looking for a specific game, it would be able to find it in lot listings using the tool, that would be amazing. (Should that be possible, the "savings" requirement might need to be switched off, as when in a lot there are other games to factor in, and a $40 lot for three $30 games, might not appear to the tool as savings. Not to mention there are times when a game isn't actually listed with the product on ebay, so it would be able to find stray listings that won't pop up under the regular page for a game.
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Thanks for the feedback. I will check with the developer but 1 should be doable. 2 would be quite a bit harder but I can definitely see the value to it. I will mention that one to him as well, but I don't think we will be able to roll that one out any time soon.

 
STEVE05 said:
I know! I tried it out yesterday just to check it out and something popped up that I was slightly interested in. Clicked it. GONE.
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Yeah, you have to act really fast. Even when I was just using this during testing I only won about 25% of the games I wanted to. There are quite a few users of the tool now so that means you need to be even faster.

I wrote an article with some tips on how to speed up the process as much as possible:

http://blog.pricecharting.com/2014/01/ebay-game-sniper-tips-and-success.html

 
I feel bad for people who start off at 0.99 but accidentally put it as a buy it now. Saw this happen twice with The Last of Us and Battlefield 4. Good deals for people who bought it but it sucks to have to ship off Last of Us for $4.

 
damn someone just got Wind Waker for GC for $10

i was out of the room fuck

looks like a couple people got it cheap tonight....

i won Halo 4 new unopened for $.99 but the seller immediately refunded me

 
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Someone just got a complete Skies of Arcadia GC for $13 as well.  Lucky bastards.

*EDIT*

Just snagged a Mass Effect 1 CE w/ Art of Mass effect for $50 ^_^

 
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i got some decent deals last night/ this morning

:xbox: Scooby-Doo Night of 100 Frights: $4

:360: CoD: Ghost: $25

:360: Halo 4: $5.25

:xbox: Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II: $11

 
I'm liking this a lot, good work. Only problem I've seen so far is that some of the prices on Price Charting is waaaaay off, so you end up with a few false hits.

 
gatordeve86 said:
i won Halo 4 new unopened for $.99 but the seller immediately refunded me
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The same thing happens to me every time I won a listing at $0.99. Seller refunded after seeing they used fixed instead of auction.


spmahn said:
I'm liking this a lot, good work. Only problem I've seen so far is that some of the prices on Price Charting is waaaaay off, so you end up with a few false hits.
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If you can let me know about any of these inaccurate prices so I can investigate and fix them that would be awesome. Thanks.

 
Most of the inaccurate prices I saw was the thing having a lower price than eBay says... Haven't seen any higher inaccurate prices besides sellers listing under a different game
 
We added a filter by console feature to the tool.  This was the most asked for feature from our user survey.

 
jjgames said:
The same thing happens to me every time I won a listing at $0.99. Seller refunded after seeing they used fixed instead of auction.


If you can let me know about any of these inaccurate prices so I can investigate and fix them that would be awesome. Thanks.
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Here's one, Pokemon Emerald listed BIN at $24.99, price charter lists its estimated value at $102.50? Not hardly....

http://www.ebay.com/itm/271372937556

 
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gatordeve86 said:
thats because the seller has it listed as new... thats not PC's fault
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Yep. We use the condition and product the seller chooses when they list the item. If they get that wrong, our savings will be wrong. We always recommend the buyer spend a brief moment looking at listing details before buying.

 
Anyone else get annoyed when you see something at a price you might consider, only to click on it and see that someone has already bid and eliminated the BIN price? Seriously, the auction has a full week to go, do you REALLY need to bid on it within seconds of it listing?

 
[quote name="spmahn" post="11460544" timestamp="1390275304"]Anyone else get annoyed when you see something at a price you might consider, only to click on it and see that someone has already bid and eliminated the BIN price? Seriously, the auction has a full week to go, do you REALLY need to bid on it within seconds of it listing?[/quote]

If you want a chance to get it for less than the buy it now price you do.
 
yourlefthand said:
If you want a chance to get it for less than the buy it now price you do.
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Except the whole point of this is to filter out auctions where the BIN price is lower than the average sale price, so in these specific cases, the odds of you bidding on the auction and winning it for less than the original BIN price is almost zero.

 
Feature Update:

We added the ability to take into account the shipping cost.  The eBay Sniper will increase the 'cost' by the shipping amount and decrease the savings by the same amount.  What we show as the cost should match exactly what you would pay for the item.

You enable this option and the auction has to have a fixed shipping cost for everyone for it to work.  We assume free shipping if the seller calculates shipping based upon your location.

Thank you everyone for your feedback on this tool.

 
I have a question about how VGPC works. How do you account for the large number of auctions that get driven up by fraudulent bidders or by fraudulent sellers shilling for themselves. How do you know whether or not an item actually sold? If I were to pick some random game that doesn't sell very often, listed it on eBay several times over a period of time, then ran the price up so it looks like it's selling for a much higher price than normal (even though it's never actually selling), wouldn't this artificially drive up the price on VGPC, or is this not how it works?

 
spmahn said:
I have a question about how VGPC works. How do you account for the large number of auctions that get driven up by fraudulent bidders or by fraudulent sellers shilling for themselves. How do you know whether or not an item actually sold? If I were to pick some random game that doesn't sell very often, listed it on eBay several times over a period of time, then ran the price up so it looks like it's selling for a much higher price than normal (even though it's never actually selling), wouldn't this artificially drive up the price on VGPC, or is this not how it works?
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In most cases there is no way to know if the buyer actually paid. eBay does not report that information anywhere on their site. So we use the price that the auction closed.

Yes, there are times when the auction ended and the price was inaccurate because of shill bidding but on the vast majority of games one sale will not 'ruin' the price.

On very high profile sales we try to check to make sure it actually was paid for by messaging the seller and asking.
 
Wow I never knew JJ Games posted on here. You are the influence for me choosing a career in video game resale, years ago you bought a N64 lot off me and I ended up stumbling on your eBay page and from there your website. I had sold video games I found at yard sales, flea markets and auctions for years to fund my game collection but never really thought someone could make a good living off of it until I saw you guys.

Anyways, thank you and keep rocking because the dream of being as big as you guys is what keeps me motivated and going every day.

Also did not know VGPC was also you guys, this is the first I have heard of the Snipe feature but I will try it tomorrow. The lot value tool is great. And as for inflated game values Wii Fit (Game Only) shows up at $20.49 which is (unfortunately) not accurate.
 
ferant316 said:
Wow I never knew JJ Games posted on here. You are the influence for me choosing a career in video game resale, years ago you bought a N64 lot off me and I ended up stumbling on your eBay page and from there your website. I had sold video games I found at yard sales, flea markets and auctions for years to fund my game collection but never really thought someone could make a good living off of it until I saw you guys.

Anyways, thank you and keep rocking because the dream of being as big as you guys is what keeps me motivated and going every day.

Also did not know VGPC was also you guys, this is the first I have heard of the Snipe feature but I will try it tomorrow. The lot value tool is great. And as for inflated game values Wii Fit (Game Only) shows up at $20.49 which is (unfortunately) not accurate.
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Very flattered that I helped motivate you into your career in video games.

Wii Fit, and other games with bundled items, are a continued nuisance because people will list their items in the wrong place. Wii Fit with Balance Board will be listed in 'Game only' section or vice-versa. We have not found a good way to combat these without lots of manual effort that unfortunately we don't have the time for.

 
Multiple games I've seen show up have been listed for lower recently and haven't sold for that lower price. Wouldn't that drive that estimated cost down?

 
ScareTax said:
Multiple games I've seen show up have been listed for lower recently and haven't sold for that lower price. Wouldn't that drive that estimated cost down?
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Can you give me an example so I can look into it?

Are you saying that a game was listed for a price lower than our estimated price but nobody bought it? Right now we do not factor in sales without a buyer, but that would make sense to consider if it is lower than our estimated price.

 
jjgames said:
Can you give me an example so I can look into it?

Are you saying that a game was listed for a price lower than our estimated price but nobody bought it? Right now we do not factor in sales without a buyer, but that would make sense to consider if it is lower than our estimated price.
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A sealed SEGA Dreamcast Web Browser showed up in the tool and was estimated $18.98. However, several sealed Web Browsers had been listed at $9.99, $5.99, $2.00, $3.00, and $4.99, some with free shipping, and never sold for those prices.

 
ScareTax said:
A sealed SEGA Dreamcast Web Browser showed up in the tool and was estimated $18.98. However, several sealed Web Browsers had been listed at $9.99, $5.99, $2.00, $3.00, and $4.99, some with free shipping, and never sold for those prices.
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I saw this and was struck back a bit by the estimated price of $18.98. Considering a Dreamcast Web Browser came with every console sold, and is of absolutely no use to anyone anymore, I can't imagine one selling for $18.98 in any condition, the consoles barely bring in that much.

 
Made my first handful of purchases with the eBay Game Sniper last night. Nothing amazing (missed out on a copy of Thousand Arms for $14.99, and I only have a sealed copy in my collection so that one I needed myself) but enough to make it worthwhile.

However, I have the box for "Adjust for Shipping" checked but it is not adding shipping to the cost column. Not sure if it is something on my end or the site.
 
spmahn said:
Another quirk I noticed, it seems to be picking up these crap reproductions and hacks, and listing them as the original game

http://www.ebay.com/itm/231159112195
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That is the eBay sellers fault as they have it listed under the actual Earthbound game. Same problem with Pokemon, New Super Mario Bros. DS and unfortunately I don't think there is anything they could do to fix that. Just be a good eBayer and report all the fakes you see as eventually eBay has to listen right?
 
ferant316 said:
However, I have the box for "Adjust for Shipping" checked but it is not adding shipping to the cost column. Not sure if it is something on my end or the site.
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If a seller has an item listed with shipping calculated by location then we cannot estimate a shipping cost, so we assume $0 for calculations - better to give users more info so they make the decision instead of removing listings that could be a great deal.

Unfortunately eBay doesn't make it easy to see which listings are calculated or not. eBay will calculate a cost based on your IP address if you aren't logged in. They make it very obvious in the API we use, but not on the website.

If you want to test it, you can have two browsers open to the sniper and set one to use no shipping adjustment and the other to use it. After a while you should see some listings appear in one browser but not the other.

 
jjgames said:
If a seller has an item listed with shipping calculated by location then we cannot estimate a shipping cost, so we assume $0 for calculations - better to give users more info so they make the decision instead of removing listings that could be a great deal.

Unfortunately eBay doesn't make it easy to see which listings are calculated or not. eBay will calculate a cost based on your IP address if you aren't logged in. They make it very obvious in the API we use, but not on the website.

If you want to test it, you can have two browsers open to the sniper and set one to use no shipping adjustment and the other to use it. After a while you should see some listings appear in one browser but not the other.
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i was having the same problem with it not adding shipping.... they weren't calculated shipping listings either.. i refreshed the page and it worked fine

 
gatordeve86 said:
i was having the same problem with it not adding shipping.... they weren't calculated shipping listings either.. i refreshed the page and it worked fine
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Same. Seems if my screensaver comes up I have to refresh the page as it starts showing the default $5 savings setting.

Great tool though, used it a bunch this weekend. Have to be really quick on the draw on the steals though there were a few I stopped to read description and they were gone.
 
Thanks for comments about shipping cost.  I will look into those and see if we can make it more consistent.

We added a pretty big feature today -> We now show auctions ending in next 90 seconds with prices below market value

Auctions will have a light green background and they will follow the same settings as the fixed price listings.

Let me know what you think about this addition.

Thank you

 
jjgames said:
Thanks for comments about shipping cost. I will look into those and see if we can make it more consistent.

We added a pretty big feature today -> We now show auctions ending in next 90 seconds with prices below market value

Auctions will have a light green background and they will follow the same settings as the fixed price listings.
Let me know what you think about this addition.

Thank you
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That's awesome, one less window I have to have open.

I am guessing these are long shots but what about any way to combine the lot calculator with the eBay Game Sniper to alert for lots that are under market value? Or including systems in the Sniper (maybe they are, but have never seen one pop up and figure a RROD 360 would have at some point)? And last and this is probably the the most possible to do but what about a choice between calculating based on percentage of savings as well as dollar?

Don't mean to seem demanding, just throwing ideas out there.
 
ferant316 said:
That's awesome, one less window I have to have open.

I am guessing these are long shots but what about any way to combine the lot calculator with the eBay Game Sniper to alert for lots that are under market value? Or including systems in the Sniper (maybe they are, but have never seen one pop up and figure a RROD 360 would have at some point)? And last and this is probably the the most possible to do but what about a choice between calculating based on percentage of savings as well as dollar?

Don't mean to seem demanding, just throwing ideas out there.
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Love the feedback. Thank you.

1) Lot calculator like that would be cool. Definitely take more development to know what is in each lot.

2) I'm pretty sure consoles are included too, but I will double check.

3) We do have plans to add a filter results by % savings in addition to $ savings. So you could set a $5 minimum and/or 10% minimum. Or something along those lines.

Thanks again for the feedback.

 
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