Mystery ancient aircraft carrier

[Parak]

I think it's more of a barge..

[mr_a500]

That is very interesting. (useless, but interesting)

I might just buy it for that new Death Star I'm building.

[Parak]

You might then be interested in this monstrosity Auction has ended, but seller will probably relist.

[Peter]

Those keycaps are F"#&ing AWESOME !!
There could even be Beamspring switches underneath them !

[mr_a500]

You might then be interested in this monstrosity Auction has ended, but seller will probably relist.

Bah! The seller only ships to the USA. (probably something about not letting non-Americans build Death Stars...)

[Ekaros]

Bah! The seller only ships to the USA. (probably something about not letting non-Americans build Death Stars...)

How I'm now going to get one to destroy the middle part of North America?

[Parak]

Bah! The seller only ships to the USA. (probably something about not letting non-Americans build Death Stars...)

Did you try contacting them/him/her/it?

[mr_a500]

We don't sell keyboards like that to foreigners because of the threat of terrorism.

Lots of Americans still believe in the stupid myth that the 9/11 terrorists entered the US after crossing over from Canada. I've actually talked to sellers who refuse to sell to Canadians because they think that. Morons.

(...and just think of how many terrorists we could send over the border if we had a keyboard like that... but... now I've said too much...)

[Findecanor]

Lots of Americans still believe in the stupid myth that the 9/11 terrorists entered the US after crossing over from Canada. I've actually talked to sellers who refuse to sell to Canadians because they think that. Morons.

LOL!

Oh man.. that is the stupidest thing I have heard today. (so far)

[theferenc]

LOL!

Oh man.. that is the stupidest thing I have heard today. (so far)

Still morning there? Just wait, you'll hear lots more stupid stuff, I'm sure.

Then again...maybe not.

[mr_a500]

Even presidential candidate John McCain didn't know how the terrorists got in:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2009/04/24/mccain-border-canada-911.html

Yeah, McCain/Palin would have been a good combo.

[Parak]

Yeah, McCain/Palin would have been a good combo.

For instantly making me seek asylum in Canada or Iceland

[keyboardlover]

I still say Obama/Palin would have been the best mix. Sexiest combo.

What? Sex buys votes!

[petyou]

Now that is one Big Ass Enter Key

[hemflit]

Lurve lurve lurve those Enter and Tab keys. Just seeing them tickles my little <3 with delight :love:

[mr_a500]

Damn it! I lost that mystery ancient aircraft carrier. ("you sank my battleship")

For five days, I was the only bidder at 99¢. I suspected somebody would try to sneak in and outbid me in the last few minutes, but with 20 seconds left there wasn't a sign. I then left the page to do my final "sniper protection" bid, and I didn't click confirm until the last 2 seconds. I thought for sure I had it, but two bastards had bid in the final second and beat me. (obviously, the winner was the biggest bastard of the two)

Those automated bid programs are unfair. If somebody is going to win in the final second, there should be some skill and effort involved.

[Parak]

Any luck on that other one, at least?

[mr_a500]

No, the seller hasn't re-listed that Death Star keyboard and he doesn't sell to Canada anyway.

I guess I'll just have to construct a Death Star using parts from my 40 other keyboards. (...and just like in Return of the Jedi, the Death Star won't be finished in time and look awful)

[theferenc]

Those automated bid programs are unfair. If somebody is going to win in the final second, there should be some skill and effort involved.

I agree. Those things REALLY piss me off. Automated tools should be blocked in the last 30 seconds of an auction. Either do it by hand, or write a clever enough tool that can pass as a human.

[muchadoaboutnothing]

I agree. Those things REALLY piss me off. Automated tools should be blocked in the last 30 seconds of an auction. Either do it by hand, or write a clever enough tool that can pass as a human.

Sniping doesn't really break any rules. You enter a maximum bid and then it bids on your behalf until your maximum bid is passed or you're the leader.

If you lowball your maximum bid, it's a easy for a bot to put a higher bid as it is a human. If the bot submits something below your maximum bid (but above your current bid), it'll raise the price until you end up above it and then you'll still win.

Also, there are a billion of these programs. You can get them pretty easily.

[Peter]

In the end it all boils down to who was willing to place the highest maximum-bid .
The other bidders also had the advantage of knowing about your interest in the item,
while remaining unknown to you .
 
 Where I live we have a auction-site where the auction doesn't stop until there is only
one bidder left .. It doesn't make stuff any cheaper than on eBay .

[mr_a500]

Sniping doesn't really break any rules. You enter a maximum bid and then it bids on your behalf until your maximum bid is passed or you're the leader.

My point is that it's unfair for some lazy jerk to sit back while a program does a bid for him in the last second. I would feel better if that jerk bidding in the last second had actually been forced to use effort, skill and timing in doing it. (My closest "snipe" ever - at the exact second the auction ended - was done manually using a 1987 Amiga 500. It was incredible timing - I deserved to win... not that I suggest people use vintage computers to bid. It's just an example of effort.)

These last second bids leave no time for a counter bid. Many times I certainly would have increased my final bid if I had known that there were more bidders interested in it. It's annoying to see absolutely no interest in something until the auction is over and you're shocked to see you've lost. Whenever I do a "snipe", I always do an initial bid to show my intentions, rather than just sneaking in to steal the thing. Maybe that should be a rule - last second sniping only allowed if you've made an initial bid at least an hour earlier.

If you lowball your maximum bid

And I hate the word "lowball". When did that get popular? I see it all the time on Craigslist now: "Offers accepted No lowballers!"  (WTF?? If somebody asks for an offer and your offer is too low, they can just decline. Why the hell would the person then be considered a "lowballer"??)

[Reaif]

It sounds like you need to get one of those programs yourself.

[False_Dmitry_II]

Me too. I almost always snipe anything I'm bidding on. Only twice have I ended up not being able to submit to the bid, once was because it started responding much too slow, another I underestimated the time needed.

Most of the rest of the time, here lately, I just completely forget about the auction until mere hours after it ends. Then I'm pretty annoyed.

At the same time, I also keep asking questions and the seller keeps not responding (multiple times, get no response more often than not) and I'm not gonna bid on something with a seller like that, even if I don't really need to know whatever I asked. The most annoying is when they have 'just ask any questions!' in the auction, yet they don't respond.

[Quest-]

Just make your maximum bid to what actually is your maximum, then you'll lose fairly to the guy with the bigger wallet or less brains, sniping tools or not.

Whats actually more annoying then those tools (and justifies their use for me) is people who bid $1 more then your current bid and keep doing that until they find out your max and then just sit $1 above it. Arghh :E

[Ekaros]

Just make your maximum bid to what actually is your maximum, then you'll lose fairly to the guy with the bigger wallet or less brains, sniping tools or not.

Whats actually more annoying then those tools (and justifies their use for me) is people who bid $1 more then your current bid and keep doing that until they find out your max and then just sit $1 above it. Arghh :E

Umm, isn't ebay an auction-site?

[False_Dmitry_II]

What's your point? I saw some apple ADB prototype board on ebay. It was sitting at like 2 bucks for ages. In the last 30 seconds there were 2 more bids by different people and it stopped at well over $200. Either one of those people would have lost it if they hadn't put in their actual maximums. I have never seen an auction end so high after sitting so low for so long.

[ch_123]

I'm confused. Who said this was a Beam Spring keyboard?