The Auctions
When I first got on, I used to sit at the first page and get a feel for the speeds of the auctions. There different every time. I refreshed and looked at the bottem item, waited five seconds and then refreshed again. I looked for that item to see how many spots it lowered. For example.
20 : Race to Riches Scratchcard
5 seconds then refresh
9 : Race to Riches Scratchcard
That item moved 11 spots in 5 seconds. I keep doing that for a couple of minutes, and figure out the average amount of spots it will drop during 5 seconds. And I also switched it up. Waited 3 seconds instead of 5 to refresh. Knowing how many spots it will drop give you a basic idea on how much time you have. Using my same example - if it's auction number was 11, I know I have around 5 seconds until it ends. So I want to put my bid in at around 3.5-4 seconds.
The Pages
[ Auctions 1 - 20 ][ 21 - 40 ][ 41 - 60 ][ 61 - 80 ][ 81+ ]
For the technique I'm going to show you, it really dosen't matter what page you're on. But, if you don't like my technique, I'll go ahead and explain some things about the pages anyway.
I have 2 names for the pages. One, is the bidding page[Where you get ready to make your bids], and the others are the scounting pages.[Where you search for items, and still have enough time to place a bid.]
[1-20] This is more of a bidding page. But if you have a good internet connection, you could use this page to look for items aswell and, still have time too bid.
[21-40] This is in between a bidding page, and a scouting page. For people with notsogood connections, this is where you get ready to make a bid. But you'd have to have a really slow connection to get ready to bid here.
[41-60+] These are scouting pages. You look for your items you want to win, and get ready for them. And if you don't know if there is a profit or not, you still have a little bit of time to look it up on the Shop Wizard.
The Rule
In the auctions, there is a 5k limit rule. Which means you can't bid over 5k of the last bidder.
Now here comes the hard part for me, a skill you have to develope. You have to decide how much your going to bid to win. Say were going after a paintbrush that is worth 400k. The current price is 270k and it's on the front page, it's item number is 7. Think about it, theres a nice little profit here, your not the only one trying to get it. Theres probably 8+ people waiting to throw their bid in. For an item with a profit like this, you don't want to bid the minimum 5k, you want to go higher in hope that someone else has already bidded. It all depends on the item and it's profit. (I never really mastered this skill) I would bid around 290-295k.
Why bid so much more than last bid that you *see*? Since it's a nice profit, good snipers are going to be there using the same idea as you. While were waiting users that have no knowledge of the auctions are steadily bumping it up in hope to win it, basically n00bs. Not waiting until the last second because they think they will run out of time. Who has the better chance? Someone who keeps bidding, going to the page where it says "Your bid of xxxx is successful" then going back to the auction and keep trying, or the person waiting until the last chance to put a bid in? The other snipers who are waiting until the last second, just like you are the only ones you should fear. You have to try and outbid them, along with out-smart them. The people who keep bidding the minimum increment are no problem. So the n00bs just keep bidding and when it gets down the the last second, everyone puts their bid in. Obviously, it's going to be 5k higher than the bid that you *saw* before you went to bid.
I really don't know how to explain this so it isn't that confusing.
The Technique
Some people here might already use this way, but it took me some time to figure it out. It was so simple, it was hard.
But, what's best about this, is you can find an item on any scouting page and watch it, and still know when it's going to end.
1. Open two internet pages up and go to the auction you want.
2. Minimise one so where you can only see the auction box.
3. Leave the other window open on the front page of the auction.
4. If you feel like it, you can minimize another window to the Shop Wiz page if you don't have enough time to search it.
Heres a screenie
So with them two pages open, you now know
How long you should have to place a bid.
How much the top bid is.
How much you must bid to win.
Back when I used to do it, I only had one window open. And I would wait until the item got lower, and go to the page real fast and make a bid. And that strategy didn't work out to well.
Items
I have't sniped in a while, and I don't know the current prices of items. The most popular item I saw were maps. Lab and Treasure maps. But these drew alot of attention. If your a smaller sniper, like myself, you want to look for items with small profit. Like Codestones, and Faeries. Smaller the profit = Smaller amount of good snipers. What would a rich sniper want to do with a measly 3-4k profit? Nothing, so they're going to leave them alone. If you stock up on them, you can make a nice amount. If you win 30 codestones a day consistently, it's going to turn into a nice amount. And the longer you keep doing this, the better you will get. Eventually you will move up, winning bigger, better items, learning more about the auctions and different techniques, etc.
I noticed this was the only guide section for Neopets, and this isn't a game so I didn't know where to put this. If it's in the wrong spot, please someone move it.
Sorry, I don't have Microsoft Word, so I can't spell check x_x
