Working on what I think a fairly advanced project

[Niklas]

Okay Im going to try to make an Ebay auto bidder. Here is the layout of the program that I have brainstormed so far.

1. Enter URL of auction you would like it to bid on
2. It automatically checks how much time is left in auction and refreshes every second.
3. Enter the maximum amount of money before its supposed to stop bidding.
4. SHould bid in last 0-2 seconds.

Would this be logical or do I need to add another functions? Yes I know this will take a lot of time and it will be really hard to program but Im gonna give it a try as I have a lot of time on the weekends.

[chrisbliss18]

I recommend that you don't pull a page from eBay every second. Once you've parsed the time remaining, only do periodic updates (every five minutes or so) to catch new bids. Polling the eBay server too much can result in an IP ban.

Keep in mind that just because you requested to bid at a millisecond before the bidding ends, doesn't mean your bid will be received. The eBay servers are busy and have a varying amount of delay on handling requests. If you don't start your bid request until 2 seconds before the end of the bidding, I'd wager that your bid will not be received.

[Niklas]

Thanks for the input Ill keep that in mind. The refreshing rate ill change to 15 minutes for normal and then once the auction starts getting like 10 minutes before the auction ends ill have it switch to 1. Ill try to have it bid at 3 as with all the delay.