Snipe — Auction Sniping & Bid Management

Part of the Circuit Forge LLC "AI for the tasks you hate most" suite.

Status: Backlog — not yet started. Peregrine must prove the model first.

What it does

Snipe manages online auction participation: monitoring listings across platforms, scheduling last-second bids, tracking price history to avoid overpaying, and managing the post-win logistics (payment, shipping coordination, provenance documentation for antiques).

The name is the origin of the word "sniping" — common snipes are notoriously elusive birds, secretive and camouflaged, that flush suddenly from cover. Shooting one required extreme patience, stillness, and a precise last-second shot. That's the auction strategy.

Primary platforms

CT Bids — Connecticut state surplus and municipal auctions
GovPlanet / IronPlanet — government surplus equipment
AuctionZip — antique auction house aggregator (1,000+ houses)
Invaluable / LiveAuctioneers — fine art and antiques
Bidsquare — antiques and collectibles
eBay — general + collectibles
HiBid — estate auctions
Proxibid — industrial and collector auctions

Why it's hard

Online auctions are frustrating because:

Winning requires being present at the exact closing moment — sometimes 2 AM
Platforms vary wildly: some allow proxy bids, some don't; closing times extend on activity
Price history is hidden — you don't know if an item is underpriced or a trap
Shipping logistics for large / fragile antiques require coordination with auction house
Provenance documentation is inconsistent across auction houses

Core pipeline

Configure search (categories, keywords, platforms, max price, location)
→ Monitor listings → Alert on matching items
→ Human review: approve or skip
→ Price research: comparable sales history, condition assessment via photos
→ Schedule snipe bid (configurable: X seconds before close, Y% above current)
→ Execute bid → Monitor for counter-bid (soft-close extension handling)
→ Win notification → Payment + shipping coordination workflow
→ Provenance documentation for antiques

Bidding strategy engine

Hard snipe: submit bid N seconds before close (default: 8s)
Soft-close handling: detect if platform extends on last-minute bids; adjust strategy
Proxy ladder: set max and let the engine bid in increments, reserve snipe for final window
Reserve detection: identify likely reserve price from bid history patterns
Comparable sales: pull recent auction results for same/similar items across platforms

Post-win workflow

Payment method routing (platform-specific: CC, wire, check)
Shipping quote requests to approved carriers (for freight / large items)
Condition report request from auction house
Provenance packet generation (for antiques / fine art resale or insurance)
Add to inventory (for dealers / collectors tracking portfolio value)

Product code (license key)

CFG-SNPE-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX

Tech notes

Shared circuitforge-core scaffold
Platform adapters: AuctionZip, Invaluable, HiBid, eBay, CT Bids (Playwright + API where available)
Bid execution: Playwright automation with precise timing (NTP-synchronized)
Soft-close detection: platform-specific rules engine
Comparable sales: scrape completed auctions, normalize by condition/provenance
Vision module: condition assessment from listing photos (moondream2 / Claude vision)
Shipping quote integration: uShip API for freight, FedEx / UPS for parcel

3.5 KiB Raw Blame History