BidButler Help
BidButlers never sleep!Have you tried bidding using a BidButler yet? If not, you’re probably missing out on one of the best-kept secrets on Swoopo – here’s three reasons why you might want to think about using a BidButler:
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| How do I set up my BidButler? If you want to use a BidButler you have to ask him to place at least two bids. Your maximum price has to be at least one pound (£1) higher than the current end price of the auction you want to bid on. Just tell the BidButler the minimum 
and maximum 
price at which you want him to place your bids, as  well
as the number of bids 
you're prepared for him to use and he'll do the rest. |
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What happens when there is currently only one BidButler bidding on an auction? If there’s just one BidButler set to bid on an auction at the current price, its bids will be placed within the final 10 seconds of the auction. The exact time that the BidButler bids varies – it can be at 10 seconds, or at 1 second … or anywhere in between. We mix it up so that other bidders are never quite sure whether your BidButler is going to jump in. Once the BidButler's bid has been placed the countdown jumps up to the next increment. If it is a 20 second countdown, it will go up to 20 seconds, if it is a 30 second countdown it goes up to 30 seconds, and so on. |
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What about when two or more BidButlers are set to bid in the same price range? If there are two or more BidButlers bidding against each other, all the consecutive BidButler bids are placed immediately, and the price and countdown increase with each BidButler bid placed. (We do this so that bidders can easily see the auctions that will end soon unless another bid is placed – it’s those where the countdown is down to less than ten seconds). In the example below, we have two BidButlers that were set to place bids at price ranges that overlapped. 11 BidButler bids are placed immediately one after the other  .
You can see that we’ve added 11 x 7p (77p). As the timer was at 5 seconds when these bids were triggered, the first BidButler bid only added 15 seconds, but the other ten add 20 seconds each, so we add (15 + 10 x 20 = 215) seconds , or 3 minutes 35 seconds to the counter to bring the timer up to 3 minutes 40 seconds. (This is why you sometimes see the time on Swoopo auctions jump up). |
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How can I use the BidButler in my strategy to win? BidButlers can be powerful allies in your battle to bid and win, but, they need to be used wisely . Your aim should be to have the only BidButler set at a given price point. You then can leave it up to your BidButler to bid and perhaps scare away your opponents. One way we’ve seen people use BidButlers is to test if there are other BidButlers set. To do this you set different BidButlers at different price points which are not too far apart from each other. That way you can test to see whether there are other BidButlers that are booked and show other bidders that you’re still in the game. If your BidButler bid sets off other BidButlers, you know that there are more BidButlers booked. If you are the only BidButler at that price point, you could be close to winning that auction. |
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| Bid history Finally, remember to always look at the bid history, checking the number of bidders on the auction and the types of bid placed. If there are only single bids, try placing a BidButler – it might just scare the other bidders away and win you that bargain. |
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Want more info? You’ll find more details on the BidButler in our Help Section. |
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