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Ed – Is there a story behind the name Antebellum?
Ant – Latin for ‘Before war’. I am not belligerent but Smokoo is like simulated war – it is a true meritocracy, it discriminates only against those that do not prepare; the arrogant, the lazy and the dishonourable will be found out. The battle of Smokoo fascinates me and it is amazing to see the other pugilists. Some guys like mchammer live for the battle rather than the money, I like that. They will take me on sometimes and sometimes let me go. Some like Kim-Eun-Mi, lord-zub, ying have taken me on just to teach me a lesson and they have succeeded.
Ed – Before signing up with Smokoo was there any apprehension?
Ant – Of course! A Merc for R211? You gotta be kidding me, it has to be a scam doesn’t it?. My first purchase of bids was R100 which I promptly lost, fortunately I took time out to read the tips on the site and read what the big guns do, I came back and had some successes.
Ed – You already have an iPad, are you interested in the iPad 2?
Ant – Yes and I will buy one.
Ed – How did it feel to win the BMW auction? What went through your mind?
Ant – It was more of a relief than elation because I misjudged by half a day how long it was going to go on for. At R2000 – R3000 per hour I judged that I would make it until Monday morning when the banks opened and I nearly ran out before I could replenish.
Ed – You have a year until you can take part in a car auction again. What car would you like to see auctioned on Smokoo?
Ant – My heart screams Italian but my practical mind says German – so I would love to bid on a performance Merc.
Ed – You are a big strategist and you’ve said before that other bidders should be scared of you. Why should they be scared of you?
Ant – I meant no disrespect. I see Smokoo as a shop and every time I enter an auction I know that I might have to pay full price or more for the goods on some auctions and that I will make the money back and then some on other auctions. I also know that if you are clever, patient and humble you will win the war even though you might lose a couple of battles. They should be scared of me exactly because I am scared of them: they don’t know what resources I have, they don’t know when I decide that I want a specific product. I have seen Newbies going all out, and getting a product, kicking sand in the old dogs’ faces. I have been arrogant twice and it backfired on me, I learn from pain.
Ed – Tell us more about the strategy you apply to winning auctions?
Ant – Before I enter an auction I look in the history to see who has won the same product and how much they paid for it, when someone joins an auction I check the history and my personal database to determine my next actions. I look at the times of an auction, I make sure I have enough credits, I decide what my pain threshold is and also what I will do if certain bidders start bidding. Sometimes I re-join an auction, sometimes I think it is better to withdraw, lick my wounds and fight another day and sometimes I fight to the end. The important thing for me is to not let my ego take over. I try to have a reason for everything I do on Smokoo and I try to analyse the opposition. I respect the others, I sometimes try not to wait until someone has spent too much money to give him a chance to retire gracefully from the auction but I am not naïve either, sometimes you have to be ruthless and bleed someone dry else they will you. These things are not for the faint hearted.
Ed – If you owned Smokoo for a day what would you do differently?
Ant – I used to think of many ideas but the longer I bid the more I think that this is a very well-run business. Come to think of it I think I will give a certain user, say Antebellum, 100000 bids in his account.
Ed – We are thinking about running a mystery auction. If you were to run a mystery auction what would you auction off keeping in mind bidders wouldn’t know what they are bidding for.
Ant – I would give the winner a choice between 3 products because we all have that one product we have not won yet. I would also give the highest bidders a portion of their bids back on a sliding scale – ½ back for the person who put in most bids, 1/3 back for the second most, ¼ back for the third most and so forth.
Ed – Any advice for new users just getting started?
Ant – I do not want to be pedantic but you asked…
- Read Sun Tzu and Von Clausewitz
- Study the enemy, you will not go into an exam without being prepared or even play a game without at least knowing who you are playing against. Why would you enter an auction and give away money without knowing the other combatants?
- Respect the opponents. Quazi1308 shows respect in the letter he wrote to Smokoo, he will get far, believe me, we have bid against each other, he is no roll-over. I disrespected ying in the Rolex auction and he gave me a bloody nose.
- Prepare – I know each active bidder, I know how many gold and silver auctions they have won, what type of products they go all out for and how much they paid for each item. The good ones are of course sometimes a little unpredictable, but if you know that you can plan.
- Patience. Surely the goal is to maximize savings over a period of time and not just looking for a quick bargain? You will fail sometimes but budget for that, even without the BMW I am way up on savings.
- Guts – I respect some guys immensely for example JoeFarah took a huge knock with the BMW and eventually he decided to call it quits, but he did not go cry to mommy, the next day he bid on the Kia and won it for R2000 in bids. Brainstorm did the same, these guys have guts. I will go to war with them.
- Spend many hours in front of the screen and you will be successful. I assign personalities to the people I bid against and I get a huge kick when I see some of the interviews or videos and I see that I was right.
- Learn from the other bidders. mchammer, ajgrey, hawthorne, RobTheBrue – they are very tactical; Lord-Zub, Kim-Eun-Mi, joefarah, BrainStorm, ying, mery – ice in their veins; melcait, MrY, Monte Cristo, arc, Centrino, PhatCatt, hemi300c, kickass, Pierre_Otto– very good bidders and then there are some of the relative newbies : NoddyNED, mailharryc, Amle, pauly, Nelson 36, varren, DewDews, herz2nel. I mention these names not because they cannot be beaten – I have beaten most of them and most of them have beaten me – I mention them because they save loads of money on Smokoo and you can too. The successful ones are the ones that are active on the site over a period of time.
- Remember that the person bidding against you is intelligent, I suspect some of these people are highly so. Do not be arrogant, you will be punished, I have been. If you get a bloody nose, don’t quit, learn and try again.
- Don’t be intimidated. This is difficult especially after the initial honeymoon period is over, but persevere.
- Nothing in life is free, put in time and don’t expect to get things without putting in some money.
- Even the best laid plans can sometimes fail but it always pays in the long run to plan. The old adage “If you fail to plan you plan to fail” holds true.
Ed.
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