I know that what I do know about real coffee preparation you could fit on the head of a pin and what I don’t know you could fill a tome as thick as War and Peace with but… I had no idea what an Osmio was, then I went looking. Obvs it is to do with water treatment but, chuffin hell they aint cheap!

To my woefully inexperienced brain who has enough to worry about when it comes to making a decent cup of coffee with an espresso machine and grinder and WDT…ing and tamping etc etc, adding the right chemical composition of water to the mix is just a step too far, and besides, how much would someone like me really benefit from such a device?

I think you guys who have taste buds as developed as a dog’s nose sense of smell, then sure. Like the wine taster who from a single sip, can tell you what grape, where from, what facing hillside it was grown on, the composition of the dirt it was grown in and whether or not the bloke treading the grapes had a bunion and a limp or not. But, for people like me, I can just about deal with deciding whether to buy either Ashbeck or Lockhills depending on advice given and having to de-scale every now and then, apart from that, I’ll always be a Blue Nun sort of guy.

But it is still facinating to read about.


    Pompeyexile To my woefully inexperienced brain who has enough to worry about when it comes to making a decent cup of coffee with an espresso machine and grinder and WDT…ing and tamping etc etc, adding the right chemical composition of water to the mix is just a step too far, and besides, how much would someone like me really benefit from such a device?

    Well for me, it’s about faults…..I simply tend not to get them (or very rarely)….and that’s 100% down to good water. Not I always say good water…not just soft water!!

    Plus, I have been drinking RO for 20 years…why stop now.

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        If anyone is interested I got a great tip from @DavecUK and asked Osmio directly if they had any graded products (prices now are a lot higher than the deals most on here got theirs for)

        I got an A grade product for £350 delivered and it was like brand new and from Osmio - I saw a used one go on eBay recently for £320 plus postage and thought I got the better deal

        They also had B and C grades at £250 and £150

        Neil

          Uncletits I got an A grade product for £350 delivered and it was like brand new and from Osmio - I saw a used one go on eBay recently for £320 plus postage and thought I got the better deal

          They also had B and C grades at £250 and £150

          Something well worth doing

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            DavecUK But what is the ‘good’ water and do I really need to spend on something like the Osmio to get it?

            Oh, and sorry for being such a pleb, but what is RO?

              I reckon that Osmio might go very cheap, unless of course someone mentions it on a coffee forum 🤣

              Sniping it i think is worthwhile for a few reasons.

              • Stops you being tempted to overpay and caught up in the bidding war
              • eliminates “nibbling”
              • eliminates the rip of where a high bid is made, disclosing all other maximum bids, then that high bidder drops out.

              I can’t see why sniping is not a good idea. I hope someone from this forum has a go for it…be nice to pick it up for next to nothing!!!

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                Hammer snipe

                Decent De1pro v1.45 - Niche Duo - Niche Zero - Decent is the best machine ever made -

                DavecUK Totally agree. I’ve used the Auction Sniper app for almost as long as I’ve used eBay. I’ve had quite a few bargains along the way but also won more than my fair share of auctions for a fair price without needlessly driving up the price. It’s amazing how much some people will pay for old tat on eBay.

                  @Gagaryn - I repeat my original point.

                  If your bid is the highest (accepted/acceptable)….. you win
                  If nobody else bids…. you win (at the lowest acceptable bid)

                  It doesn’t matter if you bid manually once, manually multiple times or if you snipe….
                  If your bid is the highest acceptable bid - you win!

                  If your maximum bid is 1p more than anyone bidding after you - You win!

                  So if you bid £50.01 (on an item with no other bidders)
                  and acceptable increments are £5…
                  Your initial accepted bid is £5
                  Anyone else bidding later will up the accepted bid by £10
                  (£5 for their bid then £5 from your bid)

                  If some one bids £50 your £50.01 is still the highest acceptable bid - and you win
                  They would need to bid £55(.01) in order to “win”.

                  So you actually have an advantage by bidding manually in advance - because you can “beat” all the snipers by adding odd pence into your highest bid.

                  I know some snipers add an artificially high bid to “get round” this….. but they can get burnt if two (or more) snipers do the same… and they end up “winning” but at a silly price (over their actual “maximum”)

                  It basically comes back to - if you bid the maximum you are willing to pay - you win if no body else bids more…. irrespective of how they bid!

                    Drewster

                    The one major advantage I remember when sniping…Placing an ebay proxy bid o and item committed you to bidding on it, I don’t even think you were allowed to lower it. If then a second identical item came up, you couldn’t proxy bid on both in-case you won both items, when you only wanted one.

                    With a bid sniper, I was never committed to bidding for something, and if I wanted I could place max bids on both items, using the local software, if I won’t the first, the software then wouldn’t bid on the other item.

                    I could even put a lower max bid on one item, knowing if I didn’t steal it…then a more realistic bid would still be placed on the second item.

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                      Yep - There are definitely “weaknesses” in EBays auction model the one you outline and the one that led to sniping in the first place - an end time!

                      Most auction models basically extend the close point if/when a (higher) bid is received…
                      Going once… Going twice… and a new bidder….
                      Any more?? (logically any underbidders that want to increase)

                      Drewster In reality it works slightly differently. Imagine there is something for sale on eBay, we’ll keep it simple - starting price is £5 and there is no minimum sale price. It’s a niche item and only two interested - me and Bob.

                      Bob sees the thing, reckons he fancies it and he would pay £50 quid for it. He puts a bid in, say £15 quid. Thinks to himself, if anyone bids over £15 I’ll big again. His bid is noted by eBay and the next bid amount is £5.50

                      I see it too - I also think I’ll pay upto £50 quid for it. If I put in a bid - say £10 - the item bid price increases to £10.50 but Bob is still winning the auction with his earlier bid of £15.

                      If I put in a bid of £20 - Bob sees he is losing - the minimum bid price is now £16 because my bid of £15.50 trumps his earlier bid of £15. So he bids £25 - so on so on… One of us will win at around £50.

                      But if I see the item - with one bid placed - current bid price £5.50 and don’t bid but silently prime my snipe to land in the closing seconds at my max amount I don’t give Bob the chance to partake in a bidding war. I don’t know how much Bob has actually bid, but if my max bid is higher than his bid I win - In this case I would get the item for £15.50.

                      Granted, if Bob had put his early bid in at £50 and my late Bid was also £50 - he’d win. That’s why I always make my Snipe for just over - for a £50 thing, I’d make my bid £52.01. But in reality, very few people put in one Bid early with their max amount - lots more either just bid in the closing moments or use sniping software. My technique does not guarantee a win as you point out the highest bid wins. But it is not sensible to advertise your interest early, it only increases the chances of the item price being bidder up.

                        In every one of your examples placing your maximum bid (£52.01) “sometime” before the end with a standard bid puts you in a winning situation and sniping would “lose” ie you would have to bid more to win by sniping (assuming the sniper wanted to pay circa £50)

                        If there were no rivals…… you still win.

                        Obviously you won’t be convinced and you will continue to snipe. And each time you win an auction by sniping you will take it as confirmation :-)

                        But you have clearly stated that to win the thing you value at £50 you “need” to bid a premium of £2.01.

                        Trust me, as an ebay seller I love snipers… they all “play clever” and up their max “a bit” in the belief they are playing the system……
                        but all that achieves is on average a small increase in my selling price :-)
                        Happy days - keep on sniping!!!

                        You’re missing the simple point that bidding early increases the opportunity for others to counter bid - driving up the final cost. Bidding late alleviates this. I have often won auctions for a fraction of my maximum bid because my “opponent” was unaware that he had competition.

                        Like you, I know you won’t be convinced and will write off my experience as confirmation bias - but I’ve tried it both ways - you should give my way try and see if you still feel the same way. Over 22 years on eBay, literally thousands of purchases. Hundreds of sales. I know what works.

                        Anybody has the opportunity to bid at any point during the auction, they have exactly the same opportunity to bid throughout the auction no matter what you do (even if you have zero interest or don’t even know it exists).

                        Literally nothing you do or don’t do affects others opportunity to bid.

                        If you bid the maximum you are willing to pay immediately - you win if no body out bids you.

                        You lose if someone outbids you.

                        You have admitted that when you snipe you up your bid ergo sniping inflates the price.

                        You have won auctions at low bids - because no body else outbid you.

                        If you bid your maximum - the highest “you” can drive the price is one bid increment higher (to outbid you)

                        If you snipe with a “play the system” increment (to beat the bidder who values the item the same as you)
                        you can drive up the price by your “pts” increment plus a standard bid increment.

                        When several snipers “play the game” there is the chance of a couple of them being “really clever” and sniping with a “silly” amount - so the £50 item goes for a few hundred/thousands* (plus a few pence ;-) )

                        I am happy if you want to keep sniping despite the facts that you provide.

                        * Not all snipers honour these silly bids - but technically they are a legal contract that can (technically) be enforced by law…… not practically but hey ho!

                        I once sold some thing I valued at about £20 for £157 - the £157 bid was definitely sniping.
                        BUT the guy paid - so maybe it was just my valuation that was wrong!

                        I did once sell a porcelain ornament for £500 when I expected about £30….. that was definitely my “not knowing” and a viable selling price :-)
                        Fortunately we had bought a few similar ornaments as a job lot in a (real) auction - 4 in all hidden by an awful chalk/china kitchen pot… Happy Days!!!


                          Drewster -“because no body else outbid you”. This is the bit you are struggling to understand the importance of.

                              I’ve been buying off Ebay for years and have never heard of this Sniping. I wait until the dying minutes of an auction, look at where it is at and if I still want it and I think it is worth paying more for what the current bid is, I wait and push the button in the final ten seconds. If I win great, if I don’t then, ce la vie.

                              I know that means I’ve got to be around when it comes to an end but 9 times out of ten I am and I’ll be honest, there is a little bit of excitement in doing it that way…yes I know, I live a very boring life. One thing I always do though is whatever my maximum, I always make it pounds and pennies with the thought if my max in pounds is the same as someone elses, the pennies might win it.

                              The one thing you can almost gurantee about Ebay, is that if you do miss out on a certain item, another will be along at some time. On the few auctions I have lost, another of the same item has come up later and I’ve even won those at a cheaper price than the original one I bid and lost on, so as Del would say…'Everyone’s a winner!'

                              Got to admit though, I am sometimes gobsmacked how some people get into a bidding frenzy and pay well over the odds for something pre-owned that they could have bought for new, cheaper elsewhere.

                              I always search the net first and Ebay is certainly not always the cheapest option.

                                It’s a difficult one, it’s easy to say £50 is my limit and that’s the most I’ll bid, but when the item goes for £51 then it’s frustrating as you’d (probably) have happily paid a tiny bit more. But in that situation you don’t know what the winning bidder was willing to bid up to, they might have had a max bid of £70.

                                By leaving it until the last minute there’s probably a higher chance of paying less than your max price

                                  DavecUK I reckon that Osmio might go very cheap, unless of course someone mentions it on a coffee forum

                                  Will need to fit a new set of Filters though and give it a descale and sanitises depending on wether or not you have the kit £57 - £80 to add to the price. I wouldn’t use it straight out of the box