Hunts open-box, refurbished, and clearance deals on the exact product you name, and ranks them by real savings over new.
skillinstructionsworkflowprice-comparisoncondition-checklist
by Muse Skills editors · Written for this directory
Auction Bid Calculator
Sets a hard bid ceiling for an auction lot after fees, tax, shipping, and your margin.
by Muse Skills editors · Written for this directory
Ready to copy.
Before you install
- A shared skill carries somebody else's instructions. Read the source before you install it.
- Never paste an API key, password, or token into anything a skill asks for. Legitimate skills use Muse's own secure flows.
- Installing copies the setup into your own environment. It gives the author nothing.
What it does
Auction houses make their money on the fine print. A lot that hammers at $200 with an 18 percent buyer premium, state sales tax, and a $40 shipping charge actually costs you well over $280, and that is before you resell it. The Auction Bid Calculator works backwards from the number that matters: the conservative resale value minus the profit you want to keep. You give it the buyer premium, the tax rate, the shipping cost, and your target margin, and it returns one hard ceiling, the all-in cost at that price, and a line-by-line breakdown so you can check the math. If the current bid is already above your ceiling, it tells you that up front and stops, so auction fever never turns a smart flip into a loss.
What it includes
- A calculator that turns lot details, fees, tax, and shipping into a single maximum hammer price.
- Line-by-line cost breakdowns you can verify against the auction’s published terms.
- A margin guard: the ceiling protects the dollar profit you set, and the skill never recommends bidding past it.
- An optional bid plan with an opening bid and the last comfortable step before the ceiling.
- A first-sentence stop signal when the current bid already beats your ceiling.
Example
A vintage receiver lot sits at $150 with an 18 percent buyer premium, 6.25 percent sales tax, and $35 shipping. Conservative sold comps put the receiver at $400, and you want to keep at least $100. The skill works backwards from $400 minus your $100 margin, so the all-in cost cannot pass $300. The ceiling is $211.
Max hammer bid: $211. All-in cost at that bid: $299.54.
Hammer $211.00, buyer premium $37.98, sales tax $15.56,
shipping $35.00, total $299.54.
Resale $400, margin protected $100.46.
One more bid wipes the margin, so you stop there.
What this one touches
Math and planning only. Never places a bid, never accesses an auction account, never recommends bidding above the computed ceiling. Buyer premium, tax rate, and shipping are always taken from the auction's terms or from values the user confirms; the skill never invents them.
Install
Copy this block and paste it into your Muse chat. Muse does the install and confirms when it's done.
Install prompt
Full source
This is the exact text Muse installs. Read it. That's the whole trust model.
SKILL.md
---
name: auction-bid-calculator
description: Computes your maximum bid for an estate or online auction lot, accounting for buyer premium, sales tax, shipping, and your target margin. Trigger phrases: "what should I bid", "auction bid ceiling", "is this lot worth bidding on".
---
# Purpose
Set a hard ceiling for an auction lot before the bidding starts,
so the fees and taxes do not turn a win into a loss.
# Workflow
1. Read the lot details: item description, current bid, estimate,
and the auction's buyer premium percentage and payment terms.
2. Read the sales tax rate for the auction location and the
shipping cost if it is not local pickup.
3. Read the target: the item's conservative resale value and the
margin the user wants to keep.
4. Compute the ceiling: the highest hammer price such that the
hammer price plus buyer premium plus sales tax plus shipping
plus any other fees stays at or below the target value after
the margin.
5. Show the math line by line, then the ceiling as one bold
number.
6. Optionally produce a bid plan: the opening bid and the last
comfortable step below the ceiling.
# Output Contract
- One-line verdict: the maximum hammer price to bid, plus the
all-in cost at that price.
- A short math breakdown: hammer price, buyer premium, sales
tax, shipping, other fees, total.
- Target resale value and the dollar margin the plan protects.
- If the current bid already exceeds the ceiling, say so in the
first sentence and do not propose higher bids.
# Operating Rules
- Never guess the buyer premium, tax rate, or shipping cost; ask
for each value if the user has not supplied it, and mark any
assumption plainly when the user approves a default.
- Never recommend bidding above the computed ceiling.
- Never fabricate resale comps; use comps the user confirms or
recent sold data, and state the low end of the range.
- Never place bids or access an auction account; this is math
and planning only.
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