Who is Nikita***

All my tasty parts are already on offer at 3% markup. eg 7449, an A+ at 10.3%. 8>. Still there last time I looked.

I find that there are a few dedicated buyers who will hoover up a lot of them, when they notice them, but their response times are way too long for them to be bots (unless they are running on a TRS 80 or something). Offer anything at a rate which permits a profit vs the next cheapest parts on the market (eg offer that A+ with 2% markup, or at par, when the best buy is 10.3%) and the bots will indeed rip your arm off (most of the time). Parts at par (auto-sale, typically) are hoovered at an incredible rate - usually. Sometimes the bots are broke (some seem to get weekends off, but those are perhaps the primary market bid-bots, who know there are no new auctions or early closes over the weekend).

Yes, 3% bargain parts will get bought, but I don't think it's bots doing it, you should be able to do a transfer that way. <2.5% bargain parts will get bought faster, and the bots are definitely in there.
Of course if you are moving parts which are already present on the market it's less of a problem  - someone buys your 3% markup part that you wanted to transfer, you just retaliate by buying someone's 2.5% markup part instead. 8>.


PS
'just cherry pick the very highest rates' still doesn't justify a bot - once you have spent your £100k or whatever, your bot is useless (fairly useless, I guess it can still handle the interest and repayment trickle). If you can flip the parts at a profit, your bot can make more money every day. Using it on someone else's behalf is a definite no-no, although I suppose investing pooled funds that way (hence back into the millions) might be acceptable. [If you buy and flip from the primary market, a bot can make money every day too .. the key is being able to get your investment back out, at a profit .. buying at 3% you can't].

I thought I just did.  7449. Actually I think I can transfer some at 2.8%, if you want some. That's my best offer right now.

Back on original topic, Nikta**9 is a 2014 buyer, but only buys around par... I guess that one may be a SM buy/flip bot. If it is, it doesn't want marked up parts, unless you know differently.

OK but by a 'tasty part' I was thinking 12+%. 7449 was an early closer at 12.3%. Suppose I had bought £600 @ 12.3% and now wanted to transfer half of that to my spouse's account. Would you dare to try that? I wouldn't.

I shall look for a tasty low value part and do another test.

Thanks for all the replies.

Bracknell Boy: Thanks for your suggestion, and maybe the only way round this is to give them back the premiums, but I know they wouldn’t feel comfortable taking money from me.

Goldservice: The most recent parts bought by this person were 14.1; 14.1; 14.5, 14.2; 14.2; (annoyingly, the last two were very early this morning when I thought I’d have another go when things were quiet).
I should have known better.
Planetx: Yes, of course anyone is entitled to pay the asking price. But it’s not a level playing field when only a select few are getting the chance to buy at the asking price.

So, if you can’t beat them, join them I suppose. Where can I get a buy bot?

I usually add .2pc or .3pc - just enough to cover my selling fee.

Encouraged by GSV, and notwithstanding my contrary experience in July, this morning I successfully transferred a loan part to my spouse's account: loan 5345, part £18.67, rate 14.1%, premium 3%, buyer rate 12.6%. It took one or two seconds, flipping between browsers, refreshing target screen, listing the parts but no-one swooped in to buy it. I would still feel reluctant to rely on this. If I wanted to transfer a lot, I'd do it one part at a time. I guess the 3% premium is essential, too.