The three caps
They are named almost the same, they do not protect the same purchases, they are not kept in the same place, and they do not start from the same value. This is the most expensive misunderstanding in the product — here are the three side by side, from the widest to the narrowest.
The dashboard's AUTOBUY panel. « Cap per item 120 » and « Max purchases / hour 6 » are right there, plainly visible — and they are not what bounds automatic buying.
A filter’s « € max »: the only one bounding what actually goes out
It lives in each filter’s panel, under the hint « Cap per item — leave empty to impose no cap ». Left empty, the screen warns you once, in red:« No cap: this filter will buy whatever the price. »Once the panel is closed, all that remains on the filter’s row is a discreet « no cap ». This is why the « Autobuy first » sort on the Filters screen is the most useful control gesture in the product: it brings every armed filter to the top, and you read the cap column in one glance. When you arm a filter, the confirmation reads the value back to you:
Autobuy armed — {nom} followed by · ≤ 40 €, or by · no cap. Read that suffix. It is the last time the product tells you unprompted.
« Purchase ceiling » (Settings → BUYING): the universal net
This is the only one that applies to everything — including a human click on BUY. Its description: « Above this amount, the purchase is refused and you are told. Empty = no ceiling. » It shows « none » until it is set.This setting has a rare property: once set, it also refuses an item whose price cannot be read. A cap that let through what it cannot read would not be a cap. Same logic on a filter: if a « € max » is set and the price cannot be read, the purchase is refused, not attempted.
Before arming: what rega checks, in order
1
Check that a buying account is attached
The dashboard’s left panel says so bluntly when it is not: « no account to buy with — sort this out in Accounts ». With no buying account, automatic buying drops everything, silently: the badge stays on ARMED and nothing ever happens.
2
Set a « € max » on every armed filter
Filters screen → « Autobuy first » sort → open each filter at the top of the list and fill in « € max ». Set it to the item price you accept, not to your total budget (see the next section).
3
Leave « Automatic pick-up point » on
Settings → BUYING. Turned off, the purchase fails — it does not pause, and it does not ask you anything.
4
Check that a card is saved and set as default on every Vinted account
rega never asks for a card number and stores none: it selects the card already saved at Vinted. With no usable card the payment is refused cleanly — no debit, but the item is lost.
5
Arm, then check against a real detection
Arm the AUTOBUY badge (confirmation: « Autobuy armed »), wait for a matching detection, and check that a purchase row appears. The ARMED badge on its own proves nothing.
Where automatic buying runs, and what really stops it
The AUTOBUY panel carries two lines to be read as statements, not as settings:- « Autobuy » — « from detection, even with this tab closed »
- « Where automatic buying runs » — « on our servers — closing the tab does not stop it »
That second line states a fact, it does not change it. Its switch looks off in the capture while our servers are indeed the ones buying: there is nothing to toggle there. The line underneath is what tells you the truth.
What stops an automatic purchase
Two stops come from Vinted, not from you:
- If Vinted blocks one of your accounts from buying (a temporary block, of the order of 24 h), rega disarms automatic buying for your whole workspace, deliberately. Carrying on with another account is exactly the move that takes them down one after the other. Read the disarming message before you arm again.
- If Vinted limits how fast one account may act, that account is set aside for 15 minutes and the others carry on.
On a brand-new workspace handed over by link, arming is temporarily refused until the workspace has been handed to its owner; the filters, on the other hand, are already in place. Disarming is always possible.
The total actually debited
Three numbers travel through rega and they do not mean the same thing.
On our demo account, the first two cards in the stream show 40 € → « ≈ 44.09 € delivered » and 47 € → « ≈ 51.09 € delivered ». That is +4.09 € in both cases.
The estimate’s tooltip says it itself: « Estimated total price: item + delivery (about €3-4). The exact postage depends on the carrier chosen at purchase. » And the final amount’s tooltip: « Amount actually debited (item + delivery + buyer protection). »
rega never converts a currency — it does not have the day’s rate. A British listing’s amount stays in pounds, and the total debited stays in the currency of the account that paid. Two numbers in two currencies on the same row is correct: they are not two versions of the same amount.
At the moment of payment
On a card in the stream, the purchase row first shows « item price — total not confirmed yet », then switches to « total debited » as soon as Vinted has returned the real amount. Here is what can happen in between.A 3-D Secure confirmation that never happens is not a failure, and costs nothing. After a quarter of an hour without confirmation the purchase is simply not valid: the item is lost, no euro left your account. The notification goes out the very moment the link exists — title « Bank confirmation required », body « Your bank is asking for a confirmation — without it, the purchase will not complete. » Keep it enabled and accept the alert on your phone.
The pick-up point: two things not to confuse
Both carry the words « pick-up point ». One is mandatory and free, the other is optional and paid for.« Automatic pick-up point »
Settings → BUYING. On from the start. Leave it on.Its description: « rega chooses the collection point during the purchase. Turned off, the purchase fails for want of a pick-up point — leave it on. »Turned off, the purchase FAILS — it does not pause, and nothing asks anybody anything. The refusal you get is: « No pick-up point could be selected for this order. »
« PREPARE THIS CARRIER »
Accounts screen. A REAL purchase of a few euros. Optional.The note under the button hides nothing: « A real purchase of a few euros, once. » And the panel explains why: « No point kept. Vinted only keeps one after a first purchase actually paid with this carrier — once, a few euros. »Without it, the purchase still goes through — about 1.3 seconds slower.
The « Preferred carrier at the pick-up point » setting warns you itself: « A carrier other than the default one may cost a little more. » A preference, on the other hand, never makes a purchase fail: if the seller does not offer your carrier, rega takes what is available.
What can spend money when you did not expect it
The verification queue buys on its own, up to 96 hours later
The verification queue buys on its own, up to 96 hours later
When you click BUY on an item Vinted is still checking, the card shows « Under verification — the purchase starts as soon as it is verified ». The item joins the queue, and the purchase goes out on its own the moment Vinted clears it — possibly days later, with no further click from you.Giving up is set at 96 hours, adjustable in Orders under « Give up after », and each row shows the time remaining. Empty this queue before a weekend if you do not want a surprise on Monday.
« PREPARE THIS CARRIER » really debits
« PREPARE THIS CARRIER » really debits
It is not a simulation. It is a real purchase, bounded to a few euros, from a real seller, leaving you a real parcel to collect. Once per account and per carrier, and that is all.
Two purchases can go out at the same time on a single account
Two purchases can go out at the same time on a single account
The limit is 2 simultaneous purchases per account. With several buying accounts, your simultaneous spending window is therefore 2 × the number of accounts. This is not a queue: they are parallel spends.
A workspace handed over by link can arrive already armed
A workspace handed over by link can arrive already armed
The armed state is copied along with the workspace. That is exactly why arming is refused until the workspace has been handed to its owner — but the first thing to do after the handover is still to check the AUTOBUY badge, and every filter’s « € max ».
« Retry » starts a real purchase
« Retry » starts a real purchase
The button replays the original purchase, on the next account in your rotation. It is deliberately absent in every ambiguous case: unknown outcome, bank confirmation still open, item already gone. When it is not there, it is because it should not be.
A failed purchase has still used up its turn in the rotation
A failed purchase has still used up its turn in the rotation
The account is committed at click time, so before the outcome is known. The tooltip says it: « Account committed at click time: it is reserved before the purchase completes. In rotation, a failed purchase has therefore already used its turn. » This is intended — an account that has just failed is the worst placed to try again.
Our advice
1 · Set the cap where it acts
Open every armed filter and fill in « € max ». It is the only cap consulted by the automatic buying that actually runs, and the only one that follows you from one browser to another.
2 · Set it to the item price, not the budget
Caps compare the item price. Take ~4 € off your total budget to get the « € max » to type: budget 100 € → « € max » at 96.
3 · Use « Autobuy first » as a weekly review
Once a week: Filters screen, « Autobuy first » sort, and read the cap column. A « no cap » row is a decision, not an oversight — check that it really is one.
4 · Once armed, demand proof
The ARMED badge proves nothing. Wait for a matching detection and check that a purchase row appears. With no buying account attached, the engine drops everything silently.
5 · Empty the verification queue before you leave
Orders → « Being checked ». Remove what you no longer want: those items can buy themselves during the following four days.
6 · Stay reachable for a quarter of an hour after a purchase
A bank confirmation not done within 15 minutes loses the item. Keep purchase notifications on and accept the alert on your phone.
7 · Do not add up the « Spending » tile
It only counts item prices, and it includes cancelled orders. For a real total, add up the « total debited » values on your purchase rows.
8 · Prepare one carrier per account, not five
The ~1.3 s gain does not add up. Prepare the carrier your sellers offer most often, and stop there.
9 · On an unknown outcome, go to Orders
Do not click again. A payment may still go through, and a second click would risk a double debit. Orders tells the truth; the card in the stream only follows.
10 · Do not switch browsers expecting your settings to follow
Only the AUTOBUY badge and your filters’ « € max » follow your account. « Cap per item » and « Max purchases / hour » stay in this browser — and vanish in a private window.
11 · If you must cancel, do it within the hour
An order can no longer be cancelled once the parcel is on its way. And two cancellations in 24 h put you in the red zone at Vinted: rega warns you, it does not forbid it.
12 · Leave « Automatic pick-up point » on
It is the only setting in Settings which, turned off, makes a purchase fail — and it fails after the item has been reserved, so at the worst possible moment.
What surprises people
The badge says ARMED, and the switch right below looks off
The badge says ARMED, and the switch right below looks off
Both are correct. The badge states your intent: “I authorise automatic buying.” The « Where automatic buying runs » line states who carries it out — our servers. It is not a handbrake.
An item detected more than two minutes ago will no longer be bought
An item detected more than two minutes ago will no longer be bought
This is not a failure, it is freshness. Past that delay the item is almost always gone: going ahead would burn one of your account’s buying attempts for nothing. rega prefers to refuse cleanly.
Arming a filter does not buy what is already on screen
Arming a filter does not buy what is already on screen
Deliberate, and just as well: without it, ticking AUTOBUY would immediately buy everything you were looking at. Automatic buying only works on what is born after you armed.
A cap that is set can refuse an item you would have accepted
A cap that is set can refuse an item you would have accepted
If the price cannot be read, the cap refuses. That is the plain sense of a guardrail: one that lets through what it does not understand protects nothing.
A card marked « under verification » will not be bought automatically
A card marked « under verification » will not be bought automatically
While Vinted has not finished checking a listing, automatic buying stays away from it. A human click, though, puts the item in the queue — and it is that queue that will buy later, on its own.
A purchase's progress bar is not proof of payment
A purchase's progress bar is not proof of payment
It is capped and never reaches its end before confirmation. Our real measured purchases took between 5.93 s and 8.8 s, most of which is time spent at Vinted that nobody can shorten.
Most purchase « failures » are not failures at all
Most purchase « failures » are not failures at all
Across the failures recorded in production and classified one by one, 59.5 % were races lost or items already gone, and only 26.2 % were down to the tool. The screen files each failure under a readable verdict, including « Race lost, or the item had already gone ».
The account shown before the purchase is only a forecast
The account shown before the purchase is only a forecast
The account that counts is the one appearing on the purchase row, afterwards: it is the one that paid, and it is its address the parcel will go to.
On a phone
The stream on a phone: the AUTOBUY badge stays at the top left, here on « OFF ».
- The AUTOBUY badge stays reachable: it is the first item in the header, to the left of the bell. So you can disarm from anywhere, and that is the single most important gesture on this page.
- The left-hand AUTOBUY panel is not shown. Your filters’ « € max » values stay editable from the Filters tab in the bottom bar.
- The « ≈ … € delivered » estimate does not appear on the phone card: only the item price is there, in large type. Add the ~4 € in your head.
- The bottom bar replaces the sidebar: Feed · Filters · Orders · Tracked · More. « Orders » is the tab to open after a bank-confirmation notification.
The limits, said plainly
Where to go next
Filters
Each filter’s « € max » — the only cap that really bounds your automatic purchases.
Dashboard
The AUTOBUY badge, the paying account, and purchase rows with their « total debited ».
Orders
The real outcome of every purchase, and the verification queue to empty before a weekend.
Accounts
The pick-up point ranking and « PREPARE THIS CARRIER ».
Settings
The BUYING tab: automatic pick-up point, preferred carrier, purchase ceiling.
Statistics
The « Spending » tile — and what it does not count.