I think you are on to something @protegeaa.
I may have to experiment with that a bit!
One time I actually beat a few savvy steemians in the curation league using this tip...
Meanwhile, you can look at other big upvote buyers as well. Some of them are regular customers. Here's your easy money tip: set up an account on Steem Voter to automatically upvote these authors 15-20 minutes after they post.
They don't necessarily have to be big vote buyers.
Some actually get a lot of organic votes and others self-vote quite a lot...
But, I didn't like that using up so much of my voting power, so I stopped doing it.
...and slipped down the charts in that competition...
OCD is one account you can beat, since they intentionally wait to upvote their posts so curators can get in the game.
- I'll keep the other 2 or 3 I know of a secret for now... 😉
I use SteemStats for a quick way to see who's coming up to 30 minutes on their latest posts and decide to curate or not.
Oh, cool! Sounds like you have looked into curation maximization a lot more than I have. I didn't realize there was a league, but that makes sense!
I'm by no means an expert at curation! haha
Have just picked up a few bits and pieces here and there...
@abh12345 hosts The Curation and Engagement Leagues - Sponsored by @carlgnash and @paulag!
And when someone mentions me, I come running. No bell necessary. Fortunately, I don't salivate or bark. :)
@protegeaa, I'll just second what @wizardave said about the leagues and leave it at that.