OT: Ebay Shill Bidding

I have bought a few items on Ebay with good transactions, and was recently looking at a true sinewave inverter (12 volt DC to 120 VAC)

300 watt Continuous, 600 watt peak, and so I bid $60 maximum but was outbid by $7 and lost the auction. I then noticed the same item was for sale again in just a few hours (maybe 18) and so I bid again with a limit of $60 and again lost the auction with a final bid of $65. And so I bid again on the same item with same limit of $60 and was outbid again at $61.12. And then bid again for the 4th time on the same item, and again lost the auction for $61.00, just $1.00 more than my limit.

The seller appears to have a good feedback record, but this auction looks like somebody is bidding against me just to drive the price up, and always wins the auction by bidding $1 more than my limit.

I do understand the new 300 watt sinewave inverter is worth more than $60, probably in the $200 range, so maybe this is just standard practice to weed out the low bidders?

But it still seems to be a violation of Ebay (shill) policies.

-Bill

Reply to
Bill Bowden
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Sounds to me the seller has more than one inverter to sell. Ebay charges several percent per sale so offering the same item 4 times is going to cost the seller about $20 in this case. If you really want an item then you should bid in the last seconds of the auction. People have no time left to increase their bid by a few dollars.

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Reply to
Nico Coesel

That used to work, but now the auto-bidder reacts even if you bid in the last five seconds, and a higher auto-bid setting by someone else wins by one increment. Every time.

I used to set up five or six bid windows and would always bid in the last few seconds. I used to win a lot. Then I noticed that they started this new practice. They also changed the interface so that ALL of the other bid windows get voided once you submit a single one.

It was a HUGE mistake on the part of Ebay, cause folks will not bid when some lame f*ck with a computer set-point always wins out.

The last minute bid thing was the only way to get a decent bargain.

I have not bought from ebay in years as a result, except for a few buy nows that were a bargain.

Reply to
Capt. Cave Man

Sounds like maybe the seller is bidding ( with an alias) to avoid a low value sale....

Reply to
TTman

Sorry but that doesn't make sense. If someone wants to pay more then you'll 'lose'. The auto bid just hides someone else's maximum bid.

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Reply to
Nico Coesel

But, he would still owe ebay their commission for EACH sale. So, he is a complete and utter retard for bidding on his own item, and IF ebay allows him to "remove" the sale internally after it has already been "sold" from an online observation perspective, they are breaking their own rules.

I would report the fact that the item went up 4 times over, and that the bidding/sale result looks quite suspicious since the item is listed as the only one he has to sell.

Reply to
Bart!

But wasn't that always the way it worked? If someone had a max bid of $10 on an item, and I bid a max of $9.50 with 1 second to go and there are no bidders after me, they're going to win the item for $9.60. Doesn't matter if I get my bid in 1 microsecond before the close, if it's under the high bidder's maximum they're going to win it. As far as I know it has always worked this way. The purpose of "bid sniping" was to (hopefully) get above the high bidder's maximum by some small amount, at the last moment, and not give the human in the loop enough time to raise that maximum.

Getting a decent bargain on an auction that multiple people are bidding on seems to be a contradiction in terms, since if you have the winning bid it means that you were willing to pay more than absolutely everyone else. If the system really did work the way you say it did at some point then it makes sense that they closed the loophole, since it defeats the point of a proxy-bid auction.

Reply to
Bitrex

The seller doesn't have to list multiple items in one auction if he doesn't want to.

The fact that the OP is losing out by $1 each time just reflects the fact that the bid increment is $1. If someone wants several of these inverters, it makes sense for them to specify the maximum amount they're willing to pay as their maximum bid. Then provided no other bidder out bids them, their final automatic bid will be $1 more than the highest bid from anyone else. If it happens that there's only one other bidder, then that bidder will find himself outbid each time by $1. It's a natural outcome, and there's nothing iffy about it.

Sylvia.

Reply to
Sylvia Else

You are just being out-bid. Nothing underhanded that I see.

Reply to
PeterD

Huh? Why would he do that? If he were shill bidding and winning, he would have to pay the (final value) fees which on a low dollar item like this would ruin his chances of ever making a profit. Shill bidding has only one purpose: drive up the bidding price WITHOUT WINNING! That is clearly not happening! Had the OP said "I bid a max of $60, and someone else bid $59 so I had to pay th e $60 I bid max..." there might (slim might!) be a case. But he lost, so there is likely no chance this is what happened.

BTW, the seller does not know what your maximum bid is!

Reply to
PeterD

Sylvia, actually he only lost two of the auctions by that dollar, the other two were lost by more. Picking a common value of $60 for a maximum really distorts things because other bidders will usually always be smart enough to bid an odd amount over a common value. (Smart bidders bid $61.99 for example, to allow outbidding those who bid an even $60!)

Reply to
PeterD

and most certainly illegal in Britland

Reply to
Magnum

Once you've been outbid on a similar auction a few times recently (wihtin the past 2 weeks, I think), they might have a pretty good idea.

But this just sounds like he's being outbid.

Since the seller probably has a continous supply of these things from a manufacturer-- if you're not in a hurry then just set up a sniping program to bid in the last second or two whatever maximum you want to pay. Sooner or later, you'll probably get it- especially if the seller makes the ending time on a holiday, during a big game, or something like that. Using ebay's so-called proxy bidding system sets up a dynamic similar to a live auction where people are encouraged to overbid, and that's particularly undesirable when there is unlimited supply of the items.

Another possibility is to follow any info links, back up to the home page, and see if the seller has his own web page selling the items off ebay, perhaps for the starting price or a bit above.

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

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Reply to
Spehro Pefhany

I agree. Exactly $60 is a particularly useless bid value that is very likely to lose. On the third item there must have been two other bidders one bid $61 and the other $61.12

The OP might try $61.17 and then adding $1 to each successive bid until either he hits the price ceiling that he is prepared to pay or he wins.

Or watching the final stage of the auction and trying to snipe with a price that is just above the rival autobidder(s).

Regards, Martin Brown

Reply to
Martin Brown

You are an idiot as well. Learn to read. I said the OTHER idiot has auto bid on. *I* am bidding by hand, IDIOT!. Note where I said that I have several bid windows open.

Now, go back through and read it again, you stupid twit.

Reply to
Capt. Cave Man

That is NOT what I said.

They do not have to list them in multiple auctions either, dumbass. They can put them up one at a time, which is the appearance this idiot gives. The behavior, however, shows that he is re-selling the same item.

Nobody said anything about the difference. Learn to read.

snipped remaining utter stupidity.

Reply to
Bart!

eBay is now more of a shop. I don't even bother to bid for anything

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Reply to
Dirk Bruere at NeoPax

I understand you very well. IMHO you're the idiot ranting because you seem to have no clue how auto bidding works. Auto bid simply keeps the price low by bidding up to a maximum. In the end the highest bid counts. If you want an item you just bid the maximum price you are willing to pay in the last second of the auction. Auto bid or not, if you bid the highest price you bought the item. The price you pay is between the bid of the second high bidder and the next auto bid increment. Depends on the difference between you and the second highest bidder. Its simple as that.

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Reply to
Nico Coesel

Why does it? He sells one, he lists a new one. Perfectly normal.

Sylvia.

Reply to
Sylvia Else

He might as well just wait until there are only a few seconds left, and then bid the highest he's willing to pay. All that's achieved by making multiple late bids is to give other bidders a reason to rethink (as in increase) their highest bid.

Sylvia.

Reply to
Sylvia Else

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