Strange AH occurrence

[Runscott]

Just curious if anyone else has run into a scenario I recently experienced: I went to bed as the high bidder on a lot at $1075 (which was my max bid). The next morning I woke up, did not see any 'outbid' emails, so I checked the item page and the winning bid (with the juice) was in the $1,880's (I forget the exact dollar amount) - 4 bid increments above my max bid. So I lost.

That evening I got an email congratulating me on my winning bids, so I logged in to my account and found that I had indeed won the item for $1,075 + juice. Kind of confusing. Scott the cynic might think that there was some shill bidding going on, and that it was a damned good thing I stopped at $1075, and because I was asleep, didn't get tempted to fight with the four additional bids that would have ran my cost up. Scott the believer that all humans are wonderful and good has no idea what might have happened.

[Leon]

Originally Posted by Runscott

Just curious if anyone else has run into a scenario I recently experienced: I went to bed as the high bidder on a lot at $1075 (which was my max bid). The next morning I woke up, did not see any 'outbid' emails, so I checked the item page and the winning bid (with the juice) was in the $1,880's (I forget the exact dollar amount) - 4 bid increments above my max bid. So I lost.

That evening I got an email congratulating me on my winning bids, so I logged in to my account and found that I had indeed won the item for $1,075 + juice. Kind of confusing. Scott the cynic might think that there was some shill bidding going on, and that it was a damned good thing I stopped at $1075, and because I was asleep, didn't get tempted to fight with the four additional bids that would have ran my cost up. Scott the believer that all humans are wonderful and good has no idea what might have happened.

That's strange. I would call and ask about it.

[iwantitiwinit]

Yup I bet ur right Scot they overbid as a shill then when they out bid you and no further higher bids were placed they cancelled. Is there anyway to see if you had cancelled bids above you?

[sports-rings]

If I was in your shoes I would not pay your designated ceiling amount, since it sounds like without the missing bids, you stood a good chance of winning the item for less money.

[ullmandds]

i might have missed something, scott...which AH did u say this was????

[Peter_Spaeth]

Probably just a mistake, if the house or a shill had really outbid you, presumably you would have received an email to that effect. Indeed if you assume bad intent the house would WANT you to know you had been outbid so you would come back to bid again.

[Runscott]

Originally Posted by ullmandds

i might have missed something, scott...which AH did u say this was????

I haven't edited my original post - it's quite clear that I did not post an AH name. If I had proof, I might do so. The question was whether or not any of the rest of you had experienced the same thing I did. That question has been answered by one person, privately via email. I have had it happen at least once before, and like this time, I thought I was going blind and that the mistake was mine.

However; I was high bidder on only one lot, and I wanted to win it at my final bid. So when I woke up in the morning and checked the item page to see if I had won, it's highly unlikely that I accidentally read a final value of $1889 rather than the bid that I actually won it at. That makes no sense.

Regarding the comment that shilling four bids is illogical, I would agree if there was a shiller patiently sitting on each lot, ready to place another bid as soon as I bid again; however, it would be more efficient to place one reasonable bid that might be one or even four increments higher that mine.

Regarding the comment that it would make the most sense to send an email telling me that I had been outbid, that would be true if the shiller was fairly sure that I would come back with another bid, or if they didn't mind winning the lot since my bid was ridiculously low; however, that would leave a documentation trail and prevent retraction of bids when it turned out that I had actually gone to sleep.

[conor912]

Originally Posted by iwantitiwinit

Yup I bet ur right Scot they overbid as a shill then when they out bid you and no further higher bids were placed they cancelled. Is there anyway to see if you had cancelled bids above you?

Not to defend the AH, per se, but even if they WERE shilling, why would they shill 4 bids beyond Scott's. I would think one would have been enough.

[Sean1125]

If it's Fusco, their bidding platform is an absentee platform and they run a live auction.

Edited for bad grammar.