Did I Get Shilled????
 

I just won an auction with my first and only bid coming just past the 3 seconds left mark. It stopped at $39 and that weird new window appeared saying something to the effect of "we're determining the winner." I basically won it at $39. The auction was over and the $39 did not change on my screen.

A little while later I went to pay, figuring it was $39, but was shocked to see it went for my maximum bid of $47.88. When I checked the bids, there was a last second 'bid' that was exactly 99 cents less than my max, thus ensuring that I would have to spend every cent I bid!! There is no way this was legitimate, right? I mean, come on!!! A last second bid (in the bizarre amount) of $46.89 pushing me exactly to my maximum by someone who had no bids except for that one???

Here's a screenshot. The blacked out ones are me. I only bid once (where it says $39) with a max of $47.88:

Attachment 506312

Please no one say the old chestnut, "I bid the max I'm willing to pay and whatever happens happens." This isn't a lot of money, but to me it reeks!

Other than saying it was just a weird coincidence that someone bid exactly 99 cents less than my maximum (in a strange bidding amount), am I wrong to think the fix was in???

Darren, looks like you got Power Played, possibly Brute Force Spatula’d, and/or Compu-sniped my friend. Yup, in other words, you may have been victimized by an auto-bidding program. But at least you won!

Chill Darren, it's just random snipe stuff. I've won auctions by 1 cent and lost them by 1 cent. I even lost with the highest bid once, because someone made the same exact bid to the penny two seconds before me.

Be happy you bid just enough to win. It's better than being a dollar short.

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If that's the case, wouldn't it have to come from the seller's shilling ally? I mean, what would be the point of some rando pushing my price to the max down to the penny? It makes no sense.

I don't know about the shilling aspect...but I have won literally thousands of cards on ebay, have sniped and have been sniped...and for the first time ever while bidding on a 66 High the other night, I had the same thing..."Determining the Winner"...then moments later I had won. I was the sniper like you and won with my sniping bid and only saw that amount...so a little different than yours...but I have never seen the "Determining the Winner" page before...that was weird...

You got sniped, you didn’t get shilled.

I snipe all the time (and did so here), but that exact amount is just bizarre. It made the final price my absolute maximum. Not a penny more, not a penny less, the exact number. Which would've been normal at a full dollar amount or something like that, but a bid of $46.89 to force me exactly to my $47.88 max? Fishy.

Thanks for the input, everyone. Something seems very wrong to me, but lacking proof, there's not much I can do, so I'll move on...

Darren, As weird as the bid may have seemed, since this was on Ebay and two last second type snipe bids, how would the seller, or anyone else, have been able to tell what your snipe max amount was? If someone was shilling you, they somehow had to have access to your snipe account to know what your max bid amount was, because there wouldn't have been enough time left in the auction for them to make more than a single snipe bid at the end themselves. That is the whole point of using a snipe service, it doesn't allow time for someone to shill you and run your bids up. Chalk it up to a weird coincidence. The old saying still holds, truth is very often stranger than fiction.

The fact it was exactly 99 cents lower isn't relevant. There is a $1 range that would've produced the same result. For instance, he could've bid a dollar less than you, or 56 cents less, or 6 cents less, all producing the same result.

The fact both your bids are timestamped the same, right at the end, I can understand the algorithm needing a moment to log both bids, and then bump yours appropriately.

Not seeing anything unusual or coincidental here.

I don't think you were shilled either, unless there were canceled bids that you're not showing on your image.

+1. Years ago I sniped $99.99 on a 1968 Kahn’s Fergie Jenkins and the winning bid was $100.00, I’m sure the winning bidder was cussing me out and suspicious of my authenticity.

I think you just got sniped. I don't use a snipe service but I do place bids in the last seconds. Win some, Lose some. And I always bid odd amounts like $38.62 or 27.27. Just don't know why I do that.
Bob

bid
 

yea, sounds fishy...but it happens quite often

I also manually place last second bids with an odd amount of cents because I know others do the same thing. I think it's just one of those things that happens and nothing nefarious.

Ha...I do to...I always end with .79...I guess now I have to end with .89 as I am sure I have competed with a few of you guys! :)

Would agree while frustrating, I don't smell anything definitely fishy. I don't wait out a lot of auctions anymore, but when I used to that kind of things happened to me all the time. I will end most as others have indicated with weird high bid amounts in the cents..($0.01, $0.99...) but sometimes I will still get barely beat out. Just depends on how popular whatever it is remains going down to the wire...

Haha so does Darren. He says "Who would bid an oddball amount like $46.89?" at the same time he's bidding $47.88.

Like I understand someone bidding 47.88 but 46.89? That's crazy!



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I bid odd amounts too. I usually end in .57.

Mike

looks like I'll have to randomize my snipe amounts... I'm the .13 cents guy.

Yeah agree here, it was a snipe, not a shill. BTW, what's a good sniping service to use??

On a hidden proxy the highest amount wins in a snipe like this. Your hidden cap was less than the dollar needed so it placed your max bid in it's place.

This the exact reason people add those extra cents. Win I win by a penny, I am pleased in the most evil of ways, lol.

HaHa

.25 or .26 for me.

My reasoning is, if I'm willing to go to 50 bucks on an item, I certainly should be willing to go to $50.26 cents on an item if I really want it, and want to top out the guy who bid an even 50 clams for it.

More often then not, somebody else was willing to go much higher then me.......rendering the whole thing moot. :D

I'm .71

The worst part of this thread is now everyone is going to start bidding in oddly bizarre amounts, so no potentially winning bid will ever be safe again!!!

Looks like most people already were.

I guess this one is pertinent...

57. Fail Mary
Throwing up a huge, last minute snipe bid and still not winning the auction.

Been doing this since I joined the bay so many years ago.

I think people have known since eBay started to bid with random cents to improve odds of edging out close ones. Been doing this for 20 years.

...and if you're willing to go 50.26 you really should be willing to go 50.52, and if you're willing to go 50.52 you really should be willing to go 50.74... oh dear...

I used to do that, but then I realized I could just bid up to the next dollar and save some time putting the numbers in.

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How about the guys who bid based on the player's jersey number?

How many times have I been outbid by a .23 on a Jordan item LOL

STAY.......................... OUT........................... OF ..........................MY .......................HEAD!


:mad:

LOL

Now that is truly funny!!!

This is me every time I'm bidding near the end of the auction. FOMO is so strong. Before I know it, I'm typing in a bid of 525.67 for an item where I had said my max was $285....

I never bid in even dollar amounts. Sometimes I'll bid according to the year of the card. ie 61 topps will be 61 cents etc. other times I just put a random number in. It just depends on the day.