Posted By:
T206CollectorThe first bid of $999 was put in two days prior to auction close. Assuming this was not a malicious early bid, this bidder's strategy when he wants to win something (and he has between 100 and 499 feedback) might be to bid $999 on an auction early, and assume he will beat all snipers.
The winning bid of $1,009 came with 2 seconds left in the auction. That was either a very quick insert, which would explain the error in typing "4000" instead of "40.00" -- my assumption of what his bid was. Again, assuming no malicious activity.
Given the number of feedbacks for each bidder, and a plausible explanation for both bids, I think there is a reasonable probability that this was a combination bad ebay strategy + erroneous snipe. Maybe 30% to 40% this scenario?
Which brings me to my final observation -- the leaving of feedback. Dan left the first negative feedback, and was hit with a retaliatory negative feedback. First of all, if I believed I was getting screwed with, I would never leave the first negative feedback -- obviously retaliation would follow. Second of all, there is a reasonable likelihood that a mistake was made, so a negative feedback may not have even been warranted in the first place.
All I am saying is I would have handled the situation differently from the seller's side -- even assuming bidders were conspiring against me. Indeed, it would take a series of supposed plots like this before I would start to throw caution to the wind and let loose with initial negative feedbacks, complaints to ebay, etc.