Another Probstein LOL

[slidekellyslide]

I sell hundreds of items per week on ebay...I don't get as many retractions as Probstein...probably only about 1/100th the amount he gets, but I believe some of these people with huge numbers of retractions are trying to see the high bid of the current high bidder...they bid up to it and then retract hoping to snipe it at the end. I don't watch my auctions 24/7 so sometimes I will see after an item has ended that someone has retracted a bid, and that same person won the auction.

[drcy]

There can be honest reasons for placing a majority of bids with one seller and for retracting bids. As Adrian showed us, some people are more OCD than others.

When I was an active bidder, there were always a few sellers who I regularly checked on to see what the had-- because they always had good stuff and I trusted them. I'm sure a large percentage of my bids were with them.

I don't recall ever retracting a bid once. In fact, I don't know that I even knew I could retract. I may have assumed you couldn't do that.

My one good story is years back when Mastro had weekly auctions and you typed in your bids, I accidentally typed in $15,000 instead of $1,1500 with about ten minutes left. I didn't know what to do-- I wasn't planning on paying $15,000, but my bid wasn't raised so there was no issue.

I've never shilled, I've never ended an auction when there was one or more bids, but have ended early auctions where there were no bids. I felt it was always my right to end an auction where no one had placed the minimum bid.

[Runscott]

Originally Posted by drcy

There can be honest reasons for placing a majority of bids with one seller and for retracting bids. As Adrian showed us, some people are more OCD than others.

OCD is a legitimate reason, but no honest reason I can think of for a seller not blocking such bidders from their auctions. I too have accidentally added an extra '0' to a bid, but I don't recall ever retracting one, even for a legitimate mistake.

Some hobbyists can live in their own skin with what others would consider to be huge integrity problems. Those same people are amazed when the rest of us consider them to be lacking in integrity. Tough luck - they can't blame us for trying to help maintain a higher level of integrity in our hobby through threads like this. The idea that we basically have to keep our mouth shut unless we can prove guilt in a court of law, is absurd.

Ebay has found a loophole where they think they can legally allow cheating by manipulating their rules, thus increasing their profits. For now it's working, but it's wrong, and our best recourse is this forum...public exposure.

[ullmandds]

It's not everyday that I agree w/Scott F...but I totally...agree with his last post!!!!

[Runscott]

Originally Posted by ullmandds

It's not everyday that I agree w/Scott F...but I totally...agree with his last post!!!!

Thanks for admitting that - I have quoted you, just in case I need to use it in my internet discussion forum resume.

[drcy]

When I see news stories about unethical Enron-types who will do anything to further pad their 8 figure bank accounts, I say "There are worse things than being poor."

I believe most people are honest and fair and have no desire to cheat or trick others out of money. I believe that for most people who find on the sidewalk a wallet with fifty bucks in it, they will try and return it whole to the owner.

I also find most teenagers these days to be polite.

[thehoodedcoder]

Originally Posted by Runscott

and our best recourse is this forum...public exposure.

You just summed it all up for me in one sentence.

It is not yours, mine or our only recourse.

The problem is that everyone on these threads whole heartedly believes it is.

Kevin

[calvindog]

Originally Posted by thehoodedcoder

You just summed it all up for me in one sentence.

It is not yours, mine or our only recourse.

The problem is that everyone on these threads whole heartedly believes it is.

Kevin

This is clearly the dumbest guy on Net 54 -- and that says a lot. He shows up a month ago and has convinced himself that the only things being done to stop fraud in the hobby are what exists on this board. He reads nothing, knows nothing, makes no effort to learn about anything -- and does all that he can to stop any discourse about fraud here -- so that he can work in private on some insane 'initiatives' that we all know are the figments of his imagination.

[HRBAKER]

[calvindog]

clouseau.jpg

[wonkaticket]

Originally Posted by calvindog

This is clearly the dumbest guy on Net 54 -- and that says a lot. He shows up a month ago and has convinced himself that the only things being done to stop fraud in the hobby are what exists on this board. He reads nothing, knows nothing, makes no effort to learn about anything -- and does all that he can to stop any discourse about fraud here -- so that he can work in private on some insane 'initiatives' that we all know are the figments of his imagination.

Damn Jeff does this mean I lost my title? I thought I was the dumbest…guess I’m going to have to up my game these are tough times some serious competition.

[D. Bergin]

Originally Posted by slidekellyslide

I sell hundreds of items per week on ebay...I don't get as many retractions as Probstein...probably only about 1/100th the amount he gets, but I believe some of these people with huge numbers of retractions are trying to see the high bid of the current high bidder...they bid up to it and then retract hoping to snipe it at the end. I don't watch my auctions 24/7 so sometimes I will see after an item has ended that someone has retracted a bid, and that same person won the auction.

I don't sell hundreds of items per week, but yes, I've said it before. Many are now using retractions as a bid strategy to scare off other bidders.

Last guy who retracted a bid from one of my auctions, had a lot of retractions, so I blocked him. Got a message from him a day later, "I don't understand, I tried to bid and it said I'm blocked".

I told him it made me look like I was shilling the auction when he did that. He responded with apologies and told me he had no idea that's how it looked to others. I have a feeling he knew exactly how it looked.

I can't control how others behave on the rest of Ebay, and I'm not going to weed out everybody who is putting in retracting bids in other places, but I can somewhat control how bidders are behaving in MY auctions.

[Acollector]

Originally Posted by D. Bergin

I don't sell hundreds of items per week, but yes, I've said it before. Many are now using retractions as a bid strategy to scare off other bidders.

Last guy who retracted a bid from one of my auctions, had a lot of retractions, so I blocked him. Got a message from him a day later, "I don't understand, I tried to bid and it said I'm blocked".

I told him it made me look like I was shilling the auction when he did that. He responded with apologies and told me he had no idea that's how it looked to others. I have a feeling he knew exactly how it looked.

I can't control how others behave on the rest of Ebay, and I'm not going to weed out everybody who is putting in retracting bids in other places, but I can somewhat control how bidders are behaving in MY auctions.

I was bidding on a Dewalt rotary hammer for some work I needed to do on my house, so I started bidding on one. Suddenly this zero feedback, less than a month old account outbids me. I outbid before I looked at the bidding history. Both times the outbidding was almost immediately after mine i.e. less than a minute. I went and bid a third time and it happened to be the limit. I was testing to see if it was a shill, and at the same time that was the most I was going to pay, which was under what they were normally selling, so I said what the hell, let's see what happens. If I win, I get it at the level I was going to go anyway and will buy it. I get outbid a 3rd time by that same account. I left it at that. About 30 minutes after the auction ended, surprise, surprise, the seller emails me saying the buyer changed his mind and left me a second chance offer at my highest bid. The winner was that zero feedback bidder. Normally I say to someone that sends me a second chance offer, "why should I have to pay my highest bid, when if that guy who didn't pay hadn't bid, I would have won at a lower price?" I looked at this zero bidder and he had about 50 bids and 100% of them with this seller. I told the seller to run that shill scam with someone stupid enough to fall for it. He never responded. Does his not responding to an incriminating accusation sound familiar? Hint, we have been talking about someone similar that ignores incriminating questions. Shill bidding and lowlife sellers don't only exist in sports collectible auctions unfortunately. They are everywhere.

[Peter_Spaeth]

There was probably shill bidding in the Agora.

[Acollector]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

There was probably shill bidding in the Agora.

I could see someone from Crete shill bidding someone from Athens because the Athenian kept winning everything.

[judsonhamlin]

Carthage shillenda est!

[vintagechris]

Is there a way for sellers to see how many times bidders have retracted bids in their auctions?

Also, do get an email from ebay when someone retracts a bid?