I'd love everyone's thoughts. Here's what happened.

[Dpeck100]

Originally Posted by JustinD

I could see this possibility in a auction that a seller has an absolute bottom they are not willing to go to and are using a snipe or bid as hidden reserve. However, not all auctions end with a buyer using a nuclear snipe, likely not many.

A consigner using this would purchase many of his cards back or get numerous NPB's. I won't say this is incredibly uncommon because there are many cards that come back to eBay after what is likely a non payment. I don't think this is any regularity on sub 1000 dollar cards. It would have a huge failure rate.

Shilling is far more common in the weeks and days prior to the end as it is so easy to string bid to find a top for someone's bid and withdraw if you accidentally go over. A bid can not be withdrawn without seller permission less than 12 hours from the end per eBay rules.

As for the CU experience, that seems crappy but a rude one-off by a jerk. Was this a possible situation that you exposed you were going all in on card in a post before the end? He had to know you were throwing the kitchen sink at it or he would have just bought it from under you on accident.

I showed my hand. That said it was pretty intuitive of the guy to go as high as he did. Thankfully I bought another copy of the card in a 10 a few months later for less than half and then a few years later it zoomed passed my inflated purchase price and the dollar cost averaging method worked.

My point on this is simply even had a sniped our bids would have collided at a much higher price point than the pack. No timing of it mattered. The lesson if there is one is don't bring attention to auctions or cards you are buying until after the fact. My situation was a little unique in that sense and in the end it worked out just fine.

The bottom line is what I am telling you is happening all of the time. There are a multitude of auctions going off monthly with very sketchy looking bid history and it isn't just the string bidders. I have used every bidding method possible. At the end of the day if an item is wanted by others and is listed in an auction the most important factor is what the other bids are not when they are placed.

You see in many cases the same cards coming back to market time and time again. I am in a much smaller niche market but trust me I know when I am bidding against the house. Put a bunch of active auctions on your watch list and study the times the bids are placed, the retractions, the percentage of bids and the categories the bidders are placing bids on. What I am saying will make a lot more sense. If someone ever feels like they are being shilled just use the dollar triple stack and it works like a charm. The greed will get them and you are in the clear.

[JustinD]

I see where you are coming from and I bet the wrestling market you are in is crazy niche and you likely know what people are up to.

There is of course, no perfect way. If people are doing this, then banning NPB bidders from ebay (of which I am totally for) is the only logical recourse. If they are winning and paying fees, there is no reason for an auction house to complain.

I just think that sniping, while not perfect, is the safest way to avoid bid ups. Same as I do not freak out about some other things that I feel are prevalent in the hobby.

If I am to keep enjoying it, I have to learn to deal with certain things. Much like ignoring the drunk behind me at a game, lol.

I don't want to get too focused on the minutia or I feel like I will be surfing the net in a tin foil cap.