What would you do? Opinions wanted

[Jantz]

Long story short, recently I won an auction on Ebay and the bid was pushed to my max bid. This struck me as odd since my winning bid was exactly the amount I was willing to pay, right down to the exact cent.

This lead me to do a little research and I've found that the underbidder has pushed numerous auctions for the same seller repeatedly over the last few months.

Next I decided to take a look at the underbidder's history. Here is what showed up.

Total Bids: 833
Items Bid On: 195
Bid Percentage with this Seller: 89%

All of this was with the same seller. He bids on only this seller's items and bids sometimes multiple times on the same auction and always bids within the last hour of every auction bumping bids up from $1 to $10 at a time, then stops never actually winning an auction.

Its quite obvious (to me) what is going on here.

Now I haven't paid yet for the auction I've won, but was curious....

What would you do if you were in my shoes?


Jantz

[markf31]

How many bid retractions does the under bidder have? The stats do make you wonder about the true intentions of the under bidder. The only stat missing from your summary is how many bid retractions the under bidder has had. I cannot imagine what the odds would be to successfully place 833 bids, if your intention is to shill auctions, without a a single bid traction being required.

Bidding multiple times on the same auction and always placing those bids within the last hour of every auction bumping bids up from $1 to $10 at a time is probably not unusual as most items on Ebay I would think see the large majority of bidding activity take place in the last hour.

[Jantz]

Thanks for the reply Mark.

The underbidder has 0 bid retractions, but has bid on almost every auction the seller has listed.

There were a few Buy It Now auctions that the seller listed and these didn't receive bids from the underbidder. Other than that, every auction but one (which was a low value card that had a bid), has been bid on by this underbidder.

He basically bids on every bid style auction whether it be a baseball, football or basketball card this seller lists and has been for months.

[bnorth]

Originally Posted by Jantz

Long story short, recently I won an auction on Ebay and the bid was pushed to my max bid. This struck me as odd since my winning bid was exactly the amount I was willing to pay, right down to the exact cent.

This lead me to do a little research and I've found that the underbidder has pushed numerous auctions for the same seller repeatedly over the last few months.

Next I decided to take a look at the underbidder's history. Here is what showed up.

Total Bids: 833
Items Bid On: 195
Bid Percentage with this Seller: 89%

All of this was with the same seller. He bids on only this seller's items and bids sometimes multiple times on the same auction and always bids within the last hour of every auction bumping bids up from $1 to $10 at a time, then stops never actually winning an auction.

Its quite obvious (to me) what is going on here.

Now I haven't paid yet for the auction I've won, but was curious....

What would you do if you were in my shoes?


Jantz

Just a guess but the seller either has another account or has a friend shilling their auctions. Because of eBays bidding system it is not real hard to push someone to their max bid. Also bid retractions are meaningless most of the time. Shill bidding has evolved past that a long time ago for most that do it.

As far as what to do that is a personal choice. You did win the item for the price you would pay. On the other hand if you think something shady is going on do you really want to enable them even more?

EDIT: I forgot to add what I would do. At this time I am just a collector so the seller would be added to my list of sellers I would not buy from again. It is just a hobby for me and I do not need to enable the scum. Now if I was still selling cards to support myself I would pay for the card if I thought I could make $ on it. Making a buck seems to cloud peoples judgement pretty easily.

[bobbyw8469]

I would not pay and report the auction.

[Jantz]

Originally Posted by bnorth

You did win the item for the price you would pay. On the other hand if you think something shady is going on do you really want to enable them even more?

Bnorth - True, I did win the auction for what I was willing to pay, but I would have won the auction with my initial bid had I not been bumped 3 times in the last 45 minutes of the auction. My initial bid and my maximum winning bid weren't that far apart, but bidders on the seller's other auctions are getting hit harder.

Bobby - I agree with you and I'm going to take it further.

[rainier2004]

Id contact the seller and renegotiate for what the price should have been. If not, I wouldn't pay and report the auction. If he does send the card at the new price I would still report the seller. The last thing I would do is just pay the price, you were screwed.

[frankbmd]

Originally Posted by rainier2004

Id contact the seller and renegotiate for what the price should have been. If not, I wouldn't pay and report the auction. If he does send the card at the new price I would still report the seller. The last thing I would do is just pay the price, you were screwed.

Let us know who he is and then tell the seller you have shared your experience with 10,000 of your best friends, all of whom collect cards. If this doesn’t help in resolving your issue, just move on and we will all join you.

[Jobu]

I am curious how he manages never to win the items with 0 retractions. I know he can win and simply not pay, but it doesn't sound like that happens here. Jantz, if you look at the sold listings does the same card show up a lot?