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 Replies: 25 / Views: 2,936 |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
830 Posts |
It's truly unfortunate, but sellers do get falsely accused of having shill bidders in cases like the one you used as an example. The fact of the matter is that you have one knot-head bidder who places seven different bids on the item. He looks like a shill to the uneducated viewer, but he isn't. A true shill bidder will place one or two bids, and on separate days. The true shill bidder already knows what the seller wants to get for the item, and his bids will work towards that end, usually like this (as is MY understanding of the game): Seller wants $100. Shill bids $99 or so for his first bid. Someone outbids the shill and it goes to $102.50 so the shill will sometimes bid again "just to see how high it can go", at, say, $115. If the previous bidder's high was $115 or more, he just got shafted by the seller and his shill bidder. If he bid less than $115, the shill wins it, BUT (here's the fun part!) he backs out and the seller offers the legitimate bidder a "second chance" explaining that the guy who won backed out of the deal, blah, blah, blah. In the end, if the legitimate bidder takes that offer, he got shafted. A true shill bidder would not likely make six bids in a row, because that actually gives the appearance of shilling, and he and the seller don't want to get caught doing this. So, the vast majority of situations that look like Bobby's example are just "uncertain" buyers, or, as I like to call 'em, "seller's blessings" because they just gotta have that item !!! I love 'em  |
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Forum Mom
 United States
5877 Posts |
There is also the possibility that the guy is telling the truth and forgot to put a decimal point in his bid amount or didn't hit the key hard enough.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1283 Posts |
Wouldn't $6.63 be rediculously cheap for a 1963 proof set?
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2254 Posts |
The most interesting thing to me is that he won a previous auction for the same proof set on the 11th of March. Not in the hard holder, but still the same set correct? Maybe he forgot he even placed the bid...Just doesn't make sense to me I guess.
Also, wouldn't he have noticed that at 2 pm already it eclipsed his supposed $6.63 max bid and he was still the high bidder? Sorry, I'm finding this harder and harder to be understanding......
Edited by tights24
03/18/2007 2:30 pm
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Pillar of the Community
Australia
655 Posts |
quote:
If a group of let say 12 people all dealers
regularly bid on each others coins in the hope to catch the other guy's coins 10% below normal price
And if they win the auction and pay the price and receive the coin
Does that contitute shellbidding ?
No that's not shill bidding, but it's annoying when trying to catch a bargain. In Oz there are a couple of regulars I know of that place a bid on EVERY gold or silver coin that is listed for sale. The bid amount is usually close to or below melt value. Makes it impossible to catch a rare metal coin cheap. They have to be dealers going by their win history where they spend literally tens of thousands every month. Either that or they are Bill Gates. I suppose this is good for sellers, keeps the auctions at an honest price I suppose. What I need to know is when they go on holiday so I can grab some of the bargains they would have won.  |
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Valued Member
United States
218 Posts |
Even though I agree that there isn't a magical ebay police to go to his house and get the money, from looking at the bid times and the fact the rapid increase didnt occour until the bid was already 19.99, I think this buyer just wanted to back out of a deal. Why would he place a bid of 6.63 if the current bid is 19.99? He is full of @#$% but like you said bobby, nothing much you can do about it. |
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Forum Dad
 United States
24173 Posts |
quote:
Why would he place a bid of 6.63 if the current bid is 19.99?
He didn't. He put his bid in at 14:12:56 PDT when the high bid was $5.74. |
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Valued Member
Finland
79 Posts |
I agree that there is a slight possibility of a simple typo. It does happen sometimes; a close friend of mine was bidding on a album (LP record) sometime ago, he wanted to enter $10.00, BUT typoed $1000! Fortunately, no-one in this case was bidding against him and he actually had to pay just 10 USD for the record. But anyway, typos do happen sometimes.
But, in this case, I believe, there is something fishy going on, especially the email quote "I ALSO DON'T KNOW HOW A 63 PROOF SET COULD HAVE BID UP TO $65" caught my attention. That smells like an accusation and somehow that sets off all the alarm bells in my head!! I dunno, but me thinks that this is a case of 'bidder remorse', not a case of typo...
But what to do; leaving neg fb means that seller is going to get neg too? Not really an option...
-JJ-
Edited by -JJH-
03/21/2007 08:36 am
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Pillar of the Community
United States
819 Posts |
I agree with those above who feel something fishy was going on..I just don't know what off hand, other than ignorance. I also agree the ebay system doesn't work well...I have one neg because I left a neg on a guy who failed to deliver on a $300+ item, I proved he provided falsified shipping numbers, etc but ebay would not remove the neg (although they banned him from trading) because he would not agree to it. Now tell me, why would a con artist who is caught agree to remove a neg posting form someone who was instrumental in him being caught? The only relief I found was going to the State Attorney General's office in his state and filing an online fraud complaint, they investigated and the guy eventually gave me a refund. In this case since it is a buyer...I dn't see any recourse except remember his name in case he bids on anything again. |
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Valued Member
United States
179 Posts |
Here's my take.
The guy bids $663. If the auction closes at a price he feels is a bargain, he pays for it and goes on. If the auction closes at a price he doesn't want to pay he claims a typo and backs out of the deal.
Win/win for him. Lose/lose for the seller.
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Valued Member
United States
487 Posts |
I had one the other day that looked fishy. It was on a large lot of morgans. There where 6 bidders and the auction was a no reserve. The last minute of the auction some placed a bid and won. When you looked at his bid history 100% of his bids where on this sellers autions.
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Forum Dad
United States
24173 Posts |
quote:
The guy bids $663. If the auction closes at a price he feels is a bargain, he pays for it and goes on. If the auction closes at a price he doesn't want to pay he claims a typo and backs out of the deal.
I'm sorry, but that makes no sense. Why go through all that when you can just bid what you're willing to pay? |
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Forum Dad
United States
24173 Posts |
quote:
I had one the other day that looked fishy. It was on a large lot of morgans. There where 6 bidders and the auction was a no reserve. The last minute of the auction some placed a bid and won. When you looked at his bid history 100% of his bids where on this sellers autions.
My point of this thread exactly. You're saying it's fishy and from experience I can tell you there's about a 99% chance that you're wrong. We have tons of buyers that snipe and buy from 2 or 3 sellers' exclusively. Would look fishy to most, but certainly isn't. They just found sellers they trust, and that's the extent of it. |
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Valued Member
Finland
79 Posts |
bobby131313, sometimes it just happens that if you really, really, REALLY want to have some item, you might type a bit too large bid and after winning, you have what someone called 'bidder remorse'. At least, this has happened to me once: I bid on german 2 Reichsmark PoW note some time ago and I entered fairly high bid (because that note was missing from my collection)...couple of hours after bidding, I was kind like hoping that some sucker would go even higher. But, as I feared, I won the auction.
But despite this, I had the b*lls to take it like a man; I paid the item immediately after auction closed and after I received the invoice, I thanked the seller accordingly for smooth transaction and fast delivery and cursed my own stupidity at home.
My point is, that even if you do make a mistake (and we all do them sometimes!), enter too high a bid or anything like that, you just have to take the heat for it. What I cannot understand, are the spineless losers who try to run away from their own mistakes!
-JJ-
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New Member
United States
37 Posts |
I think his wife found out about his extraordinarily high bid and the hammer fell. That makes this a lot simpler to explain!!   lol Rob sometimes there is no explanation to satisfy all! |
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Replies: 25 / Views: 2,936 |
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Posted 03/16/2007 6:51 pm
