Second Chance Offers (Ebay)

Yeah I think they can be legit sometimes and other times are a result of shill bidding trying to run the price up. I would simply look at the second chance price and if you would have been willing to buy it at this price then go ahead and buy it.

The real issue is assuring the email is real, a lot of them are phishing attempts to steal your ebay password. Always check in your my ebay and never click the link in the email.

That said, I think most of them are legit.

Years ago 2nd chance offers had a lot of problems with phishing, shills, etc. I don't think it's much of a problem anymore. I agree- if your bid is a good price, your willing to pay it on the item, then go for it. You still have buy protection. And yes make sure it shows up in you "My ebay" section

This is fairly common. The (unscrupulous) sellers will shill bid you to learn your maximum price and then, once the auction ends, you get a "second chance offer".

As a general rule, never bid on any auction that is run by someone outside of the U.S. Call me a pessimistic but every last one of them is a scammer.

Good points so long as you do your homework and set your maximum bid at a price you are comfortable paying, there is no real risk in taking the second chance offer even if you are being shilled past the "optimal" price. That said, as a matter of principle, I think you should not buy from any seller that engages in shill bidding. They are not giving you an optimal price relative to your competitors.

I've been buying on ebay since 2005 and have never once had a problem with a seller outside of the United States.

The way to win an ebay auction is to put your bid in at the very last second. Most of the items I've won on ebay are things I've bid on in the last few seconds of the auction. I've missed out on a couple of things this way too though, I'll put in my maximum bid in the last 30 seconds and the bidder before me will have a higher bid. That would have happened no matter what time I put in my bid though, so if it goes above my maximum, I don't worry about it, I didn't need it that much anyway. Watch it for the course of the auction and see if people are bidding on it, if there are bids, don't put in an early maximum bid because most of the time you'll get shut out by someone like me who bids at the last second.

Second chance offers don't make much sense to me. I've sold a couple of things on ebay and I have the option to give the second highest bidder a second chance offer. That seems like a really terrible thing to do to someone: "congratulations, you won this item! Oh wait, no you didn't, the seller offered it to the second highest bidder." It also seems like a stupid thing from a seller's standpoint as well since you'll get more money out of the high bidder than the second highest bidder. The only legitimate use I see for it is if someone wins an auction but then doesn't pay. Rather than take the loss and deal with an ebay dispute and have to relist the item, just use the second chance offer. That way, you sell your item, plus the person who was disappointed that they lost the auction gets a pleasant surprise.

the last 2nd chance offer I got was on a nicely toned coin I had a 3.00 bid on(winning for 3 days), the auction was about to end, and I decided 9.00 was my max- it was going to end while I was at work, so I placed that bid before I left

i got home that morning to see I had a 2nd chance offer on the coin for my last bid-- I went back and looked, the winning bidder placed 6 bids in the last 5 minutes to beat me at 9.02, and 45 minutes later, I got my offer

i emailed the seller, someone I have had a few dealings with before- and had already won 4 more auctions that day, telling him I would like the coin, but seeing how the price went up 6.00 in 5 minutes, and how he so quickly sent my offer.. I would be willing to purchase the coin at a price much closer to my 3.00 bid that was winning until the last few minutes

after a day or 2 emailing back and forth on the other auctions I won, we decided on a price of 5.00- more than 3.00 but still less than the 2nd chance offer of 9.00

fair to me? I think so ..
do I think something funny was going on? really hard to tell, the winning bidder did purchase 3 or 4 items from the seller a day or 2 before, and a couple days after- yes I've been checking still, and that was a month ago LOL

i can't say I've taken part in shill bidding in the dozen years I've been an ebay member, but I know a few that have

i do think really quick 2nd chance offers on certain things (coins) are usually someone trying to feel out your high bid and get every penny of it- general merchandise though- stuff I used to sell(hot wheels), I may have 5-10 of, only 1 listing fee, and 6-8 bidders- I could get rid of all of them at one time

Update:

Second chance offer was $82 plus $4 shipping.
Winning bid would have been $70 without non-paying "winner" involved.
Contacted seller suggesting $70.
Would have been happy to split the difference at $76 plus $4 shipping.
Seller agreed to $70 PLUS waived shipping!

I'm sure he made a profit at $70. I'm happy. Win-win. Now to me, THAT'S a good seller and one I'll do business with again. I almost feel bad about initially being cynical...almost.