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 Replies: 19 / Views: 3,150 |
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Valued Member
Canada
299 Posts |
I'm not sure how ethically this is even if ebay seems to be not aware or just ignores it. Don't really care that I didn't get the item as items from the past that I haven't won have long since left my memeory  I had a bid on this item 400370778018 and my second bid was one with a proxy of $650. In the bidding history, the bidder with 626 feedback keeps getting closer to my proxy bid then throws in a bid for $1000 to find out what my proxy is, retracts the bid and then plunks in a bid for $650...which in essence blows my proxy bid for all other bidders. I did contact coldbeer in the last few minutes of bidding and he did notice. Is this a 'one off' for bidder 626? Nope. In the last 30 days bidder 626 has retracted 131 bids. In the last 6 months bidder 626 has retracted 2018. This is obviously a loophole in ebays bidder retraction policy that is being utilized to find out, in the last minutes of bidding, what the high bidders proxy is. |
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
686 Posts |
Wow! I've dealt with coldbeer several times, and never had an issue with him. The bidder only has 3% activity with coldbeer, so I wouldn't think that it's coldbeer bidding up his own items. Maybe report it to ebay? I'd like to think that ebay has a rule that if you retract a bid every other hour for 6 straight months, they'd give you the boot! |
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Valued Member
 Canada
299 Posts |
No, I don't think this is coldbeer. It is just annoying. So the retracting bidaholic finds out what a bidders proxy is and then, in this case, puts in a bid (in a fit of pique?)..that had I won...would have cost me my entire proxy. I wonder how many times this has happened as a last winning bid, tied at the proxy. I did have a typo though...bid retraction for the last 30 days is 161, not 131. I am still wondering how to word this to ebay. |
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Pillar of the Community
1844 Posts |
Trimble, I was also bidding on that 1898 as Vickies are my passion... funny you say this because this 626 guy done the same to a few of my items I had on ebay and then rebid with seconds left..I did report him and even called ..I was told not much they can do... |
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Valued Member
Canada
247 Posts |
Looks awfull stinky to me ,How can you retract a bid , that is the question , ebay should close this loophole but wont because they make more money with it in place. |
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
1984 Posts |
You could send ebay a message along with a link to this thread....... |
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Valued Member
Canada
190 Posts |
Quote:
ebay should close this loophole but wont because they make more money with it in place. Totally agree with "nickle rubber" on this... Sad to say, that as much as I enjoy my experience as a Seller on ebay, that it's really disappointing how little they care about what's "ethical"... You can bet with that many cancelled bids ebay is fully aware of this guys activities and have had numerous complaints... Unless bidder / seller / buyer infractions are so obvious as to make ebay look bad to a significant amount of users, if the activity is driving up ebay's bottom-line profit margins, they usually will ignore it... There's a lot of great things about the ebay marketplace... but expecting them to mediate any kind of fairness to the process is just not going to happen in most cases. Take care, and Best Wishes for a Happy & Prosperous New Year! cameron93 |
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Moderator
 Canada
10458 Posts |
Have you thought about using a sniping service for your bids? You can customize when your bid goes in, seconds before the auction ends, so folks like this will never know your maximum.
"Discovery follows discovery, each both raising and answering questions, each ending a long search, and each providing the new instruments for a new search." -- J. Robert OppenheimerContent of this post is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses...0/deed.en_USMy eBay store
Edited by SPP-Ottawa
12/28/2012 6:05 pm
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Valued Member
Canada
299 Posts |
I will forward a complaint with ebay. Cameron93 - I have no doubt that ebay is aware. They have a program to measure abnormal deviations per buyer/seller tracking all data streams. Everytime I make a very large single purchase on ebay I sit by the phone and wait for them to call. Not a problem with my paypal account or anything, just a spike in my buying trends. This fellow may have a retraction history that is by now his norm, thus no alarms are raised. SPP-Ottawa - Yes I could use a sniping program. That doesn't address the question/fact of bidder 626 knowing he won't or can't bid higher than someone else's proxy and maliciously putting in a bid at the highest proxy. This is what he did to me even though he had already given up on buying this item. It is sort of like...if I can't have it, I know what your proxy is and in goes the bid to the highest bidder's proxy. Highest bid first wins, right? This isn't really about this one item. I'm curious if this is a common practice buying tool and, yes, ebay makes money on this but it is all of us that loses in the end. |
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Valued Member
Canada
333 Posts |
Trimble, this is a malicious way of bidding. I personally try to use a sniper bid and keep my finger cross. Please let us know, what ebay's reply is. |
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Rest in Peace
Canada
1360 Posts |
I too have found that the 'sniper' approach will usually tend to get you the best price. By placing your initial 'proxy' bid, you are in effect challenging others to come up to your max. If they don't know you're in it for real, the may not even bid till the last minute either. Then...the one who places the highest "last minute" bid - wins. Warning though...only put in your max you are willing to pay! I've seen $100 items sell for 5 times that because two or more bidders put in stupid high proxy bids in the final minute.
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
2781 Posts |
bid retractions should come with a $$$ penalty, say 10% of the final sale price.
maybe give one free one per month for the person who makes an honest mistake.
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New Member
Canada
24 Posts |
I thought I would try to make my selling better for everyone by blocking buyers I have had problems with in the past and when I find a buyer like you mention here I will block them. I tried to block buyer 626 but they say 626 is an invalid User ID.
If you have the right ID you can email me if you wish.
Gerry
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Pillar of the Community
1844 Posts |
Gerry, the 626 is now 627 it is his feedback score..As you know ebay blocks the buyers id so unless he bid on one of your items you wont know who they are.. |
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New Member
Canada
24 Posts |
Well I'll hope it never happens again. Just about anyone can get me once, shame on them. If they get me twice, shame on me.
And I do hate that so they will be blocked.
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Valued Member
Canada
299 Posts |
ebay isn't really interesting in monitoring bid retractions. Oh well. The only avenue open to deal with this if for sellers (  G in NF) to block bidders who do this and no offense to sellers but in a way this may not be in their best interest. I haven't sold anything on ebay yet so I may not have a clue what I'm talking about!  As for sniping...usually I do wait until the last minute like many seem to do but sometimes if I don't think I can be around, I put in a proxy. Maybe make it back in time, sometimes not. I can see where a sniping program can be useful, but I sort of have an easy come, easy go approach. If I don't win this one, there is always another shiny thing to bid on! When I googled ebay bid retractions..well, it made me see I am way behind the times as far as using retractions as a bidding tool, lol. Many, many hits and info on this throughout various forums. It just never crossed my mind to use retractions like that, it still feels unethical to me but looks like ebay allows it. Update (after another phone call) ebay stated that they will investigate this persons account to see if ebay believes there is any abuse. The person I chatted with also stated that the number of retractions did not indicate a wrong doing. lol Follow the money! 
Edited by trimble
12/31/2012 5:46 pm
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Replies: 19 / Views: 3,150 |
Posted 12/28/2012 4:24 pm
