E-Bay Bidders

Do you ever feel like the seller or their friends is bidding to up the price of something?
I find it very interesting that something I bid on last night, which hadn't had a previous bid in two days, was bidded on less than a minute before the auction ended...

Re: E-Bay Bidders

what it is, what you say is true but also people wait until the last minute to bid on something. I know that at least I do that, I learned my lesson from always being outbidded.

Re: E-Bay Bidders

I time my bids if it is something i really really want. if not i look for it elsewhere just incase. cause what you say has happened to me to many times.

Re: E-Bay Bidders

I definitely bid at the last possible minute. That's what people usually do.

Re: E-Bay Bidders

They have ways of tracking if people are "cheating".

One of DH's friends was doing this and ebay figured it out and sent both of them a warning letter.

But if they aren't frequently doing it, then they probably can't catch them.

Re: E-Bay Bidders

It's called shill-bidding, when fake id's bid the amount up. It's against ebay rules, but it can be hard to catch. Most people do bid as close to the last minute as they are able, or they set up an auction sniper to do it for them.

Re: E-Bay Bidders

On ebay, isnt there also a feature where someone can enter a maximum bid... and ebay will automatically enter a higher bid for them if someone else bids...

like for example, if you want to bid on something and the current bid is $5 and the highest you will pay is $10 and you enter that... well the current bid will stay at or go a bit above $5.00 and if someone else comes alongs and bids, $6.00, ebay will automically bid for you again and then it might go up to $7.00 on your behalf... does that make sense??

that is why that bid change appears so fast...

Re: E-Bay Bidders

Re: E-Bay Bidders

cjb88 is right abotu the incemental bidding.

Plus it is common practice to wait until the final minutes to bid on the item. When I sell stuff, I could list it for 7 days or 3 days and the same thing happens. No bids and maybe a few watchers until the last day and often there will be several bids in the last 30 minutes of the auction.

I used to get too caught up in it and paid more then I really wanted for a couple of things so now I just put in the highest amount I am willing to pay and then see what happens.

Re: E-Bay Bidders

i ALWAYS bid on the last minute. never fils.
BUT they also have a site where you pay and the site will win the item for you.

BUT........ dh was bidding on these shoes once and they somehow lept going up and up... then like 2 days later they were for salea gain by the SAME seller for MORE money.
he prob figured he could get away with it.

Re: E-Bay Bidders

Re: E-Bay Bidders

Posted by mrswask

Do you ever feel like the seller or their friends is bidding to up the price of something?
I find it very interesting that something I bid on last night, which hadn't had a previous bid in two days, was bidded on less than a minute before the auction ended...