Seller using shill bidding

Some people get in bidding wars, and bid higher than they will if you put in your bid in the last few seconds.

It's certainly possible to save a considerable amount of money using such a program.

 

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How much did the seller ask for? If the only other bidder is out of the picture he should be asking for your first bid amount (only that part shown not late pushed), no more. Other wise you were shilled up and should not accept that.

 

When you offer someone a second chance on eBay it automatically offers it at the bidder's highest bid price. The seller can't control that.

 

If it's free then I'd consider it. The programs I've heard mentioned have a fee involved, and it's not an insignificant fee either.

 

I've had that happen twice to me. Once on eBay and the other time at Heritage. The eBay incident certainly made me think about a shill bid. Not so sure about Heritage. I ended up buying both coins.

 

Well I have not paid a penny for it in several years. That sound like free to me.

 

I have bought several coins from eBay with second chance offers (and even a 3rd chance once). Usually they have been BIN items where I was the high bidder, but did not make the minimum bid and the seller sold it to me anyway.

 

I run into the same thing from time to time on Ebay, and I always use a sniping program. Sellers bid the coin up to find out what the highest bid is, win the coin themselves, then send a second chance offer. They want to squeeze your top price out of you, and not leave anything on the table.

Sniping may not prevent the problem, as the seller could also place a very high snipe and outbid everyone else (of course he may be subject to a sniping fee).

Unless it is a coin I can't live without (which never happens), I always turn down the second chance offer. It is my little way of making the strategy backfire for the seller. It forces them to go through the hassle of getting a refund through ebay from their straw buyer (or cancelling the transaction), then relisting the coin. I know it just requires only a few clicks for them, but if everyone starts turning down the second offers, then maybe they will abandon the strategy. Probably hopeful wishing on my part.

 

The biggest currency seller (according to him) told me he uses shill bidding regularly, don't know if it is him or his "team". Too bad they don't crack down on it. There are lots of attorney generals who would like to get red meat convictions on fraud like that, that is how they stair step into higher office...

 

I sell 200+ coins a month on ebay and have an average of 5 non-paying bidders per month. Almost no one accepts my second chance offers. Probably because they think I'm scamming them, even though I don't do that. Sadly, the sins of the few affect the many. Currently I have 2 zero feedback buyers that won a $150 coin and a $90 coin, respectively. No communication, no payment. Just a waste of my time. The cases close in a couple more days. Will they sell for second chance offer? Doubtful because everyone's afraid they're being taken for a ride. But... it all comes with the territory.

 

Otherwise known as a reserve price auction. Certainly you met the min bid or the seller wouldn't have a clue about you.

 

Yes. I meant reserve.
Sorry, but I did not meet the minimum bid many times. Apparently I was close enough they decided to sell it rather then go through the hassles of relisting it.

 

You have to meet the min to bid at all. Was this an auction or a BIN/BO?

 

Again, I meant to say reserve auction. Really!

 

That's really sad. Karma's a bitch and maybe one day that deceitful practice will catch up with him.

 

They still can shill even when you bid last minute. They put in a bid before you do and if you win it, you are paying more than you would have if the auction proceeded by the rules. This is in every sense shill bidding.

 

That's true, but with sniping I don't get run up nearly as much as I would if I were actively bidding through eBay itself.

 

I have bid many times on ebay with one other bidder who won,then got a message about a second chance.I either ignore them or reply back not interested.

 

In those cases they should be offered at the opening bid price, which is where you would have topped out had the shill not played.

I would counter offer those at opening bid price