Bidding against phantom eBay members?

[~lse~]

I've only recently started bidding on auctions (& so far missed out on every single one ).

I have noticed that often times there will be 2 or 3 individuals keen on the item and bidding in small-ish increments before someone, usually with 0 or very low FB, comes in and makes a bid ~$100 more than where things were at.

After that they never bid again and leave it to the original 2 or 3 individuals to bid on the item. Is this common? it seems likely to be the seller or someone they know using another ID in order to increase their sell price. It works of course!

I'm not really cut out for this cloak and dagger sh**. Just wondering whether I should forget about auctions if this is how it works...

[denimbarks]

It could be the seller, but it could also be someone who just bids their max and moves on. No way to tell anymore, unless that bidder does it on all the seller's auctions.

The best way to bid is to bid once, bid as late as you can, and bid the maximum amount you want to spend. If you don't win, it's because someone else thought the item was worth more than you did (or got caught up in the nibble bidding and bid more than they wanted to).

[hotshot]

^ Agree

[petitechouchou]

Originally Posted by denimbarks

It could be the seller, but it could also be someone who just bids their max and moves on. No way to tell anymore, unless that bidder does it on all the seller's auctions. The best way to bid is to bid once, bid as late as you can, and bid the maximum amount you want to spend. If you don't win, it's because someone else thought the item was worth more than you did (or got caught up in the nibble bidding and bid more than they wanted to).

^Ditto

[kamalmisc]

I think ebay as an ip check in place to avoid such fake increases. If you are using different IDs but the IP adress is the same , it doesn't allow you to bid. If one of the seller's friend is doing it so the item can be sold at a higher price then this is harder to check. You can send an email to ebay to report your suspicions.
If you are not winning the item it can be due to the fact that you wait too long to bid your maximum. I do believe ebay allows you to set your bid on automatic. Your enter your maximum amount and it will increment it as other buyers bid along. Let say an item has a starting bid of $100 and your maximum is $50 each time someone bets an amount that is less than your max the system automatically increase your bet. If someone bets 105 then the system will show 106 in your favor until it reaches your max. You can try bidding in the last 40 sec of an auction but again if someone has the automatic betting system on and their max is more than yours you will still not win the auction.

[~lse~]

Originally Posted by denimbarks

The best way to bid is to bid once, bid as late as you can, and bid the maximum amount you want to spend

I'll try this and see how things turn out for me although since a lot of the auctions I am interested in originate from the States I am not around to see out the final 'moments'. I have on a few occassions put in a max bid prior (as noted in the above post) in an effort to counter this but invariably someone else will come in a outbid me by a couple of dollars at the last minute! So frustrating to miss out on something by that little only because I am

[TXGirlie]

^^ use a sniper.

[alij78]

i didn't realise ebay did that with the IP address!! Very good

[coconutsboston]

^^ I didn't realize that either. I always wondered if the seller themself was bidding under a different name to increase their payout!

[hotshot]

No, but I do agree that many seller's have friends put bids in to get the auction going

It is fairly easy to spot

[TXGirlie]

In the coming months, there will probably be more new users shopping on ebay for a good deal , and they might be overeager to win-ie getting into an unecessary bidding war. It can be hard to tell who is shill bidding and who really just has newbies bidding on their items. If ebay does have an IP check in place, that is at least a step in the right direction. It won't keep friends and relatives from bidding on an auction though....there really is no way to prevent that.