I might have a sandbagging bidder.

photoobsessive

hold me back, girls
Oct 26, 2006
8,074
2
Hi guys, ok, I'll try to be clear in what I am trying to say, bear with me.

I have an item up for sale on ebay and the bid is up VERY high. Im ok with that, truely, who wouldn't be, right? Well, could this just be someone bidding up my auction without intent of buying?

i think i have heard of a way to check up on an ebayer, check out their disputes or npb history or something further than just feedback. Is there? Or was I mistaken? Im just a little nervous, b/c I am pretty new to selling and not ONE auction has made it to the end sucessfully!

Any thing to say ladies? thanks for your time!
 
I don't think this is a matter of her bidding with no intentions but from what I can see she is a newer ebayer and not real savvy. She is bidding on 5 total LV items (some being very suspect although I know nothing about LV) and she has multiple bids on all of them. I think she is a bidder than feels she MUST have the high bid, so she keeps bidding up the price just in order to be number 1. I can't say I'd feel great about her winning an auction of mine but she might be fine.
 
I would email the bidder and say something like hi, I see you're fairly new to eBay, just wanted to make sure that you are indeed the one bidding and you're comfortable with your bid. I actually did that once because I had a new bidder I was unsure of and the transaction was completed without a problem. Sometimes making the connection is all you need.
 
I don't think this is a matter of her bidding with no intentions but from what I can see she is a newer ebayer and not real savvy. She is bidding on 5 total LV items (some being very suspect although I know nothing about LV) and she has multiple bids on all of them. I think she is a bidder than feels she MUST have the high bid, so she keeps bidding up the price just in order to be number 1. I can't say I'd feel great about her winning an auction of mine but she might be fine.


how do you know what she is currently bidding on? how do i look that up?
and yea, it makes me a bit nervous. thanks for the info.
 
I would email the bidder and say something like hi, I see you're fairly new to eBay, just wanted to make sure that you are indeed the one bidding and you're comfortable with your bid. I actually did that once because I had a new bidder I was unsure of and the transaction was completed without a problem. Sometimes making the connection is all you need.


y'know, i thought about that and even wrote the email. but my bf said it was not entirely a good idea to do that b/c it may look like i was putting her down, like 'i knew' she couldn't afford it. i don't want to, even in the least, act inappropriately. but i would like to know! i guess i will know tomorrow if i hav a npb or a faker.

thanks for all your help guys!
 
I had a similiar thing happen when I was selling a Coach wallet about a week ago. This person kept bidding... and bidding. (Against themselves?) I got REALLY nervous, because when I went to check their feedback, it was all positive - however there was just item after item of Coach items... we are talking almost 10 in a day! (Pretty steady for a week or two.) I was afraid of a hijacked account or something.

In the end - it did end up okay, they paid and everything was fine. I have no idea what they are going to do with all of the handbags & wallets they bought, considering they were all pretty much at retail price - but HEY to each their own! :biggrin:
 
To see what a person is bidding on...
Click on "Advanced search" right below the main search box on ebay
On the sidebar, click on "By Bidder"
Type or copy in the persons ID
Then click appropriate boxes
Then Enter

You said " i guess i will know tomorrow if i hav a npb or a faker."

But maybe you will have a real good intentioned payig bidder.
 
Hi guys, ok, I'll try to be clear in what I am trying to say, bear with me.

I have an item up for sale on ebay and the bid is up VERY high. Im ok with that, truely, who wouldn't be, right? Well, could this just be someone bidding up my auction without intent of buying?

i think i have heard of a way to check up on an ebayer, check out their disputes or npb history or something further than just feedback. Is there? Or was I mistaken? Im just a little nervous, b/c I am pretty new to selling and not ONE auction has made it to the end sucessfully!

Any thing to say ladies? thanks for your time!

This is tricky becasue you don't want to drive away an honest Buyer, but don't want to be cheated either. Is there another bidder (or maybe more than one) competing with your high bidder? If so, things may be fine. If, however, the high bidder has just been bidding, bidding, bidding, driving up someone else until they are finally on top, this could be "fishing" (just trying to find out what the high bid is.)

If it is the latter case I would contact this bidder and ask them to confirm their intentions within, say, 24 hours (certainly before the auction ends.) If you don't hear anything from them, you can and should cancel their bid.

Just MHO =)
 
You're welcome. It's a great tool. I use it if I have a late payer, I can look back on what they bid on in the last 30 days and then by checking through feedback, seeing if they had paid for their auctions and recieved feedback. It takes a bit of work, but if you really what some enlightenment, it can be done.
It's a 2 way street though. It's used to look your or my name up as sellers and see what we have bought and sold.
 
years ago, people used to put in a low bid with one id & then instantly outbid themselves with another id, making the new bid so outrageously high that no one else would bid, then they would just retract their bid to get it at the lower & first bid price. but ebay stopped this by not allowing bid retracting in the last 12 hours. so i don't think you have too much to worry abotu on that front. sounds to me like you have some one who is maybe a bit carried away with the whole thing. or maybe doesn't understand it that well, like they think they've got to be constantly winning the auction, not just be the winner at the closing time?

Also, remember that something is only worth what a person is willing to pay for it. And many of the things that reach high prices on ebay (higher than retail) are very difficult to get via normal shops/ route, so forexample, she may not live near anywhere that sells the retail of your item. she may equally have looked at the other sellers & prefered either your particular item, or you as a seller to the others on offer. Or she may not have done any research on ebay at all & just bid on the first she found? unaware that others might be available at a lower price?

Good luck though!