Suspicious bidding.. please advise!

[skislope15]

Urgh i so mad! My husband who knows nothing about ebay, ie he cant even turn on a computer, was bidding on a snowmobile he found on fleabay, i wasnt home so i taught him how to increase his bid etc. I came home and he was so excited that he won the auction, i looked at it right away and saw the shilling, its a 6k item so over paying by 500 bucks has made me furious, that and the fact that i will have to meet this horrid seller face to face.....

I dont even want dh to take this sled, ive reported the listing to ebay is there anything else i can do?


Heres the listing....http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/?cmd...49&item=250967476570&sspagename=STRK:MEWNX:IT

The other bidder has 100% history with the seller, why cant people be honest anymore.....

 

[BeenBurned]

Urgh i so mad! My husband who knows nothing about ebay, ie he cant even turn on a computer, was bidding on a snowmobile he found on fleabay, i wasnt home so i taught him how to increase his bid etc. I came home and he was so excited that he won the auction, i looked at it right away and saw the shilling, its a 6k item so over paying by 500 bucks has made me furious, that and the fact that i will have to meet this horrid seller face to face.....

I dont even want dh to take this sled, ive reported the listing to ebay is there anything else i can do?


Heres the listing....http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/?cmd...49&item=250967476570&sspagename=STRK:MEWNX:IT

The other bidder has 100% history with the seller, why cant people be honest anymore.....

I hate shill bidders and shilling sellers as much as the next gal but if you're referring to the 3-feedback bidder, i don't think it's shilling. It just appears to be a bidder who wants the item. It's the only item she/he has bid on and bids are in small increments.

All I see is an inexperienced bidder who doesn't understand proxy bidding and thinks the high bid is the max that the high bidder bid.

In fact, if you look at ALL the bidding, including the auto-bids, you can see that each bid is just trying to top the one before it.


When someone shills, it's generally shown as a bidder with many bids on many items, all (or most) with the same seller.

I think your husband won this fairly.


_____________
Edited to add an example of REAL shilling:

LIsting: http://www.ebay.com/itm/NWT-EMBOSSE...653?pt=US_CSA_WH_Handbags&hash=item4cfd6bb065

Shiller anonymized ID: o***b

Bid history of shiller: http://offer.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI....eName=PageBidderProfileViewBids_None_ViewLink

This seller has at least 2 other IDs that shill and it's a long history. Let's accuse the correct sellers.

 

[BeenBurned]

Skislope, please don't report this seller to ebay. You are mistaken in your allegations.

Note that a bidder bidding on the only item they find that meets their needs doesn't constitute shill bidding.

In fact, one could assume your husband is shilling since that's the ONLY ebay-motors item that he bid on. One could say he drove up the price of that item by not bidding on other skidoos too.

http://offer.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws...eName=PageBidderProfileViewBids_None_ViewLink


I'm just trying to point out the error in your thinking.

 

[skislope15]

I appreciate your imput BB. It just concerned me because the other bidder bid only to the reserve price and then stopped immediately....it doesn't seem right to me at all. Maybe I'm wrong but something does seem off with that other bidder

Skislope, please don't report this seller to ebay. You are mistaken in your allegations.

Note that a bidder bidding on the only item they find that meets their needs doesn't constitute shill bidding.

In fact, one could assume your husband is shilling since that's the ONLY ebay-motors item that he bid on. One could say he drove up the price of that item by not bidding on other skidoos too.

http://offer.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws...eName=PageBidderProfileViewBids_None_ViewLink


I'm just trying to point out the error in your thinking.

 

[Morisa]

I appreciate your imput BB. It just concerned me because the other bidder bid only to the reserve price and then stopped immediately....it doesn't seem right to me at all. Maybe I'm wrong but something does seem off with that other bidder

What was the reserve price set at? Although I noticed that your husband didn't really overpay by $500 (as you claim in your first post), it's more like $50 if the item is only worth $6k. Also, your husband would have had to bid the extra $50 because the bidding increments were in multiples of at least $100.

 

[threadbender]

I hope that EBay looks at the activity and doesn't just arbitrarily reprimand the seller.I would expect other signs of them being a shiller.
Is your husband going through with the sale? If not, I imagine he will be upset if they do a 2nd chance offer and the underbidder gets it. Just sayin'.

 

[skislope15]

What was the reserve price set at? Although I noticed that your husband didn't really overpay by $500 (as you claim in your first post), it's more like $50 if the item is only worth $6k. Also, your husband would have had to bid the extra $50 because the bidding increments were in multiples of at least $100.

no it was $500 because the last bid that wasnt by the 3 feedback bidder was at 5550, if that person wouldn't have bid back the auction would have been at 5550.

not sure what the reserve was at as I said I wasn't around when bidding was going on otherwise I wouldn't have let him bid if I felt something wasn't right

 

[Morisa]

not sure what the reserve was at as I said I wasn't around when bidding was going on otherwise I wouldn't have let him bid if I felt something wasn't right

If you don't know what the reserve was set at, then how do you know that the other bidder only bid to the reserve price? (which is what you said in your earlier post #4)

Also, BeenBurned can/will correct me if I am wrong, but the bidding history for an individual seller only shows the last 30 days' history, not the lifetime of the bidder. So the fact that it says that the bidder has made 10 bids in the last 30 days, 100% of which all went to the same seller, doesn't seem to indicate anything other than all 10 bids went to that one item. Perhaps the bidder is an infrequent ebayer.

 

[skislope15]

I was on the phone for a bit with him so I knew when the red turned to green as he put it.
I have called ebay this am, they are looking at the auction as a pre-caution I havent accused the seller of shilling at this point I just want to be sure because of the 6k value. if it was like 100 bucks or something I wouldnt care but I would like to be 100% before meeting in person with a 6k money order KWIM. So far I have made no decision on what Im doing I just want to be sure that's it.

If you don't know what the reserve was set at, then how do you know that the other bidder only bid to the reserve price? (which is what you said in your earlier post #4)

Also, BeenBurned can/will correct me if I am wrong, but the bidding history for an individual seller only shows the last 30 days' history, not the lifetime of the bidder. So the fact that it says that the bidder has made 10 bids in the last 30 days, 100% of which all went to the same seller, doesn't seem to indicate anything other than all 10 bids went to that one item. Perhaps the bidder is an infrequent ebayer.

 

[LindaP]

. I came home and he was so excited that he won the auction, .

Actually I think this is kinda sweet and i hope if you decide to go through with the sale he enjoys it! My husband wouldn't even begin to know how to bid on an ebay auction and thinks I'm a little nuts (and maybe rightly so, haha) for even venturing into that minefield.

 

[skislope15]

Actually I think this is kinda sweet and i hope if you decide to go through with the sale he enjoys it! My husband wouldn't even begin to know how to bid on an ebay auction and thinks I'm a little nuts (and maybe rightly so, haha) for even venturing into that minefield.

thanks Linda! I love your cookie monster thing, it always kills me when I see it. Yes dh was so happy about his first ebay purchase, he went out on his sled last week and the motor blew, a new one is weeks away ordering so when I suggested he look on ebay he was a bit taken a back.
At this point I have no intention of not going through with the sale I guess what really bothers me is that Im not 100% that everything was done fairly and like I said I would like to know Im meeting up with an honest person before I drive 3 hours to get something....we'll see how things go i guess

 

[Morisa]

I was on the phone for a bit with him so I knew when the red turned to green as he put it.
I have called ebay this am, they are looking at the auction as a pre-caution I havent accused the seller of shilling at this point I just want to be sure because of the 6k value. if it was like 100 bucks or something I wouldnt care but I would like to be 100% before meeting in person with a 6k money order KWIM. So far I have made no decision on what Im doing I just want to be sure that's it.

Hopefully ebay will come back and tell you everything is a-okay. I agree that because you are spending a lot of money, you want to be 100% comfortable with the transaction. Hope everything works out and that your husband enjoys his new toy!

 

[LindaP]

thanks Linda! I love your cookie monster thing, it always kills me when I see it. Yes dh was so happy about his first ebay purchase, he went out on his sled last week and the motor blew, a new one is weeks away ordering so when I suggested he look on ebay he was a bit taken a back.
At this point I have no intention of not going through with the sale I guess what really bothers me is that I'm not 100% that everything was done fairly and like I said I would like to know I'm meeting up with an honest person before I drive 3 hours to get something....we'll see how things go i guess

Thanks and Good luck!

 

[BeenBurned]

I was on the phone for a bit with him so I knew when the red turned to green as he put it.
I have called ebay this am, they are looking at the auction as a pre-caution I havent accused the seller of shilling at this point I just want to be sure because of the 6k value. if it was like 100 bucks or something I wouldnt care but I would like to be 100% before meeting in person with a 6k money order KWIM. So far I have made no decision on what Im doing I just want to be sure that's it.

I disagree. You DID accuse the seller of shilling! Look at the title of this thread! You've also drawn unnecessary attention to the seller, something no seller wants, especially an honest one!

Ebay has a habit of turning blind eyes to dishonest sellers but will sanction honest sellers, i.e., those wrongly accused of selling fakes, those who contact buyers of fakes, those who let sellers know that a listing is fake, etc.

At this point I have no intention of not going through with the sale I guess what really bothers me is that Im not 100% that everything was done fairly and like I said I would like to know Im meeting up with an honest person before I drive 3 hours to get something....we'll see how things go i guess

If you have buyer's remorse, admit it. The seller did nothing wrong and frankly, you are sounding a bit paranoid.

You are unnecessarily suspicious of any seller whose listings get multiple bids from a user. In some posts, there was shilling but in others, your suspcions were incorrect.
http://forum.purseblog.com/ebay-forum/how-does-this-go-on-on-ebay-682984.html

http://forum.purseblog.com/ebay-forum/ebay-chat-thead-whoo-hoo-513016-200.html#post18983970

You need to remember that in many of the examples you suspected of shill bidding are actually newbies or inexperienced buyers. They don't know about proxy bidding and think that they only have to outbid the current high bid. Ultimately, they bid multiple times since each bid is lower than the proxy.

Please, please, please before you accuse sellers (here or in person) and before you call ebay to report it, you ask someone who knows what to look for to determine shilling.


Again, if your husband bid more than he wanted to pay, that's his own fault and not the result of cheating on the part of the seller.

 

[bag-mania]

^Yeah, please don't jump to conclusions and make accusations before you know the facts. The seller shouldn't have to face all that because you had an anxiety attack.