Ebay shenanigans

[Pseudo]

Had an interesting experience on Ebay tonight.

I was highest bidder on an item which was WAY undervalued. So I logged on a few minutes before the end of the auction to see what happened, fully expecting some late action on the item.

Sure enough, with less than 60 seconds remaining, the price started jumping. Every 10 seconds the price jumped $10. With three seconds remaining, the final bid came in, this time only $5 more than the previous bid, bringing the total to exactly $1 below my maximum bid. So I won the auction, but I had to pay top dollar.

Examining the bid record, I see all the late bids had been made by the same person. This person had been registered for well over a year, yet had no feedback score, therefore had probably never bought or sold anything in this time.

Now I don't mind the price I got, but there is something too coincidental about a long-term yet inexperienced Ebay member forcing the price up to EXACTLY my maximum bid with seconds to spare. How would it be possible for a confederate of the seller, or the seller himself, to devine my top bid? Perhaps by bidding something obscenely large, observing the resulting price, and then retracting the bid? This all happened within 12 hours of the end, so it seems unlikely...

Do I call shenanigans, or am I being paranoid?

[heater31]

I would get Ebay to check it out as it does sound sus to me

[PhilG]

..

[Hondo]

I have been using Ebay for over a year and there's no doubt that 'phantom' bids go on. Most people wait until the end to bid so if you see someone pushing too early it's probably a fakey. In fact, if you are selling something get your partner to bid it up using her log-in. Then if she wins it, so what? You just list it again later.

I have accepted that this goes on you just have to pick the price you are prepared to pay and cross your fingers. As long as you don't pay more than you want to then it's just a fact of ebay life I think.

[MightyEagles]

Call the guy out for a duel.

[Psyber]

I would get Ebay to check it out as it does sound sus to me

I thought Ebay itself was sus, just like Crime Convertors!

[RustyCage]

The seller doesn't know what each bidders maximum bid is

[Psyber]

The seller doesn't know what each bidders maximum bid is

...unless they have a contact inside Ebay???? CentreLink staff [and Police] have been known to sell information.

[Hondo]

The seller doesn't know what each bidders maximum bid is

...unless they have a contact inside Ebay???? CentreLink staff [and Police] have been known to sell information.

You think someone will go to all of that trouble over something selling for $25?

[Santos L Helper]

There are sites such as http://www.auctionsniper.com that will take your bids from you and use their resources to place massive amounts of bids within the last minute or so. This is what happens to most auctions that appear to spiral out of control at late notice.

[mick]

Had an interesting experience on Ebay tonight.

I was highest bidder on an item which was WAY undervalued. So I logged on a few minutes before the end of the auction to see what happened, fully expecting some late action on the item.

Sure enough, with less than 60 seconds remaining, the price started jumping. Every 10 seconds the price jumped $10. With three seconds remaining, the final bid came in, this time only $5 more than the previous bid, bringing the total to exactly $1 below my maximum bid. So I won the auction, but I had to pay top dollar.

Examining the bid record, I see all the late bids had been made by the same person. This person had been registered for well over a year, yet had no feedback score, therefore had probably never bought or sold anything in this time.

Now I don't mind the price I got, but there is something too coincidental about a long-term yet inexperienced Ebay member forcing the price up to EXACTLY my maximum bid with seconds to spare. How would it be possible for a confederate of the seller, or the seller himself, to devine my top bid? Perhaps by bidding something obscenely large, observing the resulting price, and then retracting the bid? This all happened within 12 hours of the end, so it seems unlikely...

Do I call shenanigans, or am I being paranoid?

This happened to me as well a year ago, I contacted ebay about shill bidding and their reply was that there wasn't enough evidence. I'm always very suspicious when people with very low or no feedback scores bid articles way up in the last few minutes. Most of my ebay experience has been positive but there are definitely shonks in the system.