What is the policy on cheating buyers who retract their high bid, then bid lower and buy the item?

[bee1956nut]

There is a buyer who lurks around the Thai jewellery stores. 

She/he likes to make huge bids on items, thern once he/she has seen how high the other bidders have goneor are prepared to go, she retracts her high bid, he/she goes back and places a lower bid.

ie she places 380 bid on an item, then watches how high the other bids go, then she retracts her high bid and goes back and bids lower.

I thought if you retracted a bid on an item, that you were not supposed to bid again, unless it was a mistyped amount, in which case you must bid again immediately. She rebids days later.

Is what she is doing agaisnt policy? The sellers lose out too!

[kopenhagen5]

Could be a shill account the seller is using.

Post an item number here and we can have a look.

[davewil1964]

I don't understand the question.

if a bidder bids a high amount it will only be triggered if other bidders go close to that bid. if they retract a bid and go lower, they still have to be the high bidder to win and that will be what they pay, regardless of how high their initial bid was. 

How do you know what their high bid was? You can't see it. Nor can the seller, who would have more of a beef than a voyeur.

Example -

Starting price $20.

Bidder A bids $100.

Bidder B bids $20 (the starting price). Bidder A's bid goes to $22.

Bidder C bids $24. Bidder A's bid goes to $26.

And so on.

You (unless you are doing the same as you accuse Bidder A of) have no idea what Bidder A's maximum is. And that maximum will only be triggered if other bidders take the price to the point where that maximum is triggered.

Perhaps read up on how eBay auctions actually work.

[twyngwyn]

http://pages.ebay.com.au/help/buy/bidding-overview.html#changing

[bee1956nut]

Thanks  Dave.

Nice to see you being so helpful. Not.

[davewil1964]

I gave you facts. Whether you choose to accept them is entirely your choice.

[phorum_junkie*]

Report them for retracting their bids, if they have a history of it ebay can and do issue suspensions or restrict those buyers to use BIN only.

[davewil1964]

OP is a buyer only, PJ.

I suspect they have been beaten on auctions for items they wanted and have decided the other buyer/s are to blame, rather than them not bidding high enough.

[*mobile63*]

"How do you know what their high bid was? You can't see it. Nor can the seller, who would have more of a beef than a voyeur"

When a buyer retracts a bid or when a seller cancels a bid, the highest amount is shown in the retraction even if ithe bidding hasn't reached that amount yet.

[springyzone]

I hate it when people get away with constantly retracting bids.

I am mainly a buyer these days and I've had it done to me (a long time in the past), where someone has bid against me several times, then withdrawn their winning bid.

The trouble with this scenario is that yes, the highest bid of the opposition (in that particular case, me) is revealed. And what happens is when the false leading bid is retracted, none of the other bids are, so the person who had been in second place can be left with a much higher winning bid than would otherwise have been the case.

The only person who benefits from this that I can see is the seller & deliberate shill bidding is against ebay policy so I believe.

The seller doesn't lose out at all as in my opinion that retracted bid was often not a genuine bid in the first place.

But this bidder on Thai jewellery may just be a trouble maker unrelated to any sellers. Someone who is curious to find the top bids but as soon as he/she gets in the lead, changes her mind and retracts and pops in a lower bid, citing 'mistake'. I am guessing they are trying to cover themselves as when a person retracts a bid they are supposed to re-bid with the 'corrected' amount.

Anyone who retracts a lot of bids in a short time should not need to be reported to ebay. With computer programs nowadays, that sort of thing could easily be flagged automatically and restrictions or warnings sent to a bidder.