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!

[bee1956nut]

One of the sellers was a little reluctant to report this person, as she drives the bids up and does buy a reasonable amount of items.

They probably liked her because she pushed the bids up so high and was the only one dumb enough to pay that much. They must have been laughing all the way to the bank.

 (btw - I think she is a true buyer, not a shill bidder)

Anyway, I dont think they are liking it so much now, as she is pulling bids , then going back and bidding much lower. I am sure she is doing this just to see how high people are bidding.

Anyway, to end the saga, the other seller has reported her to ebay, so hopefully she will stop cheating.

Just fyi - her 30 day stats are now up to 847 items bid on and 604 retractions 

ie she retracts 71% of her bids.

Crazy,

[imastawka]

Why would you think a seller is going to report someone for getting them more money?

You seem to be the one that's worrying about it.

I did say for you to call ebay and report them, and to have the item numbers ready.

You don't have to know who it is.     Ebay can see who it is.

They'll take the action that they see fit.

Latest stats on this bidder -

30-Day Summary Total bids: 3408 Items bid on: 843 Bid activity (%) with this seller: 26% Bid retractions: 608 Bid retractions (6 months): 630

[bee1956nut]

I already have.

[digital*ghost]

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@bee1956nut wrote:

Anyway, I dont think they are liking it so much now, as she is pulling bids , then going back and bidding much lower. I am sure she is doing this just to see how high people are bidding.

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I don't run auctions anymore, but I always hated it when I had a buyer retract a bid, especially if there were others already bidding, as I felt it undermined the whole process and had the potential to make me look dodgy to the other bidders - personally, I would block a bidder like that in a heartbeat, no matter how much they drove up prices. 

I can't work out why they'd be doing it, though, if it's not to drive up prices. I mean, seeing how high others are bidding isn't really beneficial, particularly the way they're going about it (the best possible use for that info I can think of would be to determine other's bidding patterns, if continually competing for the same items, in order to be able to start placing one late bid to win for the lowest amount possible, but they're obviously not doing that....). 

They have a relatively low FB score (was at 24 when I checked the bid history of an item earlier), but that's not really enough to indicate if they are a noob who doesn't know what they're doing, or just a new account from an experienced member who has very specific intentions (their grasp on the retraction process was obviously not lacking, at any rate). All I can say is it only took me a few auctions to understand the best way to bid (to my own advantage that is; i.e. one bid, as late in the auction duration as possible, for the maximum I wanted to pay). Once I figured that out, the only time I'd bid early would be to put on a 'placeholder' bid, which was usually the lowest possible amount I could bid at the time, but even then I did it rarely as once there's a bid on the item, I found it encouraged others to try and be the current highest bidder (earlier than they otherwise would have). o.O 

[englishrosegardens]

If they're wanting to win the auctions they may be trying to make the sellers look dodgy to put the other bidders off and drive the price down.  A lot of buyers would wonder what's going on and they could either assume the seller is shill bidding or they'd just be dubious enough to stop bidding any more on that seller's goods.  

[springyzone]

That's interesting info, stawka.

To me, it almost looks like manic behaviour.

I realise that a lot of bids are on the same items but even if you look at it that way, she has still bid on 843 items.

Even if each item only cost $1 or $2, (to me) that is an enormous amount to be spending on jewellery items in one month.

Unless that person is a dealer or seller herself and is onselling them, then it would be understandable.

But in that case, I would expect her to use ebay more professionally.

You wouldn't expect a dealer to put their account at risk.

[bee1956nut]

re digital*ghost
I used to place a high bid, but when I discovered that she was checking my bid, retracting then bidding lower, (usually a few dollars over my high bid) I stopped.
Now I simply wait till the last minute or two and bid high then. I
I did mention to the sellers that by allowing this it makes them look a bit dodgy.
I have always found these sellers very good, so I don't think they are involved in her perfidy.: ))

[springyzone]

If you are finding she's a serial nuisance on the types of items you often like to bid on, then it might even be worth signing up for one of those remote bidding programs. I think they often give you the first 3 bids for free on a trial basis.

You simply enter the auction number & price you are happy to go up to & the system will bid on your behalf a second or two before the end of the auction.

You won't necessarily win-it depends on what others have as their max. But it is very convenient as you don't need to be online at the end of the auction, it is set and forget. Plus no one else can tell you are going to bid or suss out you max bid amount that way.

[locall1961]

Have a feeling she/he is helping the seller sell their items for a higher price as to me going by what you have said it makes sense that she/he wants to see what the top bidders highest bid amount is, not the other way round because no matter what she/he bids if they are the highest bidder then they are going to win with the amount just above what second bidder put in.
If you are worried, please call Ebay or do a live talk, give them the item numbers that you have looked at so they can investigate. As you know, there are millions of sellers/buyers on Ebay and unless someone says something so Ebay know about it, they will continue to get away with it.
521 bid retractions out of 1116 bids is very suss indeed. Go report them bee1956nut

[kopenhagen5]

I believe shill bidding refers to an account held by the seller, relative or friend.

The term shilling refers to a party inflating an auction price with the intent of maximum gain for the vendor.