new buyers in last 3 seconds

[dunlopmorgan]

not for the first time today I was outbid on an item I was bidding on in the last 3 seconds by a buyer who suddenly appeared.

Is there a trick to bidding I am not aware of?

[putney32]

pixie, it is actually not allowed, in most States of Aust. to re-open the bidding once the hammer has fallen, on the final 'gone'

it can only be done in the case of a dispute or mis-understanding, amongst the bidders, not because someone wanted to bid more.  In fact, if reported, in some States, the Auctioneer could loose his licence over repeated offences.

[pixiecoo]

putney .... I wasn't in any way talking about re-opening the bidding ....  I said as "he says the final gone", clearly I should have also said "before the hammer has fallen/hit the desk/whatever".

[judeb1010]

It's great to read all the advise above however one piece of extra advice I would like to add for everyone at presen is a reminder of shill bidding and the best way to avoid it.

Check the bidding history of an item before making any bids.

Last week I was looking at buying an item and forgot - it went very cheaply and I kicked myself for forgetting. Very shortly after that I got an email saying the item was relisted and warning bells went off. So I looked at the item and its bidding history.

The bidder on the item had bid on 11 of the items that the seller had he had one 4 of them and funnily 2 were instantly relisted. Of the other items most were bid up to $10 or $20 when they dropped out and they were the only other bidder.

I put in a complaint to ebay and they have confirmed it as shill bidding and "they will take some action"????

However they have not made him remove the current shill bids on items that are still active.

I love ebay to recycle the things I don't want anymore and buy new stuff to take its place. it really makes me cross when people take advantage of others. Most of us are in it to have fun and enjoy ourselves, we don't need crooks.

Just my tuppence worth for today.

[dhanenki]

I'd like to say that in the last 8 seconds of bidding I beat one of the snipes and won the item I genuinely wanted. Though this person was in my opinion trying to up the price and the increments got much larger and larger till the final price which worth more than the item was worth. I felt in this instance it was done deliberately. How do you find out if that was the case or if it was done by the seller?

[lyndal1838]

Can you put the title of the auction here..not item number or seller.

Someone will have a look and tell you if there is anything to worry about.  It is not always easy to tell but there are some signs that scream shill bidding.

[zanadoo_56]

I like using a snipe because that means I won't have to stay up until some ungodly hour waiting to place a bid on an overseas purchase.

I've also placed bids earlier on an item occasionally because I've wanted to know how many people are watching that item.  You can't view watchers on items with no bids (well not using the program I like).