Am I to assume this is someone boosting their auction bids?

[breaddrink]

Hi..

I recently won a very low cost item.

I saw the amount I bid raised to my full bid amount of 17.00 dollars, of course hoping it would go for lower.. I received an email that I had been outbid and lost, and then a short while later that I had won, for my full reserve amount.

The bids on all but the first 3 were from the same person, yet my bid in the bid history was the highest? How is that possible?

Is it possible the seller was working with a second account to force the bid as high as it could possibly go and then removed the last bid, returning the win to me, regardless? WOuld this be shown on the bid history?

I looked up the competing bidder and saw that his bid history was 56 percent to the same person, but the person they bid to was of course anonymous.

I reported it as suspicious, but would appreciate advice to know if I'm over thinking this, or an explanation as to how I can receive the loser of auction email but then end up winning, with exactly my highest reserve as the final bid.

Many thanks. 🙂

[kopenhagen5]

What is the item number ?

[dvd.horder]

it happens quite a lot

[breaddrink]

The pushing of aucions higher, or a false positive in getting the email saying I lost but then won?

[breaddrink]

402634086823
Looks like my reserve was set to 17.99 actually..

The losing email read as follows..

"Outbid. Raise your bid of $17.99 for Samsung Charging Cradle Case For SM-R175..."

But then within the same email it says the winning bid was 17.50. (which was my final price).
Is there any way it naturally actually got to the end of my reserve and I really did win, or would a retracted bid be shown in the bidding list? Because it doesn't.

I then received a second email saying I won.

Again, it may be completely fine, but seems a little fishy. It's within the reserve I placed regardless..

[springyzone]

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@breaddrink wrote:

402634086823
Looks like my reserve was set to 17.99 actually..

The losing email read as follows..

"Outbid. Raise your bid of $17.99 for Samsung Charging Cradle Case For SM-R175..."

But then within the same email it says the winning bid was 17.50. (which was my final price).
Is there any way it naturally actually got to the end of my reserve and I really did win, or would a retracted bid be shown in the bidding list? Because it doesn't.

I then received a second email saying I won.

Again, it may be completely fine, but seems a little fishy. It's within the reserve I placed regardless..

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I have often received messages that tell me I have been outbid and to bid again if I want to win.

However, I have never received one that asked me to bid higher but also told me in the same message that I had won.

Had there been a bid that outbid your reserve and it had been withdrawn before end of auction, I would expect your winning bid to have been $17.99. I'd also expect withdrawn bids to show in the bidding history.

I don't know exactly what happened, the email seems very strange to me, to tell you those 2 things within the same message.

Basically, what you do next is up to you. If you feel you have possibly been cheated in some way or if you do come across some bid retractions you feel are fishy, you can just refuse to pay and tell the seller why. You might get an unpaid item strike but that is no problem unless you get another one within the same year.

On the other hand if you really want whatever it is, just pay the money but you could also politely ask the seller what happened and explain the message you got. Ask if there were any retracted bids.