Bidding on Knives from china

[thorshammer25]

Just seeing if anyone else is having this happen to them. These knives open bid at 99cents but ship for about $13. Now thats ok, but every time i bid on one (and there are many of the exact same one) in the last hour i get somone who pops a bigger bid, usually $5. Now this is not unusual, ive done it myself a few times. However what is unusual is that the same knife from the same seller that ends an hour later than mine goes without a bid. Every time.

My suspicion is that these sellers are getting family or workers to dummy bid on these knives to drive the bid higher so they make more money.  If there are a lot of the same items from the same seller all ending near the same time would you try and out bid another buyer or just bid on one that had no bids ?

I wonder what other little scams these sellers are getting up too.  If you have had similar experiences please share them.

[lyndal1838]

You need a lot more than that to make accusations of shill bidding.

It could be shill bidding but I have seen similar bidding patterns that are quite innocent.  Is it the same bidder in every case?  Are they doing it on all items that have bids or just the one item?

[go-tazz]

Just bid in the last few seconds of the auction with your maximum amount,(that way a shill bidder wont bid as they don't

want to win the auction).

I always bid in the last three seconds,

[thorshammer25]

Thanks ,thats a good way to do it. Just having to schedule the end time around when im online.

[thorshammer25]

Thats why i dont mention specific sellers. Im just a bit suspicious of the way this keeps happening.

[trulyspecialgoodies]

You can sign up to a sniping service to bid for you in the last few seconds if you're not going to be online when an auction ends. I believe Gixen is a good one and they're free. Personally I use Bidnapper but that costs me $1 a week for an annual subscription and they offer a 15 day free trial for new users.

[springyzone]

Watch them carefully. If you get outbid again like this, come back to the computer about 50 minutes later and keep an eye on that second knife, the one without bids. Then in the last 5 seconds, pop in a bid. Have it typed in there, ready to go.

I personally am not confident to bid later than that, but it depends on your computer speed and if you have a sniping service you won't even have to be there.

Depends on how good these knives are. 99c sounds very cheap.

Will it get through customs okay?

I suppose it should, we import a lot of knives.