Opinions please: dirty dealings or sniping?

[tralfaz_no1]

Recently bid on an item which had a Buy Now of $5000 but no reserve. My bid at $$2200.00 was the highest for days and I had entered the bid price I was prepared to go to as $2800.00. Twenty seconds before the bidding closed the price suddenly went from $2200.00 to $2850.00 with no intervening bids at all.

Automated bidding I have seen in the past normally just escalates exceptionally quickly, but this one jump of $650 straight over what I had been prepared to go to gives the impression that someone could see my intended limit, and used that to beat me.

The bidder was a new identity with less than 9 feedback score and all recent bids on their bid history with the seller. If I was outbid using a sniper program then good luck to the buyer as I don't use them, but the sudden increase of $650.00 made me suspect that the item may have reached no-where near the "Buy Now" price, and the seller could have intervened with another ID to prevent what was to them a substantial loss. The seller has a feedback score also less than 10.

I don't mind sellers pulling their items but I understand that it can't be done within a certain period of the auction end (I don't sell so really don't follow this closely). What does the group think - dirty dealings or sniping? Or was the buyer just lucky picking the amount? 😉

[gec2002]

I agree viewmont if the item was worth say $4000 then even paying the FVF of $240 is better than losing $1200.  But if it is shill then most likely they will cancel or have a NPB.

Please post if the item is relisted.

[carls*world]

I'm with 7 & 8 on this one. Simple snipe, possibly programmed well in advance, and for any amount higher than your highest. Didn't jump by leaps and bounds, as there was no snipe battle happening, often when 2 or more snipers submit much higher bids. Then their bids fight it out to the highest.

[bjmonty28]

Could you provide an item title please so that we can have a better look at what has happenned here?

If it was a sniper the rush of bids would have come in at 10 seconds or less ( generally 4 seconds ) prior to end.

[the_great_she_elephant]

BJ  As I understand it, there wasn't a rush of bids - just one bid, about 20 seconds before the end that topped the OP's highest bid

[i-once-was-bump]

put a snipe in near the end (as all serious bidders should).

What nonsense, plenty of serious bidders only bid on newly listed items to wipe out the BIN in the hope of getting a bargain, eg moi. 😄

dave your post #8 one seller/poster here shills their own items so that they are not sold because they don't like the low price the items are selling for so if one does it then there are sure to be plenty more around with the morals of an alley cat.

[tralfaz_no1]

I think it all just goes to show that bidding is never an even playing field on eBay, although I have to say that in over 1100 buys I have only been scammed (to the best of my knowledge) five or six times. In my view eBay lost a huge amount of credibility and integrity of process when they disguised the identity of bidders some years back.

This one was just so unusual with the one higher bid coming 20 seconds before the end that it caught my attention. What was also unusual was that with every time in the past I have been sniped the winning bid is usually only a few dollars higher, not $50.00 in one hit, although as I am not experienced with using sniping software I wasn't aware if you can nominate how much you want to exceed the highest bid by.

The latter does seem somewhat risky because with an automated process and two programs sniping you could nominate some large amount and get caught with a final buy price well over the item value if you were not careful. My assumption is that you can set the limit for your buy price, but as I said before I don't use sniping software out of principle so don't have any experience with it.

It was a car by the way, and what was strange is that although the email from eBay telling me I hadn't won carried a "Buy It Now" price, the actual eBay ad didn't.

I normally stick to buying from the US now for the specialised things I get and this attempted buy reminded me of why. Thanks very much everyone for the opinions and views, no need to carry this any further.

[kopenhagen5]

It simply looks like someone bid 3000 then it automatically jumps one increment above your max bid of course. This link might help -

http://pages.ebay.com.au/help/buy/bid-increments.html

[leader-of-the-band]

. . . . . I am not experienced with using sniping software I wasn't aware if you can nominate how much you want to exceed the highest bid by.

. . . . . Thanks very much everyone for the opinions and views, no need to carry this any further.

there is a need to carry this thread a little longer if falsehoods need correcting.

Nobody but YOU knows how much you bid, unless you are outbid.  Snipe programs do not have the ability to know how high you have bid in order to outbid you by $50.  If snipe programs knew how high the highest bidder had bid they would bid just 1 cent above that amount in order to win.

I don't use snipe programs either, never have.  The may be able to utilise a "one-click" bidding strategy which would bid one increment above current high bid, but not one bid increment above the amount you have actually bid on an item.

[pinktoedannie]

I nearly always use a sniping program.  I put in what I'd be happy to pay. 

If someone else has put in a high proxy then the final amount will jump dramatically in the last ten seconds. 

I don't think you could assume he was guilty of shillbidding based on being sniped. 

[bjmonty28]

Quote " I don't use snipe programs either, never have.  "

It is the same as saying...

" I have lots of money and dont care how much i end up paying for the item. As long as my name is " currently the highest bidder " then I am happy. LOL

I always have to laugh at people that can afford to pay more than they would pay if they are using a sniper program.

There is no other reason other than more money than brains.