can you bid on your own item as a private listing

[cammo1921]

I have noticed when bidding on items that a second after bidding there is a higher private bidder. I even waited until 5 seconds to the end of an auction when no one had bid at all and the got out bid by a private bidder. It seems like the seller somehow has set that up to drive up the price is that possible? or how do you bid without other people seeing you have placed a bid?

[kopenhagen5]

No, that's a snipe bidding service.

It bids in the last 5-6 secs of an auction for anyone that can't be on a computer.

And as for private bidders, that is the seller that has opted for ID's to remain totally private.

Usually used for collectables or personal items.

And No, you cannot bid on your own items. 

[flavour1970]

they have a higher bid than you already set, for example...it starts at $39 i come along and i bid $79 (but it only goes up by how much youve bid if you bid $45 it goes to $45 etc etc.... until you bid $80 then your the highest bidder)....each time you bid then and its under the $79 bid i made it will tell you you have to bid more nobody can see what the bids are, you just have to keep bidding until your bid passes my $79. it auto bids for me until you or someone else bids more than my $79...i confused myself answering this i hope you get it

[2011.narelle]

I hope you aren't trying to bid up your own items because at the 3kg $13.40 rate you charge for a 00 kids romper weighing at under 200g you will be lucky to get another bid anyway.

Just saying,you postage rates will get you no bids or low DSR as it is way too expensive & potential buyers know this.

[mica357_4]

No, you can't bid on your own items and neither should any family members or friends. You can easily be caught out and banned permanently. As for those "last second bidders", it's called a snipe bidding service. Some buyers choose to lodge their bids in the last few seconds. It's a popular bidding practice. Some sellers set their auctions to "private" so that other bidders can't see who is bidding. eBay disguises bidders IDs anyway so I don't see the point. As a buyer, I don't like "private" auctions, I look elsewhere to spend my money, I like to see what other items the sellers has sold and for how much to see if I can trust them with my business. I often buy expensive items and need to be sure I'm not stepping into trouble.

[cammo1921]

There is no need to be rude. Did you even read what I asked? I dont have a romper for sale that is 200g other wise i would have put it in a 500g satchel or just wrapped it! I have 8 wondersuits for sale together and yes they weigh over 500g and the post office has told me the satchels are the cheapest way to post them.

I am not trying to bid up my stuff. I asked about when i am bidding and i am not talking about automatic bids.

[2011.narelle]

Not the romper,the boys cardigan thing.U charge the higher rate for that yet a bundle of clothes that would weigh much more are at the cheaper 500g weight.I could/should have put it more constructively or politely.

Sorry about the impatient reply but the point was that your postage rates are all over the shop & if you want bids or not low DSR for postage cost,you might want to look at that.

I wasn't implying that you shill bid,there are no signs of that.I just didn't like the header of your thread,it often can imply something else ok

[chameleon54 · Accepted solution]

Hi Cammo, If you waited untill the last few seconds of an auction to bid on an auction that had no bids, it is almost certian you where outbid by an automatic ( or manual ) snipe bid. A Snipe bid is when some-one places a bid in the last few seconds of the auction. ( The same as you did ) . There are several reasons for doing this. One is not to alert other potential buyers of your interest in the item. Another is to prevent other bidders from placing "nibble bids" ( small incremental bids chasing your bid ) and the third is to prevent shill bidding. Shill bidding is when a seller has a seperate ID and bids on their own items. This is a serious breach of ebay policy and not reccommended, as a seller can be banned for life from ebay if caught. Also experienced buyers can often spot suspected shill bids and will refuse to buy from you again. If there where no bids on the item in the last few seconds a shill bid is highly unlikely.

           As for the private bid thing, everyones bids are now private. You and the seller are the only ones who can see your ID. Anyone else looking at the auction would see a code something like A***4 or similar as your bidding ID.

[cq_tech]

Which just happens to be a huge incentive for some unscrupulous sellers to shill bid their own items because with masked IDs eBay have removed all traces of transparency in bidding. A lot of buyers won't bid on auctions at all any more, and I'm one of them.

[chameleon54]

cq_tech........., Last time I checked, all of the protections for buyers against shill bidding where still in place. The bidders Code ID and feedback score remain the same for each bid, so you can track their bidding patterns. If you see any irregularities, you can click on the coded ID and still see their % of bids with the one seller, time of placing bids, 30 day bid history etc. If you check the sellers feedback you can see if the coded ID has bid on any other of the sellers items and any irregular bidding patterns. As far as I can see the only thing that has changed is that instead of an ID name dreamed up by the bidder, you see a standard code which applies to all of their transactions. As far as I can see the changes make no difference to detecting shilling. What am I missing ???