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Private auctions - too risky?

Morrigan · 2006-11-17 11:48:17

Hi there, I bid on an item in a private auction on ebay.de (in German language) and was outbid towards the end (the other bidder bid a lot more than I was willing to pay). I got a second chance offer soon after the bidding ended. Since this was a private auction all bidders identities were hidden, and there was no way I…

17-11-2006 11:48am

#1

Morrigan

Closed Accounts Posts: 331 ✭✭

Join Date: July 2003

Posts: 309

Hi there,

I bid on an item in a private auction on ebay.de (in German language) and was outbid towards the end (the other bidder bid a lot more than I was willing to pay). I got a second chance offer soon after the bidding ended. Since this was a private auction all bidders identities were hidden, and there was no way I could investigate if the other bidder was genuine or the if it was the seller artificially forcing the item's price up. Since I got offered a second chance I am suspicious that it was the seller scamming me. I have checked their feedback and they have over 3000 positive feedback, seemingly from genuine customers.
Before the auction ended on on the German-language site an English language entry was posted for the same (or duplicate) item on ebay.co.uk. I have set up to snipe this item, but I am still not so sure about it.

My question is how can I tell if a seller's feedback is genuine or not? Does this seem dodgy to any of you? Is there something glaringly obviously wrong here that is not so obvious to an ebay n00b like me? should I avoid private auctions altogether? (I believe the reason the auction was private was because the seller normaly sells "mature audience" items)

Cheers

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