Phantom bids on Ebay.

GopErthike

I don't know if this has been discussed before, but this is the second time this has happened to me.

I found an item on ebay I want to buy. The highest bid stood at £10.00.
Only 2 bids have been made. It says I must make a bid of at least £11, so I make a bid for £12.00.

But when I confirm my bid, it instantly comes back saying I have just been outbid by 50 pence.
Yet the number of bids has changed to just 3.
I was outbid by 50 pence, yet I must increase my bid at least £1.
I jumped my bid up to £20, but yet again got a message saying I had been outbid by 50 pence.

This happened before, I made multiple bids, but again had to quit because I know it was automated.

Anyone experience this before? Any advice?

Thanks

MrStuffins

Correct me if i'm wrong, but you are given an option as to what your max bid is right?

So are other people. So if the other guy bid £10 but his max bid is £20, he will automatically outbid you until you reach £20.50!

drunkmonkey

That's normal, let's say an item is worth 100 euro but is currently at 10, I put in a bid of 50 euro, but the item cost only raises by maybe a euro but anytime someone bids on it my bid will auto bid again up until a maximum of 50 euro, if you bid 51 you'll get the item.
Hope that makes some sense.

GopErthike

Your both right, I just didn't read the fine print :o:o

Makes perfect sense now, sorry.

And thanks for your prompt responses.

dudara

Moved to Online Buying & Auctions

dudara

rubadub

GopErthike wrote: »

Makes perfect sense now, sorry.

Most people do not realise how ebay really works, once you do you can do much wiser bidding and usually get stuff for better prices. A few comments I made in the past about it. "Sniping" is bidding in the closing seconds of an auction, there are sites that do this automatically.

rubadub wrote: »

I simply avoid bidding wars, I bid in the closing moments so nobody has time to enter a counter bid when they are outbid. There is no real way to know how much I have truely saved on an individual auction, but if you know how to read auction histories you can see what typically happens. People get caught up in bidding wars.

How I figure I have saved is by checking out completed listings- another little known ebay tool.

If you do a search you can go to advanced and select "completed listings" this shows all the auctions for the item you want that were sold in the last month. Now you can see "the going rate", especially for high volume items, such as memory cards. You might see that the going average is €50, while many may go for €40, some €60. So if you win your auction for €40 you know you got a better than average deal.

Many people will not use ebay properly at all, they do not realise it is proxy bidding, they think the bid they put in will appear right away and must pay it. Some do realise it is proxy but STILL do not use it right, they do not put in their TRUE maximum.

Say you start a auction for a new bike, starting bid must be €50, the bikes shop value is €500. The ONLY reason I would bid at this stage is to stop you cancelling the auction. If there are no bids you can cancel at any time.

So I do not bid my max, but I do it with good reason. I bid €100 and you now cannot (easily) cancel the auction. My true max is say approx €400. Instead of bidding €50 I might go €100, for a good reason too.

I bid €100, but the current price is €50. Now another bidder comes along and typically will bid €55, not his true max, you can see this in many histories, though harder these days. Now he is instantly outbid as I am €100. He goes up in increments, loves the buzz of not knowing. Then he hits €100, I still outbid him. Now he might go €105 and be the highest bidder, and is delighted.

If I left it at an opening bid of €50, and he scored at €55, I figure he is now more likely to put his TRUE max in, as the bid is very low and he has not gotten any fun out of the auction, and sees he is likely to be outbid. But going to €105 he thinks he is really in a good bidding war, and is winning.

If I go €110, he will likely go €115, or higher. So I leave it. Most will go check on the auction to see what is happening. It may be days from finishing.

Now I go in and bid in the last few seconds, I bid €405 (not €400) in the last few seconds. Now he has NO TIME to react with a counter bid.

Many people put round figures in too, that is why I would pick €405, not €400. It is more likely somebodys max is €400, and if they had time they would say, "ah, 400 was my max, but I will go the extra tenner", but they have no time.

This bidding is called sniping, and ebay are against it since they lose out on profits, because the buyer ends up getting it cheaper.

Some do not think it is fair, but only those people who have used ebay incorrectly! it is stated in ebays rules/guidelines, enter your max, YOUR TRUE MAX.

If you get pissed off because you got sniped on an item at 405, when your bid was 400, then you cannot complain about anything, if you really were willing to "go the extra tenner", then why not do it from the start.

I have seen powersellers selling 10 identical items, most starting at €40, they also had 5 of the exact same items as buyitnow for €50. Yet I have seen people get caught up in bidding wars and ended up paying €60!

I get sniped all the time myself too, you will be outbid by a small increment, say €5, but that does not mean if you went €10 more that you would have got it for that, you do not know the other guys true maximum, it could be €100 more. If I did have time I might throw the extra tenner on and lose, this forces the other sniper to pay more. Ebay & the seller win, the bidder loses out.

rubadub wrote: »

Sniping also protects you from the seller himself, if he does choose to have a 5 min extention (if it does get offered in the future), then he can have a mate bid an extra euro to try and squeeze more out of you. This is called shilling.

Judgement Day

rubadub - don't give away all our secrets.