Ebay Final Price Suspicious?

theholyghost

I've been using Ebay for years, I've never had any problems and most of the things I buy are BuyIt now items, just recently I took part in an actual auction.

Weirdly, to my reckoning the final sale amount was my maximum bid of €11, there was no bidding at all on the item until right near the end somebody offered 10.97, triggering my max bid. This just seems suspicious! Am I being naive or is it a coincidence? I guess somebody has to have the highest bid.

Is it easy for people to manipulate prices, push up the bids? Is there software or just guess work with bidding on it from another account?

As I say despite using Ebday for years I've just never considered this aspect of it before.

Kenny Logins

Was there a reserve on the item?

theholyghost

No there was no reserve, actually I see the guy did have an earlier bid which pushed it up, so, maybe he was just trying a price shy of 11 and it was genuine, maybe 11 was his limit.

the groutch

maxbe that plus the postage cost was the exact amount he had sitting in his paypal account?

rubadub

A scam can be done (in the past anyway) where somebody bids say €55, when your disclosed active bid is maybe €4, this then reveals your max bid, if it is going up in €1 increments then they will be the max bidder at €12, so know yours was €11.

Then they immediately cancel the bid, claiming it was a typo and supposed to be just €5. So now the auction backpedals, and you are shown as the max bidder at €5.

I think this can happen fast enough so you are not even notified of being outbid.

Boardieman

That is just an experienced eBayer bidding in the last 5 seconds. Once you place your highest bid eBay will bid automatically for you in a matter of milliseconds to all other denominators lower than your highest bid if somebody else places a bid. A lot of people don't get how automatic bidding works but people like me who are good at it never lose an auction.

allthedoyles

Boardieman wrote: »

That is just an experienced eBayer bidding in the last 5 seconds. Once you place your highest bid eBay will bid automatically for you in a matter of milliseconds to all other denominators lower than your highest bid if somebody else places a bid. A lot of people don't get how automatic bidding works but people like me who are good at it never lose an auction.

You can be the best eBay bidder in Ireland , but your broadband speed can still let you down , at that crucial millisecond , which will be outside of your control.

recipio

Beware that sites like auctionsniper will not bid unless the seller specifies he will post to Ireland ( or 'Europe/Worldwide' )