ebay bidding

Does anyone else here think that people whom use friends to increase the bidding on their item are dumb?

I'm watching this Surefire 10x on ebay and one bidder put in a bid at Feb-04-06 16:28:08 PST for $130 and by the time it was Feb-04-06 16:29:54 PST he had bid 4 times and got it up to $200. I could see it if other people were bidding as well, but the next bid came about 7 hours later. Then that second bidder bid 6 times in a row even though no one else had.

The only thing I can see as not making any sense is that last bidder bid less than the then current maximum. Maybe that's why they bid so much, but I don't know why they didn't bid above the then high bid in the first place.

I agree as well. I see it all the time. I can believe it if there is a reserve and is not yet met. Then the additional bidding can bring it to reserve met. Usually the people that bid to bring an item up are UserID's with few feedback, alot of people refer to these accounts as their dummy accounts, incase they get blocked from spam bidding, then they still have their legitimate account. I usually just get turned off and not bid on that item all together.

look for a pattern with their other auctions.
if you see the same bidders on unrelated items good chance they are shill bidders.turn them in to ebay.

If you are not familiar with ebay bidding it can be confusing. When you place a bid you state the maximum amount you are willing to pay. If you are the high bidder the ebay computer will enter a bid in your name that is higher than the current bid by an increment based on the current bid amount. Other people lookin at your bid will not see your maximum bid. They will only see the current bid generated by the ebay computer. If the next person bids more than your current bid but less than your maximum the ebay computer will instantly increase your bid. If you look at the history it will only show your current bid. The computer generated increments are not shown. When you outbid the second bidder by this manner ebay will ask the other person to make another bid. It will continue to do this until he outbids you. Since these bids are not computer generted the history will show all of them. This makes it look like the other person has made several bids each one higher than his previous one. In each case he has been outbid by a previous maximum bid which was not shown.

Alan

Alan is correct. Even though I am fairly experienced on eBay, I sometimes find the bid history confusing. Bids frequently look out of time sequence due to automatic bidding.

As far as shill bidding, no doubt it happens. Really tough to stop and there is not any law against a seller's friends or family bidding. I'm sure they get burned on occasion and end up buying their own stuff.

There is an easy solution for us. Like any auction, live or on the internet, decide what a top, fair price for the item is to you. If you can buy for that price or less, buy it. If not, STOP! A large part of auction psychology is bidders getting carried way and overpaying. That's why eBay refers to it as "winning and losing". $3 more or $7 more or $12 more and I can win!

If you go into a clothing store and see a great shirt but the price is just too high, you won't buy it. Do you feel like a "loser"? If you buy anyway, are you a "winner"? Nope! It is just much harder for people to apply this same thought process to an auction and auctioneers are well aware of this.

Mark

I prefer buy it now. I find most items I am interested in the auctions last 7-10 days and end at a time I am at work or unable to watch and the automatic bidding doesn't suit me as one day I may be willing to pay more but a week later my funds may be less. I have seen way too many auctions where people end up paying 99% of the buy it now price which to me looks like a setup with fake bidders but IMO I figure people are idiots too.

Just because someone bids several times in a row doesn't mean they are fake. The thing you have to realize is 80% of the buyers on ebay are completely, totally stupid. So stupid that it amazes me they are able to turn on their computer and find ebay. I get REAL bidders on my auctions all the time that submit multiple bids in a row for no particular reason. They're just changing their mind about the maximum price they're willing to pay. The other day I had an auction with only 1 bidder. He bid 4 times in a row. He wasn't fighting anybody.

I have been selling stuff on EBAY for a few years now. I am proud of my 97 feedbacks and a rating of 100%. I have only ONCE had a family member put in a bid for me when I first started selling stuff. I used a .99 starting bid on a light assy I made. With 3 hrs left to go it was still .99. My cost was 2.99, so I had a family member bid it to 3.00 so I wouldent loose money (albiet only a few bucks). Since then I have made sure that my starting bid is the lowest I could accept. I have been put out on buying stuff since some people use that automatic bidding software, I hate it when MY bid is the highest until about 8 seconds till then end, then the price tripples......

in short, self bidding is BAD practice.

Jeff

BatteryCharger: Usually you don't know you are the only bidder until about 10 seconds before the auction ends. I've gotten worried that a bid of mine was too low before,and raised it even when I was the only bidder for days. A good thing,too,because a sniper always seems to come along at the last second.

Of course,I don't get carried away and get into a bidding war. i bid the maximum I am willing to pay, and then do not go back until I get an email telling me I won or lost.