Disturbing Ebay Trend

[wclem]

I have seen more and more auctions that will be at 10.50 but with something like ten or 15 bids on them. Seeing a few of these here and there is one thing but I am seeing it all over. Are people inching up their autcions with fake or other accounts to milk the most out of people. I just dont think that many people are making ten litttle bids just to eek over the high bidder.

[Luke]

This is nothing new.
I know for sure that many sellers have separate accounts to inch up bids. It's just part of the bidding process, and you just have to accept it. If you find the price too high, don't bid. Might not be the most ethical thing to do, but if a seller outbids their own auction, the only consequence they have is to repost the auction.

[Frag Mortuus]

This is nothing new.
I know for sure that many sellers have separate accounts to inch up bids. It's just part of the bidding process, and you just have to accept it. If you find the price too high, don't bid. Might not be the most ethical thing to do, but if a seller outbids their own auction, the only consequence they have is to repost the auction.

Wow, that is scumbagish. I cant believe people do that. I sell on ebay all the time and Ive never even thought to do that.

[wclem]

It is actually fruadulent bidding, and is very illegal. I hate Ebay, I really do, but what other outlet do you have? There is Amazon, and Chase the Chuckwagon, but Ebay is much more usable and sometimes you do get deals.

I just think it is wrong paying more that the honest market price of something. If I bid 20 bucks and it shows a ten dollar bid then if no real bidders actually bid against me then I should get it for ten. If the idiot seller bids against me then I am paying a false price that does not show true value for what I bid on. If no real bidder bid against me then it is worth ten dollars, not the inflated price of the sellers false bidding.

[Luke]

If I bid 20 bucks and it shows a ten dollar bid then if no real bidders actually bid against me then I should get it for ten.

But that's not how it works. If you don't want to pay $20, don't bid $20. I can tell you are frustrated with ebay, I'm sure there is a better auction site for your needs.

Wow, that is scumbagish. I cant believe people do that. I sell on ebay all the time and Ive never even thought to do that.

It's very scumbaggish, I wouldn't do it, but I understand why some people do; mo money.
The sellers don't have anything to lose. If a seller knows they have someone hooked, they'll take advantage of it. And if caught, I think the stance of, "I had second thoughts and didn't want to sell it, so I bought it back from myself", would actually stand up in our court system, given the right lawyer.

[molotovwars]

It is known as shill bidding.

But just because you see lots of small bids doesn't mean that someone is shill bidding. When I was recently selling my copy of Eliminate Down the bidding was at $82, then someone placed about 5 bids kind of testing what the other guys max bid was, until the max bid was discovered to be $125. Then the other person placed their bid at $127 and left it that way. They wanted the item, but only wanted to pay just more than the other person. In the end, the item sold to someone else who was sniping.

But I can see this being very common on low price items. I usually try to be the first bidder because I know that alone with discourage other bidders. Sometimes something is like $9.99 and thats a reasonable price, so if I bid first thats what I'm willing to pay. Someone else could outbid me, but they're just as likely to find a different auction for the same price.

You might see all those bids from another person trying to bid and just keep it as low as possible for them. It could be the seller bidding up their auction, but $10 auctions are chump change. Its usually on the more expensive stuff that you see that kind of bidding. If someone wanted to maximize the price of something amazon works great as do BIN auctions.

[Weekend_Warrior]

What I'm growing tired of is sending $5 or $6 for shipping when the seller sends it to me for something like $2.70!

[Octopod]

What I'm growing tired of is sending $5 or $6 for shipping when the seller sends it to me for something like $2.70!

There is more cost for shipping an item than what you see on the package. They had to pay for the package for one thing. Plus stuff like gas to get to the PO and their time spent doing so, but I understand what you are saying. Ebay should go ahead and call it shipping and handling instead of just shipping.

[Frag Mortuus]

There is more cost for shipping an item than what you see on the package. They had to pay for the package for one thing. Plus stuff like gas to get to the PO and their time spent doing so, but I understand what you are saying. Ebay should go ahead and call it shipping and handling instead of just shipping.

Agreed. The cost of the packaging is the same as the shipping its self a lot of times.

[Weekend_Warrior]

What I'm growing tired of is sending $5 or $6 for shipping when the seller sends it to me for something like $2.70!

There is more cost for shipping an item than what you see on the package. They had to pay for the package for one thing. Plus stuff like gas to get to the PO and their time spent doing so, but I understand what you are saying. Ebay should go ahead and call it shipping and handling instead of just shipping.

Ok. But to be fair, what about MY extra cost of shipping (I always send money orders), or MY drive time to the post office? I understand this is why people prefer to use Paypal and credit cards. But there should still be some kind of trade-off.