Painful Ebay auction

[chadbang]

I've been watching this guitar for ten days. I didn't bid but I decided to check out the bid history. Am I correct is thinking that this guy, who went the "bid your maximum" amount route, really got burnt on this auction?

http://offer.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.d...tem=3751053245

I would have fainted, personally.

 

[Jahn]

one of two things here -

either amidale is a noob (0) feedback guy who won't go through with the auction and doesn't care, ruining the auction for everyone, or

amidale is the owner of the axe and used that mule as a fake reserve so he could save cash on having to pay for an official reserve.

either way the end story is that guitar will remain unsold, and i wouldn't touch it when i see it posted again, it's tainted goods.

 

[Mr.PD]

It looks like weasel had a high bid and it took armadale several attempts to out bid him.
If he aint a fake, he paid a lot more money than he originally intended to.

 

[MuZI]

I don`t understand what happened.

 

[ooheadsoo]

The long armadale streak means that armadale put in a max of a very high amount. We don't know how many different people tried to beat armadale, but we can count the attempts. Given that all the times are close, it was most likely weasel trying to find armadale's top bid. Armadale's name reappears when his bid was challenged but not beaten. Weasel finally beats out armadale's bid, but armadale tops it 3 hours later, 30 seconds before the auction's close. Since the reserve was met, if armadale was a fake bidder, there would have been no reason for him to win the auction in the end. If weasel had met the reserve, weasel would have been obligated to buy. If weasel didn't meet the reserve then the seller would have no obligation to sell the axe under reserve, so no harm done. There would have been no advantage for a fake bidder to win the auction if the reserve had not been met.

 

[chadbang]

Ah, now it's clear. Thanks!

 

[Budley007]

Yup! I had this happen to me once. I bid what I expected to be a decent price for the item. As the waning minutes of the auction wound down, I was very happy to see that I would only have to pay a little over half of my maximum bid. Suddenly some guy from Italy with ZERO feedback started bidding like crazy and ran the total up to just a few dollars under my maximum bid. I won ofcourse, but was a bit upset with what happened.

Here's the scenario:

Somebody sets up an auction. Yes, the item is real, and the guy is real. What he does is setup a "mock" ID that can be verified with Ebay's automated system.

He then sets up a sniping program to watch the auction(s) and automatically bid up to a reasonable amount at the last minute. If the opposing bids outbid the program's maximum amount, then he's in the clear with a purchase for what he wanted to sell the item for in the first place.

If his mock account outbids the maximum opposing bids then all he has to do is go through the motions of paying himself which really means he does nothing but report a favorable feedback for the seller which is also a plus for him. Ebay doesn't monitor cashier checks, Bidpay transactions or money orders, so all they're concerned with is their fees for the auctions. The seller under these circumstances is not abliged to report a valid sale.

Sure, he loses the cost of the fees for the auction, but will make it up later when he reauctions the item and starts the process all over again.

Sooner or later he'll get his money back on the fees plus a profit because the items being auctioned are valuable enough to insure a high interest in the market. The means for pulling this off are not difficult at all.

 

[GoRedwings19]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Budley007 Yup! I had this happen to me once. I bid what I expected to be a decent price for the item. As the waning minutes of the auction wound down, I was very happy to see that I would only have to pay a little over half of my maximum bid. Suddenly some guy from Italy with ZERO feedback started bidding like crazy and ran the total up to just a few dollars under my maximum bid. I won ofcourse, but was a bit upset with what happened. Here's the scenario: Somebody sets up an auction. Yes, the item is real, and the guy is real. What he does is setup a "mock" ID that can be verified with Ebay's automated system. He then sets up a sniping program to watch the auction(s) and automatically bid up to a reasonable amount at the last minute. If the opposing bids outbid the program's maximum amount, then he's in the clear with a purchase for what he wanted to sell the item for in the first place. If his mock account outbids the maximum opposing bids then all he has to do is go through the motions of paying himself which really means he does nothing but report a favorable feedback for the seller which is also a plus for him. Ebay doesn't monitor cashier checks, Bidpay transactions or money orders, so all they're concerned with is their fees for the auctions. The seller under these circumstances is not abliged to report a valid sale. Sure, he loses the cost of the fees for the auction, but will make it up later when he reauctions the item and starts the process all over again. Sooner or later he'll get his money back on the fees plus a profit because the items being auctioned are valuable enough to insure a high interest in the market. The means for pulling this off are not difficult at all.

That happened to me. I got stung bad a few months ago. I was buying a multi channel amplifier. Now used it should go for £600 tops I ended up paying more and was out of pocket by £200, but that is nowhere as bad as I had to ship it internationally, only sold it for £450 and the best bit is, he tried to pull an insurance scam on me. Ebay is getting worse and worse. The worst bit is on the rare and collectable items it happens the most often. Very annoying.

 

[warubozu]

This happens quite often on Ebay, either the seller of the item is shilling the bids or you have a noob who just doesn't know how much he wants to pay for an item.

 

[rickcr42]

one explaination could be something a simple/stupid as happened to me on a bid.

Trying to purchase a certain item i would think i had the auction won and at the last minute get sniped and lose what i coveted for like a couple of dollars.This p*ssed me off mightily so the next time "the item' came up for bid (not the same exact oe but a piece of audio gear i coveted) i opened up five browser windows with the price incrementally higher in each one in the hopes that at the last minute i could punch in the winning amount and have my prize.

nope,still lost.

so the final attempt i put in a ridiculously high number figuring anyone wanting to bid more than that is welcome to it and you know what ?

I won !

But i actually lost by overpaying for the item and have been kicking myself in the *ss ever since !

lesson learned.I don't have to be hit in the head with a hammer to learn the lesson,i just needed to pay three times what the item in question was worth

 

[ooheadsoo]

Why don't you snipe it yourself? That way, you just pay what you want to pay for it or you lose. It'd be a lot more fair if everyone operated that way.

 

[Jahn]

or do what i do - just buy from the folks here on head-fi. if anyone tries to burn you, the head-fi community shall bring shame, ridicule, and most likely a network to hunt you down and repo all your gear in payment.

 

[rickcr42]

like I said,lesson learned.At the time I was an e-bay nube.
As for buying from the members here., it was not something normally offered by the headfi membership : loudspeakers-

or I damn sure would have

 

[mbriant]

I've made hundreds of purchases from e-bay but have never attempted to sell anything. I vaguely remember reading that the seller can see the amount of your proxy bid in advance. Is this true?

 

[Edwood]

Gee, why didn't he just retract his bid?

-Ed