Ebay Hanky Panky

[Wayne]

I was bidding on a coin on ebay.
I could not be near the computer when the auction ended because i was at work.
So i put in a $125.00 max bid.
Bids were small amounts with a couple of different people doing the bidding.
As soon as I had the top bid of $25.00,a new bidder shows up and he makes a series of 13 bids.
He finally had the top bid when he bid $130.00
After he finally outbid me,13 bids later, and drove the price up to my max.....he withdraws his bid,now making me the top bidder.
The bullcrap excuse was: "Entered the wrong amount" (which was only $7.50 more than his last bid)
There were no other bidders while this was going on.
This is why i dont do auctions and in fact is the very first auction i ever joined in on.
I usually do a "buy it now" or "make offer" or simply pass on the item.
When a bidder does this,his bids....ALL OF HIS BIDS....should be thrown OUT!
That would return the auction to $25.00,where it was when he started bidding.
Its not that I dont like the price,because I was willing to go that high....its the PRINCIPAL of being scammed by a shill.

[jcuve]

I would try to report the seller for shill bidding. Maybe try and retract your bid if that does not work...
Can you post (or PM) a seller link? Shill bidding sellers usually show a pattern of such behavior in many of their auctions. It might help your case to investigate.

It is a shame that you don't do auctions, and when you do, you get nailed like this.

[willbrooks]

I smell a rat. The bidder could easily have been in cahoots with the seller (or be the same person essentially). Why else would the bidder have made 13 separate max bids. Maybe I am not understanding something about the process, but this seems like there is a high probability of collusion going on here. If I were you and if possible, I would retract my bid as well. Can you rebid after retracting a bid?

[jallengomez]

What was his prior selling history like?

[flyhi3]

I would retract my bids down enough so HE is winning, and pin it on him. I would NOT give anyone like this money. What was the sellers ID?

[Antiquity]

I wouldnt pay, I would eat the "non payment" complaint, call ebay and make sure they know exactly what happened. And probably send the seller a nasty message. Stuff like that pisses me off.

[copperlover]

That sounds like collusion to me and generally you can check the number of bids usually made by that buyer to see if the pattern of bidding is consistent

Lucien

[jcuve]

While not as likely, sometimes an outside third party will take a vested interest in a particular variety or error and will make an attempt at keeping it a specific price range. I don't want to suggest that with any certainty, especially being that we don't have an auction or seller link.

[Maineman750]

Sounds fishy to me Wayne...I would report it to eBay and offer them something you feel like is a good deal for you.

[mustbebob]

Can you just tell the seller that since you lost the auction in the first place, that you have no interest in it any more? I am pretty sure that they can not make you buy it for the second best price. I believe the seller will have to re-sell it.

[jallengomez]

That's a good point Bob. Tell them that since you weren't the winner of the auction that you spent you money elsewhere, and now you no longer have the funds that you had allotted to this auction.

[simonm]

Sounds like a sticky situation. Hopefully you get it all worked out.

[liveandievarieties]

I think that just calling eBay and bringing the situation to light will acheive more than anything else. They can look at past transactions and identify a pattern, even ban the seller. They take shill bidding pretty seriously.

[Wayne]

maybe negotiate an offer

I did notify Ebay through a phone call.Have heard nothing back.
What I did was make an offer so maybe we both walk away happy.

[Maineman750]

To answer Bob's question....they can't make you buy the item in this case..they can only offer it to you. You have the right to turn it down. But Wayne did the right thing.Good luck.