[Grand Dizzy]

I recently bid on an eBay item and won it, but the circumstances of the bidding are highly suspicious.

Consider:

• The winning price was precisely my maximum bid.
• My maximum bid was an unusual figure — it wasn’t to the nearest £10 or £5, it was quite a random figure.
• This item should not have gone for anywhere near that amount. I’ve been watching a few auctions of similar items lately and without exception they’ve all been going for about half of what I bid.
• The price was nowhere near my maximum bid until one bidder pushed it up right at the last minute.
• Their bid was exactly the same as my maximum bid only minus a few pence — this seems like a incredibly unusual amount to bid.
• That last bidder placed the bid at the exact second the auction closed. Now I know a lot of people bid at the very last moment — but the very last second? Seems a bit suspicious to me.

What do you think? Could this all be a bizarre coincidence?

[Ber]

Unless I'm missing something then why would it be unusual for the winning bid to be exactly the same as the bid you made being as you were the one that won?

[fi~]

people use snipers on ebay which bid at the last few seconds (i think you can set it up which one it bids, i done mine for 2 seconds)

[TommyGavin76]

Originally Posted by Grand Dizzy

I recently bid on an eBay item and won it, but the circumstances of the bidding are highly suspicious.

Consider:

• The winning price was precisely my maximum bid.
• My maximum bid was an unusual figure — it wasn’t to the nearest £10 or £5, it was quite a random figure.
• This item should not have gone for anywhere near that amount. I’ve been watching a few auctions of similar items lately and without exception they’ve all been going for about half of what I bid.
• The price was nowhere near my maximum bid until one bidder pushed it up right at the last minute.
• Their bid was exactly the same as my maximum bid only minus a few pence — this seems like a incredibly unusual amount to bid.
• That last bidder placed the bid at the exact second the auction closed. Now I know a lot of people bid at the very last moment — but the very last second? Seems a bit suspicious to me.

What do you think? Could this all be a bizarre coincidence?

Why did you bid double the going rate? How would anyone know what your maximum bid is as well? No-one can possibly know that.

[Grand Dizzy]

Originally Posted by fi~

people use snipers on ebay which bid at the last few seconds (i think you can set it up which one it bids, i done mine for 2 seconds)

Can it be set to 0 seconds (i.e. literally the last second)?

Originally Posted by TommyGavin76

Why did you bid double the going rate?

Because that’s the most I’m happy to pay. If I didn’t suspect foul-play, I would have no problem paying that much. I realise I could play the waiting game and maybe get a much better price, but I didn’t feel I wanted to wait any longer. Besides which, I thought it unlikely the price would go anywhere near my maximum bid.

Originally Posted by Ber

Unless I'm missing something then why would it be unusual for the winning bid to be exactly the same as the bid you made being as you were the one that won?

Not sure how familiar you are with eBay, but when you enter a bid, you enter the maximum you want to bid, then eBay automatically bids for you up to that amount. So when you win an auction, you only pay a little more than the maximum bid of the nearest bidder. It’s very rare you would pay exactly your maximum bid, because that requires someone else to have placed almost the exact same maximum bid as you.

In this instance, it seems even less likely given that my maximum bid was an unusual figure, and much higher than what these things normally go for, and that the second highest bidder placed a bid that was a few pence under mine, which is a highly unusual amount to bid.

[TommyGavin76]

Originally Posted by Grand Dizzy

Can it be set to 0 seconds (i.e. literally the last second)?


Because that’s the most I’m happy to pay. If I didn’t suspect foul-play, I would have no problem paying that much. I realise I could play the waiting game and maybe get a much better price, but I didn’t feel I wanted to wait any longer. Besides which, I thought it unlikely the price would go anywhere near my maximum bid.


Not sure how familiar you are with eBay, but when you enter a bid, you enter the maximum you want to bid, then eBay automatically bids for you up to that amount. So when you win an auction, you only pay a little more than the maximum bid of the nearest bidder. It’s very rare you would pay exactly your maximum bid, because that requires someone else to have placed almost the exact same maximum bid as you. It’s even less likely in this instance, given that my maximum bid was an unusual figure, and much higher than what these things normally go for.

Say your maximum bid was £10.71 and someone bid £10.50, wouldn't it automatically bid your £10.71?

[Grand Dizzy]

Originally Posted by TommyGavin76

Say your maximum bid was £10.71 and someone bid £10.50, wouldn't it automatically bid your £10.71?

Probably.

But say my maximum bid was £93 and someone else bid £92.70 at the last second — wouldn’t that seem odd to you?

[TommyGavin76]

Originally Posted by Grand Dizzy

Probably.

But say my maximum bid was £93 and someone else bid £92.70 at the last second — wouldn’t that seem odd to you?

They would only have to bid within £2, so it is unusual, but there is absolutely zero way that anyone can ever know what your maximum bid is. It's impossible.

[mmcd]

Is it possible for you to go back to the seller and retract your bid if you are unhappy? I have seen this happen a lot. You might get an unfavourable feedback but i'd rather that than pay well over the odds for an item. Ever since you cannot see who is bidding against you, I never put in an advance maximum bid. I think it is open to scamming because of this. When you could see who was against you, you could get a 'feel' of whether it was someone bidding against their own item to push up the price. I know that this happens because my son was asked to do it at a company he worked for. He wouldn't do it and promptly left the company.

The most obvious sign was if the person bidding against you had not bought one item but seemed to 'lose' to the highest bidder quite a lot. There is no way to check that now.

[Dibbledooski]

Are you thinking there could have been a bit of shill bidding going on? As you say even though you may have been prepared to pay that amount fairly, shill bidding is wrong.

But the bit about the winning bid was exactly you maximum, if your maximum was something odd, someone else was more likely to put a less odd figure as their maximum (say 10.00) so if yours was 10.21 or something that would not be so odd that you won if that makes sense?

[Sigurd]

Originally Posted by Grand Dizzy

Probably.

But say my maximum bid was £93 and someone else bid £92.70 at the last second — wouldn’t that seem odd to you?

The seller doesn't know the maximum bids of the various bidders on his auction, though, so if he was shill bidding, how could he know what bid to place in order to bump up the winning bid to the maximum possible level?

It would seem risky for him to place a high bid at the last possible second, since he'd be highly likely to end up winning his own item.

[stickler]

Originally Posted by Grand Dizzy

Probably.

But say my maximum bid was £93 and someone else bid £92.70 at the last second — wouldn’t that seem odd to you?

No, it wouldn't, at all. Any sensible person would bid late, bid once and bid their max -- you didn't. Someone else has come along and either bid in the last seconds (very possible, many eBay users pride themselves on sniping at the very last moment) or they use an automatic sniping tool.

You don't actually sound very familiar with eBay and bidding to me at all.

If you were being scammed, someone would have "nibbled" away at your early bid, pushing it up towards the maximum. You would have seen multiple bids from the same user pushing up the price after you put in an early bid.

As has already been said, no one can tell your maximum bid. What is so unusual about someone wanting to pay roughly what you did for a particular item?

Originally Posted by mmcd

Is it possible for you to go back to the seller and retract your bid if you are unhappy? I have seen this happen a lot. You might get an unfavourable feedback but i'd rather that than pay well over the odds for an item. Ever since you cannot see who is bidding against you, I never put in an advance maximum bid.

No, no and no. You bid, you win, you pay. There is no excuse here. The OP bid what he/she was happy to pay. Someone else thought the item had a similar value to them and OP now has to pay what they were prepared to bid. Simple.

I really think it sounds like case of buyer's remorse here and the OP thinks they bid too much in the first place.

Remember, bid once, bid LATE, bid your max.

[Chugalug]

Originally Posted by Grand Dizzy

• This item should not have gone for anywhere near that amount. I’ve been watching a few auctions of similar items lately and without exception they’ve all been going for about half of what I bid.

Serves you right for bidding so much above what the item is worth. Maybe next time you should think before you bid in case somebody else thinks the same way.

[Sigurd]

Originally Posted by Grand Dizzy

• The winning price was precisely my maximum bid.
• My maximum bid was an unusual figure — it wasn’t to the nearest £10 or £5, it was quite a random figure.

I don't think that's all that remarkable, since bid increments have to be taken into account. I'm not entirely clear about this, but I think this is an example of the way the bidding could go.

You say you bid an odd figure. Let's say it was £92.37.

At that price, the bid increment is £2.00, so if someone came along and placed a bid of £90.99, that would be only £1.38 less than your bid. You would then have the high bid, and it would be your maximum bid of £92.37 and not just (say) 1p more than the bid made by the other bidder.

http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/buy/bid-increments.html

I don't think the situation you describe is "a bizarre coincidence", since it's really just the way bidding on eBay can work.

[Geordiesi]

i dont think it sounds odd - whenever i bid i always use a maximum figue thats strange.

If i was you and i wanted to bid 93 quid i would have bid 93 pounds and XX pence (eg 93.12) - the reason being if someone else bids 93 quid then i would win on the few pence extra.

[Tassium]

The so-called "proper" way of using Ebay is just helping Ebay and the seller to make more money.

From the buyers point of view (after all, the most important party) it's best to bid in the last few seconds.


Unless the OP has already checked this, it's possible to place a bid that beats the currently highest bidder and therefore find out what they have bid. You can then retract your bid (unless in the last 12 hours of the auction).

Then in the final seconds you place a new bid that is just a few pennies below what you already know to be the highest bidders offer. Obviously it's shill bidding but "extra special" shill bidding of the kind that only Ebay can provide.

Another reason not to place your highest bid days before the auctions ends!


The listing should say if anyone bid and then retracted their bid seconds later. It's also possible that it was a different ID than the actual last minute under-bidder.

[Grand Dizzy]

Originally Posted by stickler

Any sensible person would bid late, bid once and bid their max -- you didn't.

I did only bid once and bid my maximum!

I couldn’t bid at the last minute because I was out at the time so I had to bid about half a day in advance. I normally always bid at the last moment possible because of all the idiots on eBay who push the price up by bidding more than once.

Originally Posted by stickler

You don't actually sound very familiar with eBay and bidding to me at all.

I’ve been using eBay for good 10 years and bought hundreds of things.

Originally Posted by stickler

As has already been said, no one can tell your maximum bid. What is so unusual about someone wanting to pay roughly what you did for a particular item?

It wasn’t roughly the same amount, it was exactly the same, minus a few pence. It seems suspicious to me and I wondered if there was malware on my computer.

Originally Posted by stickler

I really think it sounds like case of buyer's remorse here and the OP thinks they bid too much in the first place.

Why would I bid an amount I wasn’t happy to pay? I would gladly pay 2 or 3 times that amount. Getting one is the important thing, not the price. But I thought bidding more than twice the going rate would be throwing my money away when I could just wait for another one.

Originally Posted by stickler

No, no and no. You bid, you win, you pay. There is no excuse here.

I’ve cancelled a few transactions over the years for various reasons. It’s never been a problem as long as both parties are happy and agree. If two people agree for the winner to withdraw from their purchase, the item can go to the second highest bidder. In my case, the second highest bidder bid almost the same amount so there wouldn’t be a problem.

However, I don’t want to retract my bid. I want the item. I only posted this thread to determine if I had been scammed.

Originally Posted by stickler

Remember, bid once, bid LATE, bid your max.

Thanks for the tips, although I know eBay pretty well.

Originally Posted by Chugalug

Serves you right for bidding so much above what the item is worth. Maybe next time you should think before you bid in case somebody else thinks the same way.

“Serves me right?”

On eBay, the amount you bid is the maximum you are willing to pay. Why would I enter an amount I wasn’t willing to pay?

I have no problem at all paying that price. I am delighted with it. It’s still about half the price of a brand new one, and even brand new they’re quite cheap.

I am not at all unhappy about winning the auction at the price I wanted to pay (why would I be? ) I am posting this because I think the circumstances are highly suspicious and I’ve never seen anything like this before.

Originally Posted by Sigurd

I don't think that's all that remarkable[…]

You say you bid an odd figure. Let's say it was £92.37.

At that price, the bid increment is £2.00, so if someone came along and placed a bid of £90.99, that would be only £1.38 less than your bid. You would then have the high bid, and it would be your maximum bid of £92.37 and not just (say) 1p more than the bid made by the other bidder.

I don’t see your point, sorry.

Originally Posted by Geordiesi

i dont think it sounds odd - whenever i bid i always use a maximum figue thats strange.

But most people don’t, in my experience. Most people bid to the nearest £10, or whole pound. Then you get a lot of people who bid slightly over (like £11.10) just to beat them. Because of this, I always add 2 or 3 quid on top of that, and usually I add 20p over the pound, which normally does the trick (quite a few times that 20p has made all the difference).

Originally Posted by Geordiesi

If i was you and i wanted to bid 93 quid i would have bid 93 pounds and XX pence (eg 93.12) - the reason being if someone else bids 93 quid then i would win on the few pence extra.

Yes, that makes complete sense. People often bid a few pence over the pound in order to beat the people who bid right on the pound. That is why someone who bid a few pence under the pound seems suspicious to me. It seems pointless. And when coupled with the fact that it was a few pence under my unusual (and high) bid, it seems even stranger.

Originally Posted by Tassium

Unless the OP has already checked this, it's possible to place a bid that beats the currently highest bidder and therefore find out what they have bid. You can then retract your bid (unless in the last 12 hours of the auction).

Then in the final seconds you place a new bid that is just a few pennies below what you already know to be the highest bidders offer. Obviously it's shill bidding but "extra special" shill bidding of the kind that only Ebay can provide.

Another reason not to place your highest bid days before the auctions ends!

Ah, Tassium. A very helpful answer! Thank you!

I wasn’t aware of this (as I don’t ever normally bid so early). I am going to check this out and I think this might be ground for cancelling my transaction.

[stickler]

Originally Posted by Grand Dizzy

It wasn’t roughly the same amount, it was exactly the same, minus a few pence. It seems suspicious to me and I wondered if there was malware on my computer.

It wasn't exactly the same amount, it was roughly the same amount -- a few pence less than you.

You shouldn't be surprised that someone wanted to pay a similar price to you.

I'd bet either one of you has gone exactly on the pound or 50p mark, and the other has entered an odd amount such as £13.63 -- which is exactly what I do when bidding, beause it gives you the edge on folk who bid in exact numbers.

If you think you've been scammed, take it up with the seller, but I'm sure you haven't. Just puzzled why you can't see that if you've been on eBay for so long

[TommyGavin76]

Originally Posted by Sigurd

The seller doesn't know the maximum bids of the various bidders on his auction, though, so if he was shill bidding, how could he know what bid to place in order to bump up the winning bid to the maximum possible level?

It would seem risky for him to place a high bid at the last possible second, since he'd be highly likely to end up winning his own item.

Exactly. As I have already stated and you have confirmed, no-one could possibly know your maximum bid so the fact they bid that amount is nothing more than a coincidence.

And to the OP, stop saying they bid the exact amount, they only needed to be within £2 of it.

[Sigurd]

Originally Posted by Grand Dizzy

I don’t see your point, sorry.

My point was a very simple one: you said in your opening post that your bid was an unusual figure and that, "The winning price was precisely my maximum bid." You seem to think that that's highly suspicious, but if you think about how the eBay bid increment system works, then it's by no means remarkable that your own winning bid was exactly your maximum. Why shouldn't it be?

A question for you, using the figures I gave earlier.

You place a maximum bid of £92.37.

At the last second of the auction someone places a bid of £90.99.

You've won the auction, but how much would your winning bid actually be?

[Tassium]

I think the OP is right to be suspicious, we are talking about Ebay after all!

Yes obviously if a person bid within one increment of the OPs bid then the OPs maximum bid would be the final price.


But what are the chances of another bid being within one increment of the OPs? The thing about chance is that it always has a spookyness about it but I think it was likely just chance.

If it happened to me I would be suspicious too.

[Grand Dizzy]

Originally Posted by Sigurd

you said in your opening post that your bid was an unusual figure and that, "The winning price was precisely my maximum bid." You seem to think that that's highly suspicious, but if you think about how the eBay bid increment system works, then it's by no means remarkable that your own winning bid was exactly your maximum. Why shouldn't it be?

Under normal circumstances, two people having the same maximum bid might not be too unusual. But, as I explained, the going rate for these is much lower and I’ve been watching these auctions for weeks now and they always go for around half that price. So in this particular case it seems very strange that someone else made such a high bid that was no higher or lower than my own.

Originally Posted by Sigurd

A question for you, using the figures I gave earlier.

You place a maximum bid of £92.37.

At the last second of the auction someone places a bid of £90.99.

You've won the auction, but how much would your winning bid actually be?

I’m not sure. But it’s not the winning bid that makes me suspicious, it’s the bid of the bidder before me which was just under my bid.

[elke21]

How could anybody know your maximum bid, to make this a scam?

[Sigurd]

Originally Posted by Tassium

But what are the chances of another bid being within one increment of the OPs?

Pretty strong, I'd have thought. If the OP reckoned that the item was worth £x.xx, then isn't there quite a good chance that another bidder would have more or less agreed with him?

As far as I can see there's no convincing evidence that any sort of scam took place.

[alan_m]

Originally Posted by Grand Dizzy

I’m not sure. But it’s not the winning bid that makes me suspicious, it’s the bid of the bidder before me which was just under my bid.

Strange things happen on Ebay. I've seen people in a bidding war for an item when someone else is selling the same thing on a "buy it now" basis at a third of the price.

Perhaps someone else wanted the same make/model/colour of electrical equipment for the same reason as yourself, and at at the same time because of recommendations on another forum