[iggy]

Can someone smarter than me explain to me why the bid history is the way it is on this item. The bids increased normally by 4 people. Then the last person, who had the highest bid at $2500, suddenly doubles the bid to $5,000. WHAT?? I don't get it. Can someone explain?!?!?!?!? :banghead:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Opel...9feQQitemZ220570458622QQptZUSQ5fCarsQ5fTrucks

 

[kwschumm]

I didn't look at the auction but shill bidding is rampant on eBay. It's intended to drive the price higher and is done by someone affiliated with the seller or even the seller himself from another account. Their hope is that an unknowing rube will beat the price or it won't sell and they will relist.

 

[JimVonBaden]

This looks like a case of autobidding. The bidder A***M has his limit set at some point above $5000. When anyone attempts to bid, unless they bid above A***M's preset limit, only his bid will show, even if the other person autobids too.

It does not necessarily represent any hanky-panky, though in this particular case it would not surprise me.

Jim

 

[Opelmel]

Doesn't look like auto-bid

Click on the "show automatic bids" tab. It doesn't show the last a***m bids as being automatic bids.

 

[hrcollinsjr]

Reserve auction and the reserve has been met.

I ran a successful one a month or so ago. I started the item at $100 w/reserve of $500. I asked a friend to bid the min. for the heck of it. There were two bids at auction end. The friends $100 bid and the winning bidder's $500. The winner may have bid more but without another bidder pushing it, I'll never know. I made money and someone got a great deal!

Harold

 

[kwschumm]

Sometimes buyers play games with reserve price auctions too. They will repeatedly bid higher and higher until the reserve is met to discover what the reserve price is. Then they often cancel their bids.

I don't think this is a reserve price auction though.

 

[tvannatta]

Here is the cut and paste of the "private" "MyEbay" section. We do not know any of the bidders, but have asked that they come see the car. We are open 7 days a week and anyone is welcome to come drive it, etc. Please dont hesitate, its a nice gt.


Bidders:4Bids:6Time left:5 days 4 hours 56 minsDuration:10 days
Seller status: Your item has been bid up to US $5,000.00

Only actual bids (not automatic bids generated up to a bidder's maximum) are shown. Automatic bids may be placed days or hours before a listing ends. Learn more about bidding.
Show automatic bids
Bidder Bid Amount Bid Time
( 77) US $5,000.00 Mar-13-10 18:30:53 PST
( 77) US $5,000.00 Mar-13-10 01:30:49 PST
( 77) US $2,500.00 Mar-12-10 13:43:13 PST
( 282) US $1,500.00 Mar-12-10 22:16:39 PST
93) US $1,111.00 Mar-12-10 07:41:46 PST
7 ) US $1,000.00 Mar-11-10 21:56:07 PST
Starting Price US $1,000.00 Mar-11-10 14:55:15 PST

 

[tvannatta]

and the reserve is met on the car presently.

 

[eaymon]

Here is the cut and paste of the "private" "MyEbay" section. We do not know any of the bidders, but have asked that they come see the car. We are open 7 days a week and anyone is welcome to come drive it, etc. Please dont hesitate, its a nice gt.


Bidders:4Bids:6Time left:5 days 4 hours 56 minsDuration:10 days
Seller status: Your item has been bid up to US $5,000.00

Only actual bids (not automatic bids generated up to a bidder's maximum) are shown. Automatic bids may be placed days or hours before a listing ends. Learn more about bidding.
Show automatic bids
Bidder Bid Amount Bid Time
b( 77) US $5,000.00 Mar-13-10 18:30:53 PST
b( 77) US $5,000.00 Mar-13-10 01:30:49 PST
b( 77) US $2,500.00 Mar-12-10 13:43:13 PST
m( 282) US $1,500.00 Mar-12-10 22:16:39 PST
3( 93) US $1,111.00 Mar-12-10 07:41:46 PST
r( 7 ) US $1,000.00 Mar-11-10 21:56:07 PST
Starting Price US $1,000.00 Mar-11-10 14:55:15 PST

That seems a little odd if you ask me. most people do not put in a max bid of this car so early on. a price of 5k is very steep in comparison to previous sales. i paid 5.5k for mine on ebay and everyone else wouldnt touch it past 4.5k. This is only my opinion.. but that seems a little fishy to me that they would bid that much to hit the reserve price or 'save' the car from below reserve.

 

[tvannatta]

"That seems a little odd if you ask me. most people do not put in a max bid of this car so early on. a price of 5k is very steep in comparison to previous sales. i paid 5.5k for mine on ebay and everyone else wouldnt touch it past 4.5k. This is only my opinion.. but that seems a little fishy to me that they would bid that much to hit the reserve price or 'save' the car from below reserve. "



I cant help the habits of ebay buyers, nor can even guess about them---from my desk they all are 100% different in their tactics and probably have there own logic. On your buy however, if you paid 5.5 for it, then it would be logical to me that someone else was possibly bidding past 4.5, where you indicate the interest stopped, to get it to 5.5 though. Who knows.

on a side note, someone has just spent the last 45 minutes with it and enjoyed it. Our description is accurate as we can be.

thanks

 

[iggy]

Here is the cut and paste of the "private" "MyEbay" section. We do not know any of the bidders, but have asked that they come see the car. We are open 7 days a week and anyone is welcome to come drive it, etc. Please dont hesitate, its a nice gt.


Bidders:4Bids:6Time left:5 days 4 hours 56 minsDuration:10 days
Seller status: Your item has been bid up to US $5,000.00

Only actual bids (not automatic bids generated up to a bidder's maximum) are shown. Automatic bids may be placed days or hours before a listing ends. Learn more about bidding.
Show automatic bids
Bidder Bid Amount Bid Time
b( 77) US $5,000.00 Mar-13-10 18:30:53 PST
b( 77) US $5,000.00 Mar-13-10 01:30:49 PST
b( 77) US $2,500.00 Mar-12-10 13:43:13 PST
m( 282) US $1,500.00 Mar-12-10 22:16:39 PST
3( 93) US $1,111.00 Mar-12-10 07:41:46 PST
r( 7 ) US $1,000.00 Mar-11-10 21:56:07 PST
Starting Price US $1,000.00 Mar-11-10 14:55:15 PST

tvannatta: I did not start this thread to imply any tampering on your part. I want to get involved with selling on eBay and am still watching and learning - I just noticed the history to be odd. As a seller, what is your take on the bidder jumping from $2,500 to $5,000 without anyone bidding inbetween. Does this put up a red flag for you that this is not a legitimate bidder? It just doesn't fit into my logical little head to outbid yourself - let alone by double. What is your take?????

Still :banghead:

 

[JimVonBaden]

tvannatta: I did not start this thread to imply any tampering on your part. I want to get involved with selling on eBay and am still watching and learning - I just noticed the history to be odd. As a seller, what is your take on the bidder jumping from $2,500 to $5,000 without anyone bidding inbetween. Does this put up a red flag for you that this is not a legitimate bidder? It just doesn't fit into my logical little head to outbid yourself - let alone by double. What is your take?????

Still :banghead:

As mentioned before, they are probably bidding to find the reserve. The item wont sell if reserve is not met.

Jim

PS I have sold a lot on E-bay, 100% satisfaction.

 

[iggy]

As mentioned before, they are probably bidding to find the reserve. The item wont sell if reserve is not met.

Jim

PS I have sold a lot on E-bay, 100% satisfaction.

So the bidder is likely not valid (at $5,000 at least) - Can they retract the $5,000 dollar bid but leave the $2,500 bid in place (I realize this bid may not be above reserve)? This is the stuff that I am trying to understand - the crap that happens on eBay. I would assume, as a seller, that you wouldn't expect the $5,000 bid to stand - or - you hope that someone else bids above the 5K. Is that thinking correct??

 

[JimVonBaden]

So the bidder is likely not valid (at $5,000 at least) - Can they retract the $5,000 dollar bid but leave the $2,500 bid in place (I realize this bid may not be above reserve)? This is the stuff that I am trying to understand - the crap that happens on eBay. I would assume, as a seller, that you wouldn't expect the $5,000 bid to stand - or - you hope that someone else bids above the 5K. Is that thinking correct??

No, probably valid, and very interested in the item, but wanting to know if the reserve is above the price he/she is willing to pay. If they bid to their personal limit and do not find the reserve, they walk away.

Jim

 

[iggy]

No, probably valid, and very interested in the item, but wanting to know if the reserve is above the price he/she is willing to pay. If they bid to their personal limit and do not find the reserve, they walk away.

Jim

I understand what you are saying about their personal limit and waking away, but this case is not that yet. I guess I would have jumped by $500 to find the reserve - or is there a reason one can not do that?? If you are trying to find the reserve, and it is $3,500, now you have over shot it by 1.5K. Again...where is the logic?? Even if you are willing to pay 5K, you may have paid 1.5K over and not needed to.

Are you saying that this just looks like someone who really wants the car?

 

[JimVonBaden]

I understand what you are saying about their personal limit and waking away, but this case is not that yet. I guess I would have jumped by $500 to find the reserve - or is there a reason one can not do that?? If you are trying to find the reserve, and it is $3,500, now you have over shot it by 1.5K. Again...where is the logic?? Even if you are willing to pay 5K, you may have paid 1.5K over and not needed to.

Are you saying that this just looks like someone who really wants the car?

More likely they put in their limit, say $5500, and the system pulled them up to the reserve of $5000. That is where the bidding stops until someone else comes along. I am assuming the reserve was $5000, since the buy it now was around $6000.

They system on E-bay wont over bid if you hit the reserve, so long as no one is bidding against you. It is all in how you set up your bid. If you set your bid to go to reserve, or max below reserve, that is where it will go. Say the reserve is $6000, and you bid $5500 stipulating to bid to reserve, it will stop at $5500 which is your max bid. However, if the reserve is $5000 and you bid $6000 with the stipulation that it go to reserve, no other bidders, it will stop at the reserve of $5000, even though you bid $6000 because that is where reserve is.

Also, when setting up an auction with a buy-it-now option, you can set the buy-it-now option to go away once the bidding hits the reserve.

There are a lot of tricks that are perfectly within the rules on E-bay. There are also good tutorials for buyers and seller on E-bay, worth knowing both sides if you want to really make a go of it.

Jim

 

[ken2]

I find that the best money policies on ebay are as follows:
For selling, set your starting bid price at what you are comfortable selling the item for. If just one person bids, the item is sold. If there is interest, the price will increase and you will make out better. For buying, set your max bid at what you are comfortable paying and don't get caught up in the auction excitement. I've made a couple of purchases early on that were totally driven by wanting to "win" the auction. The sellers that screw around on ebay eventually end up with multiple bad reviews. Not to say that buyers don't need to take responsibilty when THEY make the mistake or misread. Ask questions BEFORE bidding.
World wide flea market=awesome resource, but buyer beware! And sellers be HONEST.

 

[iggy]

"...worth knowing both sides if you want to really make a go of it." - Totally agree!!!

I followed what you laid out. So in the example I put forth, the bidder likely bid 2.5K and saw that it did not meet reserve, so the next bid was to "bid to reserve". That took it to what we are assuming is reserve. So the bidder is very interested and is essentially bidding against the reserve price.

I will check out the tutorials (tutorials are good to a point - nothing better than talking to people with experience - Thanks)

ken2: Thanks, more good advice.

 

[oldopelguy]

The bid he made after the reserve was met, the second $5000, was probably his max bid, now not to try and get the car but to keep ahead of folks tossing in bids at the last second. Probably not going to be near the computer at the end and wants to make sure he gets it.

 

[JimVonBaden]

The bid he made after the reserve was met, the second $5000, was probably his max bid, now not to try and get the car but to keep ahead of folks tossing in bids at the last second. Probably not going to be near the computer at the end and wants to make sure he gets it.

b( 77) US $5,000.00 Mar-13-10 18:30:53 PST
b( 77) US $5,000.00 Mar-13-10 01:30:49 PST
b( 77) US $2,500.00 Mar-12-10 13:43:13 PST

There will always be a second bid showing like this. His $5000 bid actually shows twice. I don't believe the reserve was at $2500. IIRC there were higher bids than that before the reserve was met. Anyhow, notice the two bids are only seconds apart? That is the system establishing the new high bid.

Jim