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And this is why I hate Ebay

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RandyT:


One has to believe that eBay is not only not bothered by shill bidding, but that they encourage it.  I'm basing this on the fact that they now go out of their way to obscure bidders names, making it even harder to know who is doing what.  When you consider that eBay's revenues are based on a percentage of the final sale price, it makes perfect business sense.

I was going to bid on a tool a little while ago and watched the bid skyrocket an hour before the auction was to end.  I looked at the bidders activity and found that he only ever bid on items from the same seller.  IOW, an account that was obviously set up solely to be used by that seller as a shill. 

It's sad to see eBay slowly kill itself.

RandyT

Katana Man:

I personally can't believe that ebay allows the bidder to retract bids and the seller to retract the item!  If ebay has a chink in their armor, this will be their downfall. 

As a seller, if you give up an item to an auction house to be bid off, you can't say, "No, sorry, I want it back, I change my mind", in the middle of the auction!  Likewise, bidders can't say, "I will pay xxx for it", then later back out of it.

In the past, people knew everyone in their town.  Reputation, reliability, honesty, a handshake, and your word was binding and important.  Then in the last century, the automobile and planes made travel easy.  So if you screwed up bad in one town, you could move to another. Then the internet came.  Due to the fact that your face and identity is hidden, it allowed many "average people" to do things they normally wouldn't do in person.  Hidden identities on the internet really brings out the worst in some people.

RayB:

Look at it this way....... the seller obviously doesn't want to let it go for cheap, so either way, you won't get the price you want.


SavannahLion:


--- Quote from: Katana Man on September 03, 2007, 12:21:34 pm ---I personally can't believe that ebay allows the bidder to retract bids and the seller to retract the item!  If ebay has a chink in their armor, this will be their downfall.
--- End quote ---

I've had to retract auctions as a seller before. I had a small fire in the store room where I kept items waiting to go out. Some of the items were either damaged from the smoke or the fire extinguisher spray. The end result was I had to retract three auctions entirely because I couldn't sell the items in their condition in good conscious (interestingly, I had multiple emails asking for the items anyways  ??? ).

On the flip side, I've seen a lot of hokey auctions where the bidder realizes the auction is a scam and retracts the bid. To use a few examples, Before the Xbox was released, someone was selling a picture of the Xbox. The entire auction was made to look like it was selling the real Xbox with picture being mentioned in the very last paragraph. Some poor lady fell for the scam.

Another was an auction for expensive racing shocks. Seller was selling information on where to get them cheap. A friend of mine fell for the scam, bidding $200 for the information before he realized what was up.

Without the ability to A) move responsibility of the item off of the seller (ie, an auction house) and B) the ability to physically inspect the item before bidding, retractions are a feature that are going to stay.

patrickl:


--- Quote from: Malenko on September 02, 2007, 12:40:41 pm ---
--- Quote from: FrizzleFried on September 02, 2007, 12:36:31 pm ---I think you mean "shill" bidding?

--- End quote ---

Shill bidding: is the intentional sham bidding by the seller to drive up the price of his/her own item that is up for bid. This is accomplished by the sellers themselves and/or someone that is associated with the seller making bids to purposely drive up the price of the seller's item.

Shield bidding: occurs when the buyer uses another email address or a friend (the shield) to drive up prices and discourage bids on an item she wants. At the last minute, the shield withdraws the high bid, allowing the buyer to win the item at a lower price. Most auction sites forbid retracting a bid once it's made, and on Usellit4free shill and shield bidding is clearly prohibited.


yeah I guess it was a shill this time, either way, still pissed =(

--- End quote ---
Sounds like this was neither shill nor shield biding. With shill bidding the price would simply be higher but you would have gotten the item. It's not shield bidding either since the high bid was not retracted.

You got sniped. This is when someone bids at the very last moment so noone can top their bid. The idea is to make it look like there is no interest so the bids remain low and then at the last minute the sniper puts in a bid.

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