Is the Ebay bidding process rigged? I think so . . .

GlennDog

I am very disappointed in my Ebay experience lately. I think Ebay promotes (rigged) transactions so that your are encouraged/forced to "Up" your bid . . .

your thoughts? Is this regulated by Big Bro. (god help me, a higher power?) That would be OK if the powers that be were HONEST, but they NEVER ARE!! Just look at Kwame (ex-Detroit mayor). . . . corruption everywhere I turn

I Guarantee There's a Mark Jacking Up The Price, I am very frustrated . . .

G

rpf65

I've never trusted a live auctioneer; they talk way to fast. I think I would trust a non-talking auctioneer even less.Probably explains why I have never been to the e-bay website.

VR3

I dont think it is exactly rigged... I know I have had others bid on things I sell before to try to "bump it" lol

gdb

Who is rigging it, what's their motivation, how is it done ??

dorokusai

Is this an eBay rant or a local political issue? :biggrin:

I believe eBay lets a lot of things go when they benefit from the issue or event. If the Final Item Value fee works in their favor, you won't find much you can fight against if you didn't follow the rules. eBay is the largest and most active marketplace on the internet, period. They'll continue to be in that position until prove otherwise. That isn't going to happen since they buy or muscle everyone else out of the way, so either buckle up or take a hike into the nether region of other like minded sites that have almost zero impact.

It sucks but the eBay model is the bar standard for internet resale. The only marketplace that has any foothold for ppl like us is Audiogon. Do you know how many times eBay and it's group has offered to buy Audiogon? LOL.

Mark

Toolfan66

rpf65 wrote: »

I've never trusted a live auctioneer; they talk way to fast. I think I would trust a non-talking auctioneer even less.Probably explains why I have never been to the e-bay website.

:rolleyes:

GlennDog

dorokusai wrote: »

Is this an eBay rant or a local political issue?
It sucks but the eBay model is the bar standard for internet resale. The only marketplace that has any foothold for ppl like us is Audiogon. Do you know how many times eBay and it's group has offered to buy Audiogon? LOL.Mark

NUFF SAID . . . .

But yeah . . . a rant as well
fyi I guess I'll buy from a "brick n" mortar" aka trusted site like Brent Jesse instead of Who The F*&# Knows

Time to call it a weekend

Nite!

G

goofyGAguy

You're talking about shill bidding, which is highly illegal.

polkfarmboy

I love ebay and I have learned never to bid on anything till the final seconds it will mess up the shilling's

GlennDog

who would know? only an insider . . . and I'm sure info is kept tightly wrapped.

I would bet this industry is loosly regulated, if at at . . .

G

mdaudioguy

goofyGAguy wrote: »

You're talking about shill bidding, which is highly illegal.

Is that similar to being very dead?

polkfarmboy

I think if you were to set an auction up and try shill bid then you would be suprised how fast they caught you '

I think there are some asswipes out there that get a kick out of bidding with no intention of buying. The buzz comes from **** an honest bidder out of getting an item for a great price and they know that if they were to win then they could sell it on and loose nothing

CCNJ

I recently bought a tube on ebay. I was getting it very cheap until shortly before the auction close, someone placed a single bid and got me up to pretty close to my automated max bid. I won the auction and paid a fair price but when I looked back at who bid me up it was someone with almost 3000 ebay transactions which is almost certainly a dealer. Why is a dealer bidding on a single tube Just seemed a little fishy to me.

chumlie

Never had a problem. I just don't bid more than i'm willing to pay. Its easy.

KiTsuNe

Ive won a few things from an auction for a good price but most of the time you wont see an auction go for much lower than the same item with a "buy it now" price. A good way that I've found is look at the buy it now price and expect to pay around that much give or take 10-20 dollars. You lose the time waiting for the auction to end and risk the chance of not getting any better of a deal. Never bid until the very end. I rarely do auctions anyways because I'm not willing to wait an extra 3-7 days just to maybe get a 20-40 dollar discount compared to a "buy it now" auction. Usually with a buy it now you can have it arrive at your place before the other bid even finishes.

In my opinion I believe its how patient you are and if your time is worth the extra 10-20 dollar savings. I bought my panamax power conditioners for under 200 each but it took 2 months to track down two for that price and actually win it.

goofyGAguy

mdaudioguy wrote: »

Is that similar to being very dead?

Hey, the dead vote in Chicago, so I guess so.

SDA1C

VR3 wrote: »

I dont think it is exactly rigged... I know I have had others bid on things I sell before to try to "bump it" lol

-1....

I am convinced there are computers working for the large sellers. My daughter wanted a pair of earrings that opened @ $5.00. I bid $5.25. I was instantly told That I was outbid for $5.50 and that I should raise my bid. I did not. The auction closed @ $5.50 and within minutes I received the second chance offer.

Either the nonpaying buyer called within minutes of the bid closing on a pair of kids earrings...doubtful, my daughter picked the one pair out of 37,000 that had a nonpaying buyer watching them...doubtful, or there is an electronic shill program. Regardless, I use Ebay regularly as a search engine, then once I have found the item I Google it and 99% of the time find it elsewhere for quite a bit less.

badchad

Ebay is great, but the value is hit or miss. You can get some things heavily discounted, others not so much. I've found the best way to do it is to search the "completed" items first to get an idea of the market value of something. Then, if you really want it use a sniping program. Personally, I do it the old fashioned way and wait till the last few seconds.

Personally, I don't think it's that corrupt. If you get a friend to shill bid, then you miss the sale.

Everything is better when you win it.

Toolfan66

I have been a eBay member for 6-8 years? It's been so long I don't remember.. LOL.

I have had two issues both were worked out. There is a lot of good deals to be had on eBay, when you get into a bidding war be willing to pay..

vcwatkins

I think the Second Chance thing is a fairly easy, way for a seller to set up a single shill and max out every legitimate bid. I doubt it works too often though since bidding for many is an emotional countdown adrenalin thing, and once it's over, the thrill of the hunt is gone. I bet the % of second chance offers taken is fairly low. Still, a seller can simply repeat it at little cost to re-list.

I just set my price and bid at end through a client. I've actually had more bad deals through Audiogon than eBay, especially as a percentage of total.

Craig

tonyb

GlennDog wrote: »

who would know? only an insider . . . and I'm sure info is kept tightly wrapped.

I would bet this industry is loosly regulated, if at at . . .

G

Loosely regulated ? How so ?

Pretty hard to regulate a site such as ebay.....not that one would want to anyway.

Ebay is in it to make money, as with the sellers. Can someone get others to falsely bid up a sellers product ? Sure they can. Then stop bidding....hello ! Then you'll get a second chance notice, or you'll see the seller re-list the product. A product is only worth what someone is willing to pay. Have a price already in your mind that you won't go over and stick to it.

I don't get why people cry about ebay, it is what it is, an auction site. The whole purpose is to get the maximum amount for the goods sold and that doesn't always translate to a "good deal".

jbooker82

I use a Stealth Bid program. You register with them and give them your user name and password. You copy and past the item number and put in your maximum bid. It automatically submits your max bid with in the final seconds of the end of the auction.

If you have the high bid then you win. If you don't you loose. You don't always pay your max bid.

So that is probably what you guys are experienceing. It is a nice program cause you don't have to sit around and wait to manually submit the finally seconds.

Syndil

eBay is not rigged. You just have to know how to play the system. If you don't know how to play the system, then the system is playing you.

cowtrimmer

sellers with two accounts is what I think is wrong with their system. You shouldnt have to bid against the seller who is jacking up the price.

Syndil

That rarely happens. If a seller shill bids on their own stuff and they actually win their own auction, then they still have to pay eBay the listing fee and the final value fee. Not worth the risk unless it's a high-dollar item, and in those cases the seller will have a reserve on it.

You guys are simply being out-bid. You have to remember that eBay is an enormous marketplace. There is almost always someone out there who is going to be willing to pay the actual value of the item. And if they get caught up in the whole bidding process (gotta win it!) then sometimes they will even pay more.

sucks2beme

Ebay stuff is always a crap shot. There are way too many people who are in it to win, set to bid it the last seconds.
They set strong bids. I often find they pay more than market value. Welcome to the bidding process.
For a while, I used to bid reasonable bids on a score of audio items. Over the years, I got two items.
Thats out of hundreds of auctions. Set your limits and stick with them. unlike stuff like computer parts,
audio buys involve much more motivated buyers. Those $1500 silver faced Pioneer receivers are just one
example.

pitdogg2

SDA1C wrote: »

The auction closed @ $5.50 and within minutes I received the second chance offer.

Either the nonpaying buyer called within minutes of the bid closing on a pair of kids earrings...doubtful, my daughter picked the one pair out of 37,000 that had a nonpaying buyer watching them...doubtful, or there is an electronic shill program.

wrong they had more than one pair and it's a way of beating the listing fees. plain and simple.
like the time i saw a AM/FM tuner for .99 buy it now and a 250.00 shipping charge. the seller paid the .99 fee for the sale and then NO fees on the shipping.

72RR

Which is the reason sellers now have to pay a fee on the shipping charges.
Sucks for the honest sellers.

nspindel

CCNJ wrote: »

I recently bought a tube on ebay. I was getting it very cheap until shortly before the auction close, someone placed a single bid and got me up to pretty close to my automated max bid. I won the auction and paid a fair price but when I looked back at who bid me up it was someone with almost 3000 ebay transactions which is almost certainly a dealer. Why is a dealer bidding on a single tube Just seemed a little fishy to me.

Unfortunately, eBay is not really a true auction. A true auction does not have an end time. It ends when people are done bidding. "Going once..... Going twice.... SOLD!" Because eBay doesn't work this way, but instead is over at a fixed time for whoever is the high bidder, there really is very little incentive to bid on an item other than in the final few seconds. Otherwise, you're just driving the price up and inviting someone else to come and outbid you. This is why you see this so often, where an item looks cheap right up until the final seconds. I purchase in this manner all the time, it's called sniping. In fact, there are sites you can use to do the sniping for you. You provide a link to the eBay listing, and your max price, and the site will put the bid in for you automatically, 6 seconds before the auction ends. That way you don't need to stay away until 3am or even pay attention to the end of the auction.

This could easily be ended by eBay if they wanted. They could institute a policy where if a bid comes in X minutes before the end of the auction, the end time of the auction is extended by Y minutes. So if someone bids 6 seconds before the end time, then the end time gets pushed out another 10 minutes so people would have time to react and bid again. A policy like that would effectively kill the motivation to snipe at an auction. But eBay would never do this, because in fact they make a lot of money off of snipers. If two people snipe at the same auction towards the end, that item will sell for a very high price, and eBay collects a nice fee.

As for bidders with high feedback counts, remember people can buy and sell through the same account. If I had it to do all over again I would set up separate accounts for my buying and selling. But I have 14 years of feedback, I'm not about to go splitting up accounts now. But that bidder with 3000 feedbacks could well be a guy who buys and sells a lot of baseball cards, who happened to want to buy a tube. You really can't tell much simply from the fact that he's got 3000 feedbacks.

sucks2beme

And those"endless" auction sites like QBIDS are pretty dicey, as well.
How about an auction where there's online commentary as you bid.
You could then trash talk the other bidders. Register all the bidders by a set time
and let them have at it. No new bidders once the action starts.
Take that!. That would really liven things up.

cnh

goofyGAguy wrote: »

Hey, the dead vote in Chicago, so I guess so.

I do believe most of the dead find voting from the colony on Mars more than acceptable. lol

cnh