I bid for an item and was high bidder at 650 for 3-4 days.
3 hours before the bidding closed, another fella out bids my max bid....my 801 to his
811....OK, I loose.

Today I get mail saying the other bidder chumped out and I am now high bidder at 801.
I figure I should be high bidder at 650 and informed the seller of this. Me thinks something is amiss.

Thoughts?

the guy could have had a friend bid it up....

i agree...something is wrong with that if you were the only two bidders


PS whadja buy?

Definitely questionable. I would be doubting the legitemacy of the bid. Although I have to say that sometimes I will wait till the end of the auction to bid. But I follow through as well.
How long after the auction did the seller contact you?

The bidding closed Wednesday, he got hold of me today.

A pair of raised spindle struts. His reserve was met at 650.
Guys that really want stuff wait till the last minute to bid (in my experience).

I'll wait to see a response from the seller before passing any kind of judgment on this.

JP email the seller and tell him you will buy it at your last bid, which was???? I think you may answer your on question here.
CCLINEBAY

Did the other bidder bail out before or after the auction ended?

The other guy bailed after it was over.

I had an auto bid going with a limit of 801. The current bid( mine) was 650. The other bidder
bid it up, won, then bailed. It don't smell right.

It may not smell right but your last bid was the high bid before the high bidder bid and then bailed. It sounds like it was a" bid nap" And the bidder decided he wanted out, I would just email the seller and let them know what you are willing to pay,leave it at that and see if it is relisted, then track the bidding and see if you are able to get it for less or near what you want to pay for the item.
It appears that you were ready to pay $801 for the item, well you can still buy it.
CCLINEBAY

Your right, Craig. I was ready to pay 801. I just don't like getting jacked around by what appears to be shill bidding.

I think I'll just bail on the whole deal. I went to plan B when I lost the bid.

Don't quit on it totally. Let the guy know that the $650 still stands. You may get 'em for that. He was willing to sell for that just like you were willing to pay $800. Remind him, that but for the dead beat, you would have had the parts for his reserve price and everbody's happy.

Or offer him the $650 that the bid was up to before the flake started biding. If he balks tell him to relist them.

I think I just said that ??????? Oh well, maybe it's the way you say it Jim , or that JP respects his elders more
CCLINAUTODEALER

Yea, but car dealers always try to confuse us poor consumers with all that technical stuff.

JP,

You were the second bidder at 801 -- that's where you "lost" out. (I'm not saying you actually lost anything of course -- just auction terms.)

You asked for opinions -- oh oh -- heh -- the pattern you are experiencing is what one sees when bidding early. You really have two choices. 1) put your max bid in early (or at any time) and let the auction process run its course (including shill bidding and so forth) or 2) put your max bid in as late as you have the stomach to do so -- and thus not advertising your interest, and also not presenting yourself as a target for shill bidding.

Neither path guarantees winning the auction or winning it at at "fair price".

But in my book, going early has zero positives. On ebay, if I bid, I bid late.

Back to your question -- Let him know you'd be interested at the price you like -- 650 or whatever -- and push the problem to him.

kim.

Darn those car salesmen and all their teck talk speak......

age is a state of mind and what I don't mind don't matter.

Sorry Bruce that was mean't for the other member of the OLD FART RACING TEAM.
CCLINAUTODEALER

Somebody's got to look after kids like JP and Craig. No tellin' what they're likely to do without adult supervision.

It's ok, my kid tells me I'm older than dirt

I ended up winning two auctions that I ended up bailing on. One was for a set of white gauge faces for my 951. On second review I noticed that the ones on sale only went to 160 mph whereas my 89 speedo went up to 180 mph. The second item was a 928 engine that I bought thinking I would swap it into my 914. This was before I got to this forum and found out how difficult the swap would be. Both times I e-mailed the buyer down from me telling them that I did not need the item. I then e-mailed the seller and offered to pay the difference between my bid and the starting bid of the bidder down from me. This way the bidder down could still take the item at a price they were willing to pay and the seller still got the top price for his item and I was only out the difference for my mistake. In both cases I told the seller that if the buyer down was not willing to take the offer I would go through with the purchase and probably relist the item. In both cases the buyer below took the offer and in the motor purchase the seller told me that it wasn't neccesary to send him the difference. They both left me good feedback too.

So it could be a legitimate thing and not a shill bid. Although I really don't know how you could prove it.

no.

if your max. was 801 and you had it on *auto* you actually bid 801!!!
then the guy came in and got you with 811 ...

but, because you were on auto, your last actual bid was 801.
how else would the seller know what your max. bid level was?

all he sees is your last bid in the bidding history for 801 ...
Andy

but according to eBay, did you "lose" the auction?

did you recieve an e-mail saying "sorry, you did not win"
if so, then I'd have to say you are off the hook and the auction is null and void....

let's say the 5 people bid on it with the 1st bid being $5...winner bails then they go to you, you say sorry don't want it know, is the seller "obligated" to now go to bidder #3 and then down the line until he gets a yes??

Yes & yes.
I figure I'm off the hook also. Just wordering what you guys thought of the whole deal.

I've decided not to deal with the seller. It may be circumstance, but it smells funny.

Anyd:
I know what I did, but thanks for explaining it to me
The other bidder bid 3 times. 700,800, & 800+. & won at 811.

I agree with Andy , on auto your last bid was 801.00.
Shill bidding is a fact on E-Bay and nothing we can do about it. E-Bay has a way to report shill bidding,but what can they really do about it.
If I really want a item on E-Bay I set on the action untill the last 2 min. then enter my high bid. I get some and lose some . Never bid even dollars,always add .01 to your high bid. Works more times than not.
Dave

my gf sold an old camera, the high bidder was over seas, well he never responded to any emails, the second bidder was contacted. the way ebay shows it was that he bid his highest bid... he did not want to pay it, but ebay set the price my gf said if he did not buy it for that price she would re list it. well after a day of thinking the second bidder took it at his high bid, for two reasons one thats what he was willing to pay, two its the price ebay did the second chance offer, its how ebay is set up.

i look at it this if i put in that number as my highest bid, i am willing to pay that price i am still going to buy it. but i bought a porsche zippo, for x then the seller came back and offered everyone a second chance on their highest bid, he did not have it listed that he had more than one for sale so i only agreed to pay the second highest bid, he took me up on it.

Wait till he makes up the difference by charging you $150 for shipping. I buy and sell alot of items on E-Bay and have a pretty good idea of what things cost to ship. I recently won a ten dollar item that weighed less than ten pounds. Seller wanted to charge me $30 for shipping. Making up the difference by over charging on shipping is a good way for a seller to nix that good deal.

Since the other bidder won the auction, you are under no obligation what so ever to buy the item. If the seller offers it to you at an agreed upon price, it's your choice.

If you don't feel comfortable with how this panned out, I'd
stay away from it.

Overcharging on shipping is my pet peeve for not only ebay sellers but retailers in general. It just pisses me off to no end. I ask the shipping costs up front and if I don't agree with it I will let the seller know this and if there is no adjustment, then I look elsewhere.
CCLINUSPSFLATRATE

the "legally binding contract... blah blah" that often goes with the ad is a bunch of crap. jp, have you checked out pesky's race car ad in the classifieds. i think he was selling some raised spindles.

kevin

I do a "fair" amount of eBaying. Not tons, just the stuff that doesn't sell here after a couple of weeks.

Here's what I "think" could have happened:

He bid up the auction to see what you were willing to pay. Many different ways of doing this. He could have had a freind do it or even have a separate eBay account for someone in his family or another e-mail address he ownes. You don't have to be the brightest bulb on the tree to understand that people auto-bid and the "bid-up/shill bidding" method can snuff it out. Most sellers then figure there's no harm in going back to the #2 man and offering the auction to him/her for the "Maximum" price they were willing to pay.

As stated above... you're off the hook.

Offer him $650.00. That's what he was willing to take (reserve price). -or- Offer him what you would consider to be the last viable price "before" person "X" entered the scene and started bidding them up to $811.00

If he doesn't take it, walk.

May I ask; What kind of struts with raised spindles are worth $801.00? You might have gone into detail before but I used the "Evelyn Woodhead Sped Redding Method"

OK... found the auction.

Nice looking Bilsteins.

Here's something to look for... feedback ratings from one or the other. There are none. Doesn't mean much other than they haven't left feedback for one another previously. They "probably" haven't bid you up. What was the reason given for the "bail"?

Looks like you had a second high bid at $700.00 (couldn't find $650.00)

I think if you look around you could find those struts in stock configuration for $250-300.00. Have them bead blasted. Send them to Chris Foley to have the spindles raised. Repaint them John Deere green and I'm guessing you're pretty close to your original price.

So... buy them now with no labor or... fear not because you can always get another set for roughly the same price. No "bargin" there that I can see. Not bad at $650 but not "WOW" either.

Offer him $650 plus his dog. The savings in K-9 chow should make up the difference he's looking for over the course of 12 months.

Eric, how do you search and find an ebay auction that is over? I often try to do it and fail. How did you find JP's (almost) struts?

BTW, there is also a possiblity, which most don't seem to want to consider, that the guy's bid was legit and he simply changed his mind. Quite reasonable that, if JP thought $801 was OK, the other guy thought $850. He bids and it only takes $811 to win so that's the max bid. $850 was there if JP had upped the ante. May be a deadbeat instead of a shill.

Do an "Advanced Search" and select "Completed listings only".

Type in Porsche Struts and look for December 8th and $811 (page 2 I believe)



Yeah, that's kinda what I elude to in my second post. It doesn't look too suspicious to me after seeing the auction and the bids. I'd still want a legitimate answer as to why he bailed.

Ok, lets forget about struts. There are much more interesting items on ebay like this rare 356 distributor:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAP...item=7940048030

You can also use the "Advanced Search" feature to search for items by "Seller"

Like This

If it was a "real" auction (vrs online), and the buyer flaked, they would re-auction the item, not offer it to you at your last bid. Because if the winning bidder wasn't going to buy it then any bids they placed are null and void.

Shill bidding may always be a factor at auctions. Several years ago a friend had quite a few things sold at one of the really big money auction houses, and after the things had sold they told him "oh yea, our so and so was bidding that up for you".

The bottom line is did you get what you wanted at a price you'd expect to pay? If you get caught up in "auction fever" and pay too much for something, then you've only got to blame yourself.

If the guy really wants to sell in on eBay, then he should second chance offer it to you, at that point you can negotiate price. I probably wouldn't purchase anything from this guy directly though.

YEP, sounds familiar, i've reported incidents similiar to that to e-bay investigators and usually after a couple of days they reply with a generic "we have protection devices in place" crap. it's amazing how often an item will be up on auction three or four times in a 8 week time frame and i always get the same response from the seller as to why, it's always a "dead beat bidder", yea that is what i suspected you'ld claim, for the forth time right?

New Bilstein strut assys are around 450 each.
Chris wanted 270 to raise em' & do the bend.

One of mine is hurting so......

I can buy one new one & raise them myself.... Do the bend or use tie rod extensions. ......I'm a cheep
mo fo. .

Kim is right, bid late. You get it for what your willing to pay......or not. No BS. Don't even give 'em a chance. I've e-bayed plenty, been burned, learned, lessons applied. Got hurt on the blue 914 as you may remember. Bid late.

Gary

Here is the answer to all e-bay bidding:
http://snipeswipe.com/