Are There Secret Bidders On Ebay?

[Mardi13]

i just won an auction, and there was a mysterious thirty pound jump in the bidding just before the end. Even when checking the bid history for automatic bids that gap was still there after a whole series of incremental increases. No reserve was advertised on the item. And there is another auction going on right now from this same (top-rated plus) seller in which exactly the same thing happened, and it was that same amount, thirty pounds. Incremental bidding has continued after the jump. No reserve warning on this one either. What gives? if there is a reserve, shouldn't that always be apparent? is there a way for people to bid invisibly?

[Chrissy]

The short answer is that there is no secret bidding on ebay that you can't see in the bid history.

 

I can't say what might have happened on a particular item unless I have the item number

[JonSzanto]

What you are saying isn't making a whole lot of sense to me, especially without knowing the time scale of these bids. How about a link so we can look? And, yeah, all kinds of things happen in bidding - sure it isn't a snipe?

Edited June 18, 2014 by JonSzanto

[JonSzanto]

BTW: what I meant about time scale is "just before the end" - seconds before the end? minutes? etc.

[Chrissy]

One bid can't make the auction jump up £30 from the next lowest bid, unless that is the next incremental amount

[EJKorvette]

Someone probably put in a large snipe bid thinking no one else had placed a higher max bid. Some snipe programs can place a bid as close as 1 second before the end of an auction.

 

Either that or the seller was shill bidding (using a second account to drive up prices, which is against eBay's TOS, as well as being very unethical!)

 

Chrissy: If Mardi13 had a max bid higher than £30 above the previous bid, then yes that can happen.

Edited June 18, 2014 by EJKorvette

[lahlahlaw]

I do this all the time, it's called sniping. If I find a pen that I KNOW has several watchers interested, I won't bid at all to give the other watchers the impression that nobody (or at least me) is going to bid. Then, with 5 seconds left, CLICK! I bid the max I am willing to pay. This happens alot with pens, its kind of fun really:-).

[The Blue Knight]

I personally think they should out law snipping as I think it's unfair.

[EJKorvette]

I personally think they should out law snipping as I think it's unfair.

 

And sniping, too!

[JonSzanto]

I personally think they should out law snipping as I think it's unfair.

 

There is precisely *nothing* unfair about automated bidding. We use computers to automate endless tasks in our lives, and I have no problem placing, or knowing that other people are placing, bids to go in at the last moment of an auction. Indeed, it can end up keeping overall prices lower. Nothing worse than emotional, excitable people outbidding each other waaaaaay too early in an auction.

 

Sniping is simply a convenient tool.

[Mardi13]

But there is another auction that is ONGOING, as in, has days to run, in which there was a similar price jump followed by more incremental bids. Nothing in the bid history including the so-called automatic bids. And I'm OK with sniping as I do it myself.

 

Here is the link to the current auction:

http://offer.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewBids&item=111382842778&showauto=true

 

Someone in the middle there bid twice in a row, and the price jumped. Maybe i am missing something really obvious and will feel dumb, but...I cant see how that could happen. No reserve warning is posted for the item.

Edited June 18, 2014 by Mardi13

[JonSzanto]

Question: are you looking at the bids with "Show automatic bids" ticked on? That should explain everything, if you look at the date and times of the bids. No weirdness that I can see.

[OcalaFlGuy]

<Sigh> The anti-snipers arguement is flawed from the start.

 

The problem is, you are Trying to compare the bidding on Fleabay with that at a real in person Auction.

 

You can't. They are Just. Not. The. Same.

 

The sniping bidders did not set up Fleabay, Fleabay did. They only snipe within the framework of how Fleabay is purposely set up. That is NOT the sniper's "fault".

 

There is one statement that totally kills any anti-snipe arguement. (IMO)

 

The integral point of Ebay is the the Highest bid placed for any article Before the (to the second) end of the auction Wins. Period. Regardless of How that bid is placed. Sniping has NO effect on that. Again, Period.

 

The bid as the auction progresses idea is simply the anti-sniper Continuing To Illogically Place the same procedures on Fleabay that May be relevant at a "real" auction but Aren't relevant (to success) on Fleabay.

 

There is one easy way Anyone can Always beat The Best sniper.

 

Bid more money.

 

Bruce in Ocala, Fl

[Uncial]

The price was at $40, then someone entered their highest bid at $70, but it only came up initially as $41. But then someone else bid $77 (or something) so this trumped the last max bid. there's no foul play as far as I can see.

[sargetalon]

Bruce speaks the truth but it still stings when a sniper takes you out at the last second. I always try to give a first, best, and last bid (always manually) in the last 90 seconds.

[Chrissy]

Chrissy: If Mardi13 had a max bid higher than £30 above the previous bid, then yes that can happen.

Oh yes that works. Doh. Silly me

[JonSzanto]

The price was at $40, then someone entered their highest bid at $70, but it only came up initially as $41. But then someone else bid $77 (or something) so this trumped the last max bid. there's no foul play as far as I can see.

 

Exactamente. The timestamps tell the story.

 

Bruce speaks the truth but it still stings when a sniper takes you out at the last second. I always try to give a first, best, and last bid (always manually) in the last 90 seconds.

 

That part is completely true, but then again, losing an auction you want is never easy. TBH, my favorite part about using a sniping program, outside of being able to place a bid when I'm nowhere near a device, is that it has completely put me in control of my own spending. I really do decide how much I'm willing to spend on an item, and I place that in a snipe. It isn't unusual for the bidding to exceed it long before the auction is over, but that is just the world telling me someone wanted to pay more money for it than me. Otherwise, I let it all ride out, and whoever pays the most at the end gets the pen. If it's me, I'm happy.

[Chrissy]

Bruce, as ever, is spot on.

 

Personally, I don't want to pay any more than I have to for an auction item, so I don't want people pushing me up towards a maximum bid that might have been placed days before. It makes perfect sense to me.

 

So, I always bid close to the end of an auction. However, I only use an automatic snipe (goofbid) if I can't be there at the end of an auction, or it's in the US and ends at some ridiculously early hour.

[Bo Bo Olson]

I make one high bid in the last 15 seconds...my max. I may tap in early to get the item onto my list....but that is forget it for a week type of thing.

So there is no difference between a live last seconds high bid and a sniper's bid, out side his come in the last second.

 

To nickle and dime bidding is plumb dumb stupid, and gets the ego involved and an ego is the stupidest thing in the world.

 

Look up the item on past auctions, form an average, see what your max bid is based on that...add only 10% to that for a real must have item.

Another pen like it will be there tomorrow, the day after, next week or next month.

 

There is no hurry but for an ego.....and this generations need for instant gratification.

My generation didn't have quite the intensive social buying training by TV, computers and Ebay to have a buy now complex.

All we had was TV. Having six expensive credit cards was not in, back in the day of the silver dime.

 

Live auctions don't have a timer, I have seen bidding wars between two foolish egos with more money than I had . They can end up paying twice what it is worth when one is out to prove his foolish ego is bigger than the others.

[The Blue Knight]

lets just say this post has motivated me to refine the way shop. I'm not talking about ebay but if I'm patient some deals should be coming my way in not too long.