Ebay question

Cobalt

Platinum Member
Feedback: +98 / =0 / -0
Joined
Dec 23, 1998
Messages
17,814
When an auction is over and you place bids, does the seller know what your maximum bid is?

and is there anyway that the seller can bump his sale up to your maximum bid?

I just did an ebay and I find it funny that I won with my maximum bid, and there was no bids until the very end. Then the two bids came in in the last 5 minutes, but one was exactly my max so I won. If the seller knows my max bid, then this is subterfuge. if not then it is a huge coincidence, which tells me I need to play the lotto this week.
 
Good luck with your Lotto tickets! Ebay sellers only see the Ebay name of the bidder and the current high bid amount. If someone else bids higher than you, the seller can then see your maximum bid amount. Last second bids are common and use "sniping" bids from various sites. Also if you bid at or above the amount of the sellers reserve price(assuming they are using that option)your bid will automatically go up to the reserve amount, even if there are no other competing bids! So be careful.

Jerry
 
If two or more people bid the exact same amount, the earliest bid wins.

Here's another tidbit. You can place a higher bid and not win. If your bid is not the proper increment higher, you lose. Example: The high bid is $250 and you bid $251. If the increment is $5, the $250 bid wins.
 
Dang! I just hit 1000 posts. No trumpets sounded. No drum roll. Nothing. I'm, disappointed. :(
 
ok, so if the seller has another ebay name and bids on the item himself and sees my high bid, he can retract his bid and the wn automatically goes to me, but I get charged my max bid, right?
 
When an auction is over and you place bids, does the seller know what your maximum bid is?

No, I sell on ebay and buy also and know for sure sellers do not know!

and is there anyway that the seller can bump his sale up to your maximum bid?

He could use a different ID, but that would be called shilling, bumping up the price and is expressly forbidden under Ebay rules. If caught, he may walk the plank, so to speak.:D

I just did an ebay and I find it funny that I won with my maximum bid, and there was no bids until the very end. Then the two bids came in in the last 5 minutes, but one was exactly my max so I won. If the seller knows my max bid, then this is subterfuge. if not then it is a huge coincidence, which tells me I need to play the lotto this week.


I still would not play the Lotto, no one was willing to pay (their maximum bid)
as much as you were. If I had been bidding, my bids go in with 5 seconds left, lots of programs out there to put your bid in at the last moment. I use Auction Sentry. It keeps folks from bumping up my bid even if I still win, they don't see me until the auction is over, sometimes I win, sometimes I lose. :grumpy:

One of the last auctions I won was A Dick Dorough dagger, the seller happened to be living in my own town, when he delivered (in person) my knife, he asked me my high bid, his heart sank when I told him it was over 200 dollars more than what I ended up paying. SO NO, a seller does not even see your high bid.:)
 
No, I sell on ebay and buy also and know for sure sellers do not know!



He could use a different ID, but that would be called shilling, bumping up the price and is expressly forbidden under Ebay rules. If caught, he may walk the plank, so to speak.:D


:)

thanks for the info. But if no one reports him, how will ebay know that he's doing this. Just like now. I will go ahead and pay and no one will ever be the wiser since I do not know the background of bidder3, he could easily do this and get away with it since most people will never even notice or think there is anything unusal. I have been buying off ebay for a long time now and never had I had a bid like this before. It almost seemed like the final bidder knew my bid amount. I may be wrong. I will pay but I will report this to ebay as well.
 
thanks for the info. But if no one reports him, how will ebay know that he's doing this. Just like now. I will go ahead and pay and no one will ever be the wiser since I do not know the background of bidder3, he could easily do this and get away with it since most people will never even notice or think there is anything unusal. I have been buying off ebay for a long time now and never had I had a bid like this before. It almost seemed like the final bidder knew my bid amount. I may be wrong. I will pay but I will report this to ebay as well.

Report it, they may be able to check the IP addresses of the bidders, if he used the same IP, he may be banned or suspended. But Ebay tends to only punish by not letting sellers sell for 2 weeks or more and then they let them back in with the same seller ratings. I know, because a friend of mine got caught selling auto's on the bay, he was off for just a couple of weeks then right back on. He has been taken off, (he told me) at least 3 or 4 times for the same offense. Still on the Bay.:)
 
Report it, they may be able to check the IP addresses of the bidders, if he used the same IP, he may be banned or suspended. But Ebay tends to only punish by not letting sellers sell for 2 weeks or more and then they let them back in with the same seller ratings. I know, because a friend of mine got caught selling auto's on the bay, he was off for just a couple of weeks then right back on. He has been taken off, (he told me) at least 3 or 4 times for the same offense. Still on the Bay.:)

I can't even report this because the bidding is closed and the complaint will not go through for items not currently being sold. What a crock of sheeit. :thumbdn:

See, threats against violators fall on deaf ears because no one can do anything about them.:thumbdn:
 
I think that you are fussing over nothing. I have won and lost quite a few items on eBay when my max bid and several others were exactly the same. There is no way for the seller to know your max bid. If you win the auction, he only knows what the winning bid was which may not be your max bid.

I use auction sniper when I can't be in front of my computer at the time the auction ends. I have the time set to place my bid 8 seconds before the close. I have placed a max bid of $50 for an item that had $35 on it. I got it for $39.61. I guess that the seller could have placed a $50 bid using an alias, but more often then not, it would bite him in the ass. What's the point in winning your own item? You still get charged the fees. What are you going to do, file a non-paying bidder complaint against yourself?
 
ok, so if the seller has another ebay name and bids on the item himself and sees my high bid, he can retract his bid and the win automatically goes to me, but I get charged my max bid, right?

Technically, a seller could do this, but not in the final 5 minutes. The bid retraction is locked out within a certain amount of time before the auction ends. You can check the bidding history for the item to see if there are any retractions and the reason.

There is shill bidding going on Ebay. I have filed several complaints where it was obvious that two sellers were bidding on each other's auctions. Sometimes, you can figure it out. I would guess that there is more manipulation than we all realize--it is a very large venue.
 
No offense to the OP, but you put in the maximum you were willing to pay and you won the item. Be happy.

I see coincidences all the time, but trying to chase most of them is like trying to paint the vapors eminating from my pants a lurid shade of green.
 
Basically I enter the maximum amount that I'll pay for a particular item and try not to watch the end of the sale where you might be tempted to bid more than the item was originally worth to you. All the "other stuff that goes on" I try to let go. You won't get anywhere with epray and chances are that the bitching won't get you the item either.
 
you guys are right, and I will let it go, but I am still going to play the lotto.
thanks
 
Back
Top