Question about how auction sites work

J_Curd

J_Curd

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I recently bid on a knife and it went from $78 to my exact high bid, which was almost double that amount, with 4 seconds left to go. Now I used a very specific amount, with some change to see if this seller with 60k transactions (silverladdie) was using a shill account...but there was only a single bid to push me to my max amount.

Is that some hack software or is this just uncanny coincidence?
 
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From what I understand, their bid will raise it to their amount and if the bid increment is at least less than your amount, You are the winner still. Likely they bid $125 and you beat them by $.05.
At least that's how it is supposed to work. Look at the bid history and see who bid what for info.

Larry
Tinkerer
 
The second bidder bid once, and it was the next lower incremental value below what you'd need to hit my exact bid as the "top bid". I assumed it would bid multiple times finding the sweet spot? Second bidder was something very odd like 123.87.

I'm a software guy, and unless I'm misunderstanding an eBay function something is fishy.
 
I am not sure, but if there was a reserve ($124.00) and your bid surpasses it ($124.05) and the auction closes, I think your bid will post as the next highest increment above the reserve.
 
Lots of people have shill accounts on eBay, it's not hard to create stuff to drive up the price and eBay would be none the wiser.
 
I have won many knife auctions from that ebay seller, some for a rather low price and never had the feeling that a shill was going on.
$123.87 is how i bid; i.e. a fairly high number for the cents so that it will trump those who bid in more 'even' numbers such as $123.00 or $123.50. Many bidders will only bid once in an auction and that bid is their maximum. It is the more novice bidders in general who bid numerous times, each time increasing their maximum bid by a few dollars.
The basic rule to follow is to not bid more than you are willing to pay for the item, then if you win but it takes up the entire amount of your bid, you should still be happy with your win. That said, no one wants to have been driven up to max bid by a shill.
kj
 
Your max bid of $124.05 was just slightly higher than the other guys max bid of $123.87- It immediately goes to the highest Non-Matched Bid. Happens all the time. I've beat people by a penny.
 
I won a knife from silverladdie last night and I just bid once and that was that. I didn't detect anything weird.

Also Silverladdie has very good and accurate descriptions in their auctions. which is rare.
 
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