Dodgy bidder with 0 feedback

james32_uk

Selling an expensive item on Ebay. http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=5746407222

Concerned by the leading bidder Gelit00 who has bid at least £205 when auction was at £80. New member, 0 feedback and claims to live in Spain. Also cant access any contact details from the usual link - http://cgi3.ebay.co.uk/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?MemberSearchShow

What would you guys do? Is there much malicious bidding about?

soolin

james23_uk wrote:

Selling an expensive item on Ebay. http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=5746407222

Concerned by the leading bidder Gelit00 who has bid at least £205 when auction was at £80. New member, 0 feedback and claims to live in Spain. Also cant access any contact details from the usual link - http://cgi3.ebay.co.uk/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?MemberSearchShow

What would you guys do? Is there much malicious bidding about?

Your bidder is also bidding on 15 other items, so he might be a problem or he might genuinely have only just found ebay and is making the most of it.

Personally I would e mail him via ebay and just ask him a simple question, maybe ask him if he is happy with your payment methods, or if he is registered with paypal or something. Depending on the tone of that e mail I would then consider whether to let his bid stand or not. By e mailing you might weed out a malicious bidder or someone with fake contact details.

I did this when i was selling a phone recently, anyone with no feedback that didn't respond to my polite e mail in say 36-48 hours had their bid pulled. I know everyone has to start somewhere on ebay but as a seller I prefer my buyers on large ticket items to have some history. On my smaller items I am happy to take all bids and rarely have problems.

Soo

james32_uk

Thanks for your help. How did you find out what other items he was bidding on? I think I should check that out!

soolin

james23_uk wrote:

Thanks for your help. How did you find out what other items he was bidding on? I think I should check that out!

Go into 'buy' then into 'advanced search' and use the menu on the left hand side to search for 'bidder'. Don't forget to tick the box that lets you see all bids on completed auctions as well, just in case.

EDIT I am still getting someones elses signature line attached to my post so apologies to whoever I stole it from accidentally, I will try and get it sorted!

Soo

stavros_2

thanks soo didn't even know we could see what people are bidding on

just checking it out he appears to have bids on exactly the same items so seems very dodgy to me, I wouldn't even bother contacting him, just kick out his bid now in case others are put off from bidding

VH

Your bidder is now bidding on 73 other items. Either they are very stupid or they are a scamster! I know which I think it is.

Cancel their bid as it will put other people off your auction if the price is inflated.

If the user doesn't win the auction then they can't do you any damage (negative feedback etc), so don't worry about cancelling their bids.

madsamuri

trust a small word with a big meaning.

i will not trust anybody one ebay, so i would say no before its to late.

soolin

VH wrote:

Your bidder is now bidding on 73 other items. Either they are very stupid or they are a scamster! I know which I think it is.

Cancel their bid as it will put other people off your auction if the price is inflated.

If the user doesn't win the auction then they can't do you any damage (negative feedback etc), so don't worry about cancelling their bids.

Agreed, the bidding pattern is beginning to look very very odd. I think I would pull the bid and not worry about it any longer.

The only other thing it might be is someone registered with r points working on the basis of getting lots of early bids in on items knowing he will be outbid. Each bid through R points earns the bidder 3p, so if he did enough every day he could earn some pin money. It is just a thought, but I still think I would pull the bid anyway.

Soo

svmitche

He may also be trying to sell an item similar to yours, so is ramping up your price so people will bid on his item.

Run fast, run far!

robnye

VH wrote:

Your bidder is now bidding on 73 other items. Either they are very stupid or they are a scamster! I know which I think it is.

Cancel their bid as it will put other people off your auction if the price is inflated.

If the user doesn't win the auction then they can't do you any damage (negative feedback etc), so don't worry about cancelling their bids.

i agree cancel their bid.

i had the same problem this time last year, with an idiot bidding on 80 playstation one consoles (including mine). they had overbid on all of them, yet they also had one listed, that due to its lmuch lower price was receiving bids.

wirm

yeah I would cancel there bid and block them! Better safe than sorry! And sure the next lowest bidder is only bidding £5 less!