The strangest thing happened on ebay....

bugbyte_2

My wife put a bid on an item for 99p with a maximum of £2.04. Just before the auction closed, another bidder bid in incremental steps until he beat my wife's bid. Then after the auction closed he withdrew his last winning bid leaving my wife the 'winner' @ £2.04.

Is this a loop hole in ebay to flush out maximum bids?

marleyboy

It sounds to me like he used a friend to up the bid.

AndyPK

Yeah being naughty.

Valli

bugbyte wrote: »

My wife put a bid on an item for 99p with a maximum of £2.04. Just before the auction closed, another bidder bid in incremental steps until he beat my wife's bid. Then after the auction closed he withdrew his last winning bid leaving my wife the 'winner' @ £2.04.

Is this a loop hole in ebay to flush out maximum bids?

If I were her I would be 'only' be paying the 99p - all subsequent bids should be cancelled, IMO, as there were only two bidders. In other words the auction should revert to what it would have been without what looks suspiciously like a shill bidder. Ask on the ebay thread;)

maninthestreet

You can withdraw a bid AFTER the auction has ended??

robatwork

Shill

http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/policies/seller-shill-bidding.html

paddyrg

It's against eBay rules report the alert as using a shill bidder account

bugbyte_2

My wife messaged the seller and said that she was only prepared to pay 99p (out of principle) which the seller agreed. However, she could not work out how to change the amount on paypal* so she messaged him to give the extra £1 to a childrens charity.


*Just thought could have paid through paypal without going through ebay - doh!

Squire_Fulwood

I had two similar things happen to me one of which was more interesting than the other one.

In the case of the first one I bid on some cups. Another bidder bid a lot of money and won but the seller offered the cups to me at the maximum bid price. I declined because I smelled a rat.

The second was for a camera from the East. Just before the bidding closed another bidder bid up to one pound short of my maximum price. They bid £29 to my £30 and I won the camera. This one gave all the appearance of the other bidder knowing what my maximum bid was. The times logged against his bids were weird and were not in this time zone. I assumed I had been had but paid anyway since I actually won the item ......if not fair and square.

Kite2010

bugbyte wrote: »

My wife messaged the seller and said that she was only prepared to pay 99p (out of principle) which the seller agreed. However, she could not work out how to change the amount on paypal* so she messaged him to give the extra £1 to a childrens charity.


*Just thought could have paid through paypal without going through ebay - doh!

Chances of seller donating that £1 to charity, zero.

Shill bidding, lucky it wasn't a high max bid

bugbyte_2

Kite2010 wrote: »

Chances of seller donating that £1 to charity, zero.

Shill bidding, lucky it wasn't a high max bid

When we put that condition into the sale, he refunded the money from paypal! Thanks for the replys, not quite sure how to report this to ebay.