Bidding against yourself - how does this work?

sham63

I've noticed that in this listing there is only one bidder who has put in 5 bids. However, the price has gone up with each bid

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=150171828641&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT&ih=005

How can this happen? I know you can put multiple bids on an item, but if you're the only bidder the start price doesn't usually increase?

janinie7

Hiya, I havent looked at the listing on the link you entered as I cannot access ebay on the computer I am on...

Hopefully this explains it though...

When you bid on an item and the start price is, for example, 99p, but you put a high bid of £5 on, your initial bid will remain at 99p, until someone tries to outbid you. If someone else puts in a bid higher than 99p but lower than £5 then it will appear that only you have made two bids, because they have to put higher than £5 to appear on the bidders list.

Does that make sense? I'm pretty sure thats what is going on, but if anyone knows otherwise let me know

:beer:

Lillys_mum

It looks like the item may of had a reserve on it and he was trying to get it up to that.

I know my first purchase on Ebay 3 years ago was a car and I put in numerous bids just to get the item up to its reserve to see what it was and whether my maximum would take it there.

Hope that helps

charlottevwa

I see what you mean.
Janinie... I thought that your theory would be the case too.. but there is only one bidder on this item (Bidder 1)
By the looks of it Sham63, I'd say that Bidder 1 is actually the seller, biddig up his item himself. He listed it for 99p, so he had a cheap listing fee, and now he has made is 'appear' as though the item has lots of bidders (lots of interest) therefore catching other peoples attention. And yes it is possible to bid against yourself.... think it is an Ebay flaw

charlottevwa

Lillys_mum wrote: »

It looks like the item may of had a reserve on it and he was trying to get it up to that.

I know my first purchase on Ebay 3 years ago was a car and I put in numerous bids just to get the item up to its reserve to see what it was and whether my maximum would take it there.

Hope that helps

Ah yeh, good point!

sham63

charlottevwa wrote: »

I see what you mean.
Janinie... I thought that your theory would be the case too.. but there is only one bidder on this item (Bidder 1)
By the looks of it Sham63, I'd say that Bidder 1 is actually the seller, biddig up his item himself. He listed it for 99p, so he had a cheap listing fee, and now he has made is 'appear' as though the item has lots of bidders (lots of interest) therefore catching other peoples attention. And yes it is possible to bid against yourself.... think it is an Ebay flaw

So this is just blatant shill bidding?

Even if this is the case, I didn't think it was possible to increase the 'start' price without a second bidder to bid against?

charlottevwa

It's not definately shill bidding, just a suggestion, and as the above poster also said, the bidder could have been trying to reach the reserve price.

It is possible to bid against yourself yes. I was gutted the first time i figured that out lol. I have seen a few of buyers accidently do it also. I think it is if you put 3 or more bids on in a row.

frivolous_fay

This item did have a reserve - which explains the increasing bids.

charlottevwa

frivolous_fay wrote: »

This item did have a reserve - which explains the increasing bids.

Ah yeh, there you go then... lol! I forgot to check