posted on May 21, 2001 05:41:16 AM new
This is a new one...I was bidding on a table last week and I went away over the weekend and I knew the table auction was to close on Sunday. I had met the reserve and was the high bidder when I left for the weekend. I hadn't paid attention all weekend to the auction and I decided I wouldn't be heartbroken if I came home and found that someone had outbid me.
Well, sure enough the same person who had been bidding on the table with me outbid me by a dollar and the auction had ended by the time I checked in from being away.
What I thought was really interesting and maybe I am becoming more of a cynic than I think--the person who listed the table wrote an email saying that the person who won the auction shouldn't have been bidding on her auction and that the table was still available, if I was interested, for the amount I had bid--the reserve.
Now here I am thinking --shilling perhaps--If there was a person bidding on your auction and you didn't want them bidding on it why wouldn't you stop the auction before it ends? Or send an email to the people bidding on your item?
The other bidder does have feedback--around 70 or so.
It just makes you wonder...if anyone has any comments I would be all ears!
posted on May 21, 2001 07:07:38 AM new
I would investigate it for certain.
About all you can do is review her closed auctions to see if that same bidder is on the board on previous items of hers. If so, then the shill can be ID'd by Ebay...simply
send them your findings.
posted on May 21, 2001 09:55:59 AM new
Perhaps the winning bidder is someone she wanted blocked from her auctions. BUT if it is shilling I do not think the seller would tell you the person who won should not have been bidding. That would be squealing on himself/herself. Then again, maybe someone under 18 bid on a whim - and Mom busted them! I know my daughter was bidding on several NSYNC collections when I caught her. That'll teach me to tell her my password! I did, however, honor any bid that she placed - I figured it was my stupidity.
posted on May 21, 2001 09:58:05 AM new
Cricket1...since the seller is offering the table to you at the reserve price & not the price you were outbid on, perhaps they are legit & for whatever reason didn't realize that the other bidder was someone who they did not want to deal with (ex. different eBay ID, but same email addy as a previous buyer with a bad record with that seller)...OR perhaps the seller actually has more than one of these tables (if it's an older piece probably not, but if it's a new piece, chances are pretty good) and is circumventing eBay fees by offering you the table, and is in fact selling two (one to the winning bidder & one to you) for one eBay fee????.....
posted on May 21, 2001 11:55:22 AM new
i had a situation where an international bidder bid and won one of my auctions, although my auctions state u.s. only. i emailed the next highest bidder and offered the item to him. although i explained what happened, if i'd been less specific, i could have said, 'this bidder shouldn't have been bidding on my auction.' maybe it's something like that in this instance?
seems to me, too, your seller *probably* wouldn't have told you the high bidder shouldn't have been bidding if s/he were up to something fishy.
