twinsoft
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posted on July 2, 2002 07:26:51 PM
I'd like your opinions please. I put a rather expensive camera up for bid a few days ago. Bidding immediately jumped to $150 within a few hours. It's now around $200 with a half-dozen bidders involved.
Here's the deal. The high bidder registered just a few days ago and currently has bids on some 20 similar cameras. He's high bidder on four of them, including one that ends in an hour. I am not comfortable with this bid because who needs that many digital cameras? I don't want to seem like I'm prejudiced against newbie, zero-feedback bidders. I just don't want any snags after the auction ends.
There's another day left in my auction. Should I cancel the bid or let it ride? If I cancel now, the bids will drop by $10 bucks or so.
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thchaser200
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posted on July 2, 2002 07:30:25 PM
I would cancel it. This sounds like someone out there that is selling the same type of stuff, created another account just to neg everyone else
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laiochka
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posted on July 2, 2002 07:31:29 PM
maybe he knows it's a goodl deal and he is buying them up
for resale in his store.
insetad of canceling I would send him a polite short email asking him the question.
you can even fake it a little so it doesnt sound like interegation 
something like:
Hi,
thank you for your bid on my auction item # xxxx, I've noticed that you are bidding on several similar items and I was wondering if you have a store or something, maybe I can
find other items that you are interested in...
regards
XXXX
I hate these situation, so question like that would "mask" the truth little bit and
you never know, he just might bid on your other auctions because of that
(hopefully it wont be something worst )
good luck
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profe51
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posted on July 2, 2002 08:32:01 PM
he's going to pay for the one that goes lowest and stick it to the rest...cancel his bid...I just closed 5 auctions that didnt make reserve, and got mails on 4 different items from the high bidders who as much as admitted that they didnt intend to hit the reserve and what would I take for the items? I sell in a relatively obscure corner of ebay (militaria, Indian and Civil wars) and until recently my buyers have been knowlegeable and ready to bid and pay...WHERE are these low-lifes coming from?????
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laiochka
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posted on July 2, 2002 08:37:07 PM
yahoo auctions
I had many problems lately with Yahoo bidders
crossing over to eBay,
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twinsoft
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posted on July 2, 2002 08:49:53 PM
The auction ends in about 24 hours, so there won't be enough time to politely question or even interrogate the bidder.
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bidsbids
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posted on July 2, 2002 09:08:01 PM
The number of deadbeats on eBay is growing at a very fast rate. Many bidders do not take the bidding seriously or do not consider the effects on the sellers.
It may be best to cancel this guy's bid out. You may need a valid paid-for ISP email address to register as a bidder on eBay but many bidders are registering with free email accounts and one of their many credit cards. Ebay does not seem capable of stoping this practice till the user runs out of valid credit cards.
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gc2
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posted on July 2, 2002 09:17:19 PM
I'm with profe51 on this one.
I just had it happen to me on a 50. piece of glass. She bid on several, paid for the one she got cheapest, then had her "sister" write that she had been in a bad car accident and was in the hospital, blah, blah, blah.
Does she even realize that she is a cheat as well as a liar?
Started to bring it here, but knew it would only prolong my anger and negative thoughts.
But I would advise you to cancel the bid while you still can!!
[ edited by gc2 on Jul 2, 2002 09:19 PM ]
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sparkz
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posted on July 2, 2002 09:32:44 PM
Put him on your blocked bidder's list now. If someone outbids him, your problem is solved. If he's still the high bidder 10 minutes before the auction closes, cancel his bid and let the snipers have a bidding war. Even if no one else bids, you're only out $10.00 and you'll be able to sleep better.
The light at the end of the tunnel will turn out to be an oncoming train.
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KarenMx
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posted on July 2, 2002 09:37:16 PM
Maybe he's not up to anything nefarious but is merely bidding his max on multiple auctions in hopes of winning just ONE.
[ edited by KarenMx on Jul 2, 2002 10:04 PM ]
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uaru
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posted on July 2, 2002 09:51:38 PM
If I was going to cancel a bid I'd wait till the last 30 seconds before I did that. The solution might come with a higher bid. If you cancel it now you might find them bidding again, if you cancel and block they might bid under a new ID.
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gc2
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posted on July 2, 2002 10:13:20 PM
Uhhh...I may be mistaken here, but I thought I read somewhere that you couldn't cancel a bid in the last 12 hours. Or is that just for retractions?
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feistyone
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posted on July 2, 2002 10:29:47 PM
There's always a chance the the person is bidding with resale in mind. It's amazing how everyone automatically assumes the worst.
Finer Fashions on Ebay, top designers, latest styles.
http://members.ebay.com/aboutme/feistyone/
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yumacoot
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posted on July 2, 2002 10:52:13 PM
Did any one stop to think that maybe he has not met reserve on any of the others he bid on? I bid on multiples all the time, with a max I am willing to pay. If I don't hit the reserve, I move on to the next best item, and bid again. Sometimes I have had as many as 10 of the same thing I have bidded on, and it was because I didn't meet the reserve on all but the last one! Doesn't mean I wasn't going to pay any one.....(and no, I haven't got that particular item yet, but I will eventaully...)
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bidsbids
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posted on July 2, 2002 11:02:33 PM
gc2,
It appears you can cancel bids right up to the closing time ....
http://pages.ebay.com/help/sellerguide/selling-bids.html
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twinsoft
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posted on July 2, 2002 11:10:33 PM
I've reviewed the bidder's (short) history. He's bid on nearly 50 cameras within the past week and won a couple. So he is not simply bidding crazy. I'm not assuming the worst, just weighing the pros and cons of dealing with a brand new eBay member who has bid on 50 similar items.
On a side note, I checked out some of the digital camera auctions. Many are run by powersellers. I even found that Kodak is selling on eBay (id kodak_auctions or kodak auctions). Boy, talk about your inflated shipping. The lowest shipping fee I found was $20, the highest was $40. That's $40 to ship an item that weighs about a pound. And my customers complain about a lousy $1 handling fee. Sheesh!
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bidsbids
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posted on July 2, 2002 11:44:23 PM
When I bought my digital camera on eBay about 6 months ago the lowest s/h was $15. Many small computer components are the same way. A one pound item with a minimum $15 s/h fee. As long as the a majority of sellers with these items charge a huge s/h the bidders have no choice but to pay it. The bidders pay the super inflated s/h though. I just factor the total price, item & s/h and look for the lowest total.
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twinsoft
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posted on July 4, 2002 12:09:22 AM
Follow-up: I decided to let the bid stand, and the bidder did not win the auction. The winner has a great feedback rating and I don't expect any trouble.
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