Bid Retractions as Ebay Strategy

CollectorAtWork · August 24, 2011 4:25PM

I am still wondering over the bidding of this Ty Cobb jersey card with a stripe that recently ended on ebay here: Link

You see plenty of Cobb swatches, some actual jersey cards, but few jerseys with stripes on ebay. I was seriously thinking of bidding on this card even though I won another Cobb jersey card exactly like this but without the stripe for ~$77 a day before. However, when I saw the bidding history on the card, I swore I thought it looked like the card was being shilled. The winning bidder bid at random times, had a bid retraction on this auction, has had 5 bid retractions this month, and over 60 retractions in total. It looks like the classic shill account. However, I wonder if this scared away potential other bidders like me. Reflecting on this, I think I probably would have bid more than the winning bid, so I'm wondering if this could actually be a real strategy from ebay buyers to make other potential buyers think that there is shilling going on, so they won't bid. I could completely be over-analyzing this also.

Dpeck100 · August 24, 2011 7:40PM

You are not over analyzing. There are plenty of so called legit bidders who like to press an item and find out where other's have their max bid. It makes me sick when you are bidding on an item and someone out bids you and then three days later they cancel their bid with the entered wrong amount excuse.

There are a ton of scum bags on EBAY and they will try lots of tricks. The bigger give away would be a real high percentage of bids with the seller. There are many on here that think low feedback is a guarentee for a shill which I disagree with completely.

Some of the best buyers have 50 or less feedback and are your getting into the mix.

I think you are right about it scaring people off. I have purposely not bid higher on something when I see others have tons of bid retractions. I have zero and don't believe in them. You bid, you complete the transaction in my book.

WinPitcher · August 24, 2011 9:10PM

Can they retract a bid 3 days later?

Or did you mean they had the seller cancel it?

Dpeck100 · August 24, 2011 9:18PM

Yes they can. The classic entered wrong amount. You just can't cancel with less then 24 hours to go is my understanding.

The worst is when they cancel their top bid and the seller leaves their other bids in.

JoeBanzai · August 25, 2011 2:52AM

I will say it again. Bid retractions should not be allowed. There is no reason a person should be able to do so. If eBay wants to allow you to retract a bid, then no matter when you are bidding/retracting ALL of your bids should be cancelled and there should be some kind of temporary suspension of bidding privileges.

Quite some time ago the underbidder on an auction I was high bidder on bid 10-15 times in the last 10 minutes or so, in equal increments and out bid me, then retracted and I ended up winning the item at my highest possible bid amount. Because it was at the end of the auction only his last bid was cancelled. I paid for the item but was not happy about it.

I do not understand this policy. Why should people be able to retract a bid when you clearly have to "confirm" your bid? Maybe there should be another step in the bidding process........"are you really REALLY sure you want to bid this amount.....REALLY?"

Just my rant, still enjoy the (flawed) process.

Joe

AkbarClone · August 25, 2011 3:13AM

I hate bidders that do it as a strategy. Number One offender on my current "poop" list is ebayer ID: zooe

30 Retractions in the last 30 days
428 Retractions in the last 6 months

I have stopped bidding with one of my favorite sellers because he is letting this punk continue to bid on many of his auctions.

mlbfan2 · August 25, 2011 3:22AM

<< <i>I do not understand this policy. Why should people be able to retract a bid when you clearly have to "confirm" your bid? Maybe there should be another step in the bidding process........"are you really REALLY sure you want to bid this amount.....REALLY?"
>>

I think bidders should have to confirm their bids for every bid retraction that they have. For example, if you have 10 bid retractions, you should have to confirm your bid 10 times.

Are you sure you want to bid this amount?

Are you really sure you want to bid this amount?

Are you positive you want to bid this amount?

This isn't a joke, right?

You're not going to retract another bid, are you?

Is that your final answer?

You do know that a bid is a binding agreement, right? Are you sure?

etc.

cards651 · August 25, 2011 3:26AM

Great thread with some great comments. I agree with most all of them. I don't have too much to add other than I feel your pain and to remember that most buyers and sellers tend to be honest. Always a cliche but it is too bad that a few people can really screw things up for everyone else. - Kevin M.

53BKid · August 25, 2011 3:53AM

<< <i> ebayer ID: zooe

30 Retractions in the last 30 days
428 Retractions in the last 6 months
. >>

Are you kidding. How come he isn't suspended for abusing the system? Worth calling eBay to hear what they say!

08HALA20 · August 25, 2011 4:35AM

Just a couple of weeks ago I was high bidder for a cheap card around $15.

I get an email about 40 minutes before the auction was to end saying I was now high bidder as top bidder cancelled their bid.

I went to the auction and noticed that the bidder ran my bid to the max and then 1 increment higher.
When he retracted his bid I became high bidder at my max amount with him the underbidder.
eBay only cancels your last bid within a certain time from end of auction.

I went in and cancelled my bid and made them the high bidder at around $9.00. I timed it to happen about 30 seconds from the end of the auction.

I had forgotten all about it until I saw this thread. Thanks for the letting me enjoy this again.

Joe

JMDVM · August 25, 2011 6:58AM

Sometimes I bid on a card I already own and had forgotten to check off my want list. Usually its on a common. Is it poor form to retract the bid in this situation? Or is it better to ask the seller to cancel the bid for me?

miconelegacy · August 25, 2011 7:02AM

Why doesn't eBay limit the amount of retractions? I can see 1 maybe 2 mistakes, but that many and they are still aloud to bid?

That ain't right!

Sullyknows · August 25, 2011 7:07AM

I'd say suck it up and pay for it. why should your poor record keeping put the seller in a bad spot?

handyman · August 25, 2011 7:14AM

If I see a card I want and its 100.00 over what I want to pay. And its an auction with a few days left. No I would not put it in my watch list or track it bc I thought it was to much money. SO yes I can see this working.

Dpeck100 · August 25, 2011 7:50AM

In my book no bid retractions allowed under any circumstances!!!!

I have only once hit the wrong amount and I had to live with it.

Think twice before you hit go!!!

EBAY needs to cancel accounts and this will help stop the problem.

brendanb438 · August 25, 2011 8:04AM

In 12 years of using eBay I have never retracted a bid. Only once after doing a BIN did I contact the seller and state I wasn't going to pay him for the item. The reason for this was because the description of the item was misleading and left out some key information that when I went back and looked at the picture I noticed. Seller understand completely and didn't press the issue because it was a very shady detail left out.

wallst32 · August 25, 2011 11:30AM

<< <i>I will say it again. Bid retractions should not be allowed. There is no reason a person should be able to do so. >>

While I don't condone the action of shilling to reveal bids, I don't fully agree with this comment either. I'm sure there have been legitimate cases where a person bid 1000 when they meant to bid 100 for example.

Or what about the HP Touchpad? You could have an outstanding bid for $300 on an auction then after HP cut the price you could have walked into Staples this weekend and bought one for $99.

Anyways, realizing that ebay is full of scams, I just try to bid what I'm willing to pay; if it works out great; if not I'll move on. Let's say FMV for item X is $100 and you suspect it's getting shilled up, but you can still win it for $100. Would it really matter if it was BIN for $100 or shilled up too $100 if that was FMV and you were willing to pay it? The shiller is not going to let you buy it for less than that anyways, effectively making it equivalent to a BIN @ $100. Again I'm not condoning these practices, but it's just the reality of what you have to deal with.

Mickey71 · August 25, 2011 12:44PM

Handyman,
What are you talking about?

WinPitcher · August 25, 2011 9:16PM

Mickey

You don't know?

lol

(either do I)

Garabaldi · August 26, 2011 2:53AM

Everyone makes a mistake once in awhile after that it becomes a trend.

diamondman · August 26, 2011 3:41AM

I have had 2 bid retractions in 5 years, one the item was misrepresented listed as 1 ounce really only 1/2 oz retracted bid.

The other time was my fault typed in 15,00 instead of 15.00 so my max bid was 1500.00 instead of 15.00 got burnt once by not retracting my bid were I typed in 35,00 instead of 35.00 and the auction got ran up to 3 times the value paid 105.00 for a 35 to 40 dollar card guess I should feel lucky it didn't get run up to 3500.00 ended up selling the card for 38.00 lesson learned.

Bid sober, bid slowly, bid wearing glasses, and don't touch that #%%#% coma ,,,,,,, key....

Bid Retractions as Ebay Strategy

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