I’ll be avoiding this Ebay member
Flackthat
Posts: 412 ✭✭✭✭
Only read if you are bored, I’m not flaming or ranting, just sharing today’s experience lol.
Ran a no reserve auction on a group of coins. One of the Texas commemoratives sold for a lot more that I had expected. The high bidder ended up being a new eBayer of (8) feedback. Now usually I give everyone a chance.... but I had a feeling this wasn’t going to work out.
The underbidder has 3,054 feedback and was bid up by this jewel.
Here is the messages I received from the new eBayer.
ANA Member
PCGS Platinum Member
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Comments
I will say two things:
I would respond with
“. Since it appears you are REFUSING your winning bid I am REMOVING YOUR WINNING BID. It will go to the next bidder. I will also be BANNING YOU from any other items I have for sale or in the future. I will not issue any feedback on this sale. Have a great day. “
Then I would make the offer to next winning bid. I would not even allow him to change his mind and would immediately cancel his bid. Now I have never done this before but I would want to get away from this psychopath as soon as possible. Good luck on your next steps.
There is another point (and I agree with jmlanzaf): He willingly participated in the bidding. At any point, except the very end, he could have bowed out. When you offer to buy a coin (verbally or via a bid in an auction), you are giving the seller your word. Some people evidently have a low standard of integrity.
RMR: 'Wer, wenn ich schriee, hörte mich denn aus der Engel Ordnungen?'
CJ: 'No one!' [Ain't no angels in the coin biz]
Perfect example of cold feet after bidding it up, blames it on suspicious activity. apparently he didnt mind bidding that level to start with. if your willing to pay x price for the coin, what really matters how it got there. (you wanted it and you won it) I am not in acceptance of shilling bidding activity, but what really does it matter if you were willing to pay x amount.
People get caught up in the auction fever, then blame the auctioneer for accepting their bid. Even happens to pros.
I sometimes represented a currency dealer at an auction. I would preview the items. He'd come up with maximum bids. He insisted in listening in on the phone for certain better pieces. Inevitably, after he was outbid at his max, he'd be yelling in my ear: bid one more time, bid one more time! LOL
Yes. He will probably also think you shilled him up.
"but even the service person I spoke to agreed that it was "unusual" and stated they would cancel the order if they were in my situation."
Quite the professional response, if you ask me. And even if you don't.
edited to add...
And sellers are paying for that.
I don't have any opinion on the bidding. And, as long as we're going by feedback numbers, especially one provided by an eBay member with a total of 8(!) whole positive feedback comments.
Tell him good riddance, block, and move on. No need to deal with people like that.
I'm guessing that horrid green sticker on the slab may of had something to do with it. Could remove the green slab nasty and always just relist. Regards!
The whole worlds off its rocker, buy Gold™.
Yep. Part of being in sales is dealing with idiots. No sense wasting time and energy being upset when you encounter one. It happens.
Totally agree with ya man!
Agree with all of the above.
New ebayer does not understand how bidding works, and by backing out after spirited bidding he poisoned the potential sale to the 2nd bidder.
Block him and let him harass other sellers.
P.S. - nice coin.
Did you offer it to him at the next interval above $165?
Remove the high bidder from the auction and the second highest bid is $165. Anything above that level is not fair to your honest buyers.
See http://www.doubledimes.com for a free online reference for US twenty-cent pieces
Good luck with the sale. I hope the coin finds a good home.
See http://www.doubledimes.com for a free online reference for US twenty-cent pieces
Good luck.
As folks have mentioned, the high bidder doesn't understand the max bid / automatic bidding process.
Even though the high bidder started by placing their own max bid of $200 on May 19, when the current bid was at around $150.
And apparently the ebay rep does not understand, either....
https://www.ebay.com/bfl/viewbids/402267141418?item=402267141418&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2565
Clearly, you're just running a clever scam when someone voluntarily places a bid on an item they wanted. You forced him to place that bid! You made him offer you that amount of money for that coin! It's a scam, I tell you!
/Sarcasm
If that other buyer isn't interested in the coin, I AM! Please PM me if no response!
What a knucklehead. You don’t get to act like an amateur detective, and then cancel a winning bid. Ridiculous! BLOCK!
Dave
In situations like this I have never felt the need to expend the energy or time to extract a pound of flesh, teach someone a lesson or get in the last (negative) response. Simply tell the original highest bidder "fine, bid cancelled" and move on with the coin. Forget about them; life is too short for that type of nonsense.
In honor of the memory of Cpl. Michael E. Thompson
Except that if the high bidder hadn't raised the price, there might have been other bidders above 165
I do multiple increments of the minimum bid all of the time to reach the max bid someone has done and not go over it. I am no shill LOL, just using the best strategy to find where the bid sits (no it was not me in your auction but a nice half!).
Best, SH
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Strange indeed.... I agree with what you did...just walk away, not worth the stress. Really nice coin, would make any owner proud. Cheers, RickO
I doubt the person actually communicated with eBay, there was nothing strange about the bidding.
It was bidders remorse, they were looking for an excuse to get out of it.
Join the fight against Minnesota's unjust coin dealer tax law.
And if another bidder hadn't fallen asleep and bid even more, we may not be having the conversation at all.
See http://www.doubledimes.com for a free online reference for US twenty-cent pieces
This beats day and nighttime television. Thanks for sharing.
I don't disagree that it is difficult to impossible to figure out what the final price is without the ultimate high bidder. My objection is that you tried to make that calculation with the $165. It is unknowable whether the bidding would have stopped there or ended up where it ended up anyway. And you went so far as to say that any price above $165 is unfair even though there were other bidders above $165.
Looks like a very attractive piece. Why not put it on BST here?
Collector, occasional seller
There are usually a few posts on this forum from similar people who think these situations must be shill bids. I would block him and move on. The problem is, now the runner up thinks you shilled too. Sorry for your troubles.
TomB has the best advice - I would just re-list and move on. Run at 7 or 10 days and end Sunday evening, then you will likely have multple bidders in the mid-200s.
Be thankful the bidder did not pay for the coin then ask for a cancellation AND refund, which would have screwed you out of the 3% paypal fee. That happened to me on a $750 half dime that the buyer thought was a dime (ugh!)
I frequently do this, also, for a few reasons.
Sometimes I want to uncover the high bid so I can decide if I will also bid, and I also get to see the high bidder's strategy, such as the increments they use (round numbers, ends in .51, etc.).
Other times I bid up an item if the seller has been selling multiples over a period of time and I want to make sure that the market value does not fall too far below what I paid for one. It is my own version of price supports to make sure the market doesn't crash. For example, I might bid in amounts ending in .99, such as $19.99, knowing that the existing bidder at least was in for $20.00.
Other times I use that strategy to try to wear down high bidders so that they might get discouraged in that auction or so they might not bother competing next time. I am sure my bids sometimes look like shill bids to an outside observer. The difference is, if I win I pay up.
Then there are the times I just put in a healthy if not nuclear bid and walk away until the auction ends.
I only bid up coins I don't want if I think they are being shilled!
I stopped reading at the -- who am I kidding, even a cursory glance at this kind of message is refund/block/post on CU.
I'd have blocked and refunded before even considering how this person worked out this caper and your deep state coin bidding thing or whatever.
These people it's worth paying the $10 refund fee than spending $100 of your time. Because nothing you do for this sort of person is never good enough. This type or person uses the dynamics of buyer/seller and payment protection to leverage them into getting deals or just ripping you off completely. It's abusive behavior and if you grew up with abusers it's plain as day. I pay these people to F off on a regular basis just so I can avoid them shaking me down.
It's not worth the emotional energy time or money. People like this need to just delete themselves from society it makes me sick
I never have this problem, I haven't listed a no reserve in 20 years, just to risky, only use buy it now's
Tell him you did nothing wrong and will cancel it, but it will take the software a few days. Allow the unpaid item assistant to leave a strike so you get your eBay fees back.