Calling eBay Experts

Morpheus1967

Question for the eBay experts. So I was bidding on an item in a 24 hour auction. I am Bidder A. Bidder B was also bidding. We were the only 2 who were bidding. Bidding started at $199, I bid $225, he bid $250, I bid $275. He came over me at $280, and that's where it stood for the next 20 hours, until the auction ended.

I figured he would have a bid of $300 or $325 based on his previous bids. With 8 seconds to go, I placed a bid for $357, thinking the number was obscure enough that if he bid $350, I would still be covered for the win.

I won the auction with the $357 bid. What is strange is that another bidder, Bidder C, came in between Bidder B and myself. So looking at the bids below, the $280 bid happened yesterday and sat the for 20 hours. The rest after that happened in the last 8 seconds of the auction today:

Bidder B $280 Yesterday)
Bidder C $305 (8 seconds to go, eBay shows this was an automatic bid)
Bidder C $356 (8 seconds to go)
Bidder A $357 (6 seconds to go)

Now, I have seen some coincidences, but for the two of us to both have such an obscure final bid, his $356 and my $357, just seems really really odd.

My question is does anybody know a program that will do this? Bid nearly up to, but not exceeding, another bidder's high bid? I questioned eBay on this and they thought it odd enough that they advised me not to pay while they investigate it. Thanks.

braddick

That is odd.
If you're happy with your final bid placed I wouldn't be too concerned.
Any chance you would share the auction?
Expert eBayers can sometimes look at other offerings from the seller (past and present) and determine if there are any shenanigans going on.

Morpheus1967

@braddick said:
Any chance you would share the auction?
Expert eBayers can sometimes look at other offerings from the seller (past and present) and determine if there are any shenanigans going on.

Here is the link to the bids. Hopefully I am doing this correctly. Have to look at the automatic bids as well.

https://ebay.com/bfl/viewbids/384294712408?item=384294712408&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2565

yspsales

Were there any retracted bids?

I had similar experiences where I hit the exact number of my high bid and wondered why.

Then... Just last night, was selling my avatar coin.

One entered a bid of $2750.

The current bid was $26.50... then they retracted.

It revealed the high bidder and eventual winner at $31, who complained that the rouse had been frequently happening.

He was miffed over $5 but I see the issue.

I cancelled and happily kept the coin...

braddick

That is interesting.
I think you did wonderfully on the price though!
Here's a link to what one can expect, on sale, at retail:
https://www.jomashop.com/movado-watch-2600147.html

Coinnmore

Just wondering was your $357.00 bid was your high bid or were you willing to go higher? If your $357.00 bid was the high sounds like you did alright. I am usually not happy when I win towards my high bid always want to win at the lower range of my bids. If I buy them at the high side then I chalk it up to money spent and usually happy with the purchase and I got caught with another persons bidding war and ended up paying more. Sounds like you just won the item but maybe somebody knows if there is a program that lets you hit a person high bid. I never heard of one. Congrats on your purchase!

Morpheus1967

@Coinnmore said:
Just wondering was your $357.00 bid was your high bid or were you willing to go higher? If your $357.00 bid was the high sounds like you did alright. I am usually not happy when I win towards my high bid always want to win at the lower range of my bids. If I buy them at the high side then I chalk it up to money spent and usually happy with the purchase and I got caught with another persons bidding war and ended up paying more. Sounds like you just won the item but maybe somebody knows if there is a program that lets you hit a person high bid. I never heard of one. Congrats on your purchase!

$357 was my top bid, entered with about 6-8 seconds to go in the auction. And I am totally willing to pay that for sure. If the bidder below me had come in at $355, I wouldn't even have questioned it. What made me question it was the obscurity of my top bid, and for their bid to be $1 less. Could it happen? Sure. Just seemed odd.

ctf_error_coins

Looks normal to me, nothing odd at all. You both placed odd numbered bids around what the coin was worth, a very common bid strategy.

james2000

That's a trick some sellers use. They use another account to bid high to find out what's your highest bid, and then they retract the bid 24hrs before bid ended. Then that person just bid again $1 less than yours, so yours will become the highest buyer.

amwldcoin

If you bid on ebay enough you will find this is very common. Congrats, you got close but I have won a few by a penny!

divecchia

I always bid with obscure numbers. For example you would have lost against me had I bid because I usually bid $357.34 when I'm thinking around $350 for a bid price. For another example, if I was bidding $450 I would likely put in $457.34

So nothing strange for me. These are my usual tactics.

Donato

MasonG

@james2000 said:
That's a trick some sellers use. They use another account to bid high to find out what's your highest bid, and then they retract the bid 24hrs before bid ended. Then that person just bid again $1 less than yours, so yours will become the highest buyer.

That only works if you make your bid with more than a day to go. Morpheus said he didn't make his bid until six seconds to go. Aside from that, there are no retractions listed for this auction.

Mizzou

That is odd, maybe just a fluke. If two people bid the same amount, the first bidder wins but that's not what happened here.

ctf_error_coins

I have never understood the fascination about the underbidder, conspiracy theories, and the shill bidding thing.

As a buyer, you determine the price, period. Either you get the coin at your price or lower to way lower than your price. IF you bid correctly, then if you lose the coin by one cent or more, then you will be very happy that you did not overpay.

braddick

Look at it this way. The guy who bid a dollar less than you is probably kicking himself in the butt.

Dave99B

Nothing really unusual, IMO. I normally place my high bid using odd dollars and cents. I expect that's what happened here.

Bottom line is you won the item at an acceptable price for you, so all is good.

Dave

airplanenut

You chose a random number that's just a bit over the high bid you guessed was $350. Someone else did the same thing. That's it. There's no way to know what someone's high bid is without placing a bid. On the list of coincidences, I wouldn't consider this that much of a coincidence. Many people follow that type of strategy.

ifthevamzarockin

Just a coincidence.
I don't think there was funny business with the bids but there could be with the item or seller.

One thing that does seem a little unusual If you had 2 higher end watches that were exactly the same would you sell them both on 24 hour auction? I would run them a little longer to get more bids unless I needed the money real fast. Where do you buy higher end watches that are new with no box or papers? One thing you have in your favor, all watches are shipped to ebay and verified and then shipped to the buyer. If the seller doesn't ship or sends a counterfeit you should be covered

jwitten

I was about to post a similar thread actually. I sniped last minute with a random number to try to outbid the other guy and was outbid by $1. I bid $356 and was sniped at $357. It’s gotta be the seller screwing me over, right? (Probably what some random guy is telling his wife right now)

Morpheus1967

Thanks everyone. I was happy with the price, so I went ahead and paid.

@ifthevamzarockin said:
Just a coincidence.
I don't think there was funny business with the bids but there could be with the item or seller.

One thing that does seem a little unusual If you had 2 higher end watches that were exactly the same would you sell them both on 24 hour auction? I would run them a little longer to get more bids unless I needed the money real fast. Where do you buy higher end watches that are new with no box or papers? One thing you have in your favor, all watches are shipped to ebay and verified and then shipped to the buyer. If the seller doesn't ship or sends a counterfeit you should be covered

Totally get what you are saying. Luckily Movados have a serial number engraved on the back that has to match up with the model number, so a quick call will verify it. I also have a good relationship with a Movado dealer in my area who has worked on my watches in the past.

jmlanzaf

@james2000 said:
That's a trick some sellers use. They use another account to bid high to find out what's your highest bid, and then they retract the bid 24hrs before bid ended. Then that person just bid again $1 less than yours, so yours will become the highest buyer.

Lmfao

No bid retraction here. Not only that, he bid $357 with 8 seconds left.

DelawareDoons

it's almost like collectors with similar tastes will value the coins similarly. Hmm...

mbogoman

If your times are correct for the last bids, I don't understand why your $357 bid beat the $356 bid placed 2 seconds earlier. $1 is not the bid increment at that level - the $356 bid should win.

ifthevamzarockin

@mbogoman said:
If your times are correct for the last bids, I don't understand why your $357 bid beat the $356 bid placed 2 seconds earlier. $1 is not the bid increment at that level - the $356 bid should win.

The bid before the $356 was $300 therefore until the bid was placed for $357 the current bid on the item would have been $305. The next valid bid amount would have been $310 or something like that.

CoinJunkie

@james2000 said:
That's a trick some sellers use. They use another account to bid high to find out what's your highest bid, and then they retract the bid 24hrs before bid ended. Then that person just bid again $1 less than yours, so yours will become the highest buyer.

The bid for $356 was placed 2 seconds before the winning bid for $357, so there was no discovery going on. It was a simple coincidence that the bids were so close, and one I've seen happen on numerous occasions on eBay over the years. I won one of my favorite coins by less than a dollar in a similar last second scenario a long time ago.

WAYNEAS

I do bid on auctions with seconds left.
This keeps me from not changing my max bid.
so, sometimes I win ,sometimes, I don't.
Wayne

astrorat

@james2000 said:
That's a trick some sellers use. They use another account to bid high to find out what's your highest bid, and then they retract the bid 24hrs before bid ended. Then that person just bid again $1 less than yours, so yours will become the highest buyer.

What trick? There were no bid retractions.

davewesen

you are lucky that the underbidder was high bidder at $305 for a couple seconds, if they were at $356 you would not have won as it did not meet next required bid.

Are you concerned about 24 hour auction? why would someone do that?
Are you concerned that the seller sold an identical item that closed the day before?
Are you concerned about the lower feedback of seller?

pointfivezero

Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose....

I placed a half-hearted snipe bid last week on a doily and I was absolutely certain I submitted it too late. The auction was sitting at $250 for quite some time. I entered a bid of $260 thinking I would get crushed. I hesitated until the last second and thought the auction had closed. Imagine my surprise when the "you won" message appeared. In between the $250 standing bid and my $260, there was another last second bid that was actually entered earlier in the day.

And when I say I won at the last second, I mean I won at the absolute last second. Behold:

jmlanzaf

@mbogoman said:
If your times are correct for the last bids, I don't understand why your $357 bid beat the $356 bid placed 2 seconds earlier. $1 is not the bid increment at that level - the $356 bid should win.

That's not how proxy bids work. You don't have to be a full increment ahead for a bid placed prior.

davewesen

@jmlanzaf said:

@mbogoman said:
If your times are correct for the last bids, I don't understand why your $357 bid beat the $356 bid placed 2 seconds earlier. $1 is not the bid increment at that level - the $356 bid should win.

That's not how proxy bids work. You don't have to be a full increment ahead for a bid placed prior.

you do have to be one increment above the current high bid shown when your bid is placed

jmlanzaf

@davewesen said:

@jmlanzaf said:

@mbogoman said:
If your times are correct for the last bids, I don't understand why your $357 bid beat the $356 bid placed 2 seconds earlier. $1 is not the bid increment at that level - the $356 bid should win.

That's not how proxy bids work. You don't have to be a full increment ahead for a bid placed prior.

you do have to be one increment above the current high bid shown when your bid is placed

Yes, but you don't when you place a prior bid. If you are 1 cent over a later bid, it will give it to you. The bid would have been $310 when his bid was placed.

davewesen

here is one I lost

AuctionStealer tried to place your bid, but your Max Bid was below the Minimum bid of 78.00 USD.

Max Bid: 77.77 USD
Buffer: 3 Seconds

it sold for $77.00

rec78

I lost an auction once with a last second snipe bid that tied the winning bid. Turns out that the winner put in the exact same amount ($301.01) only a few minutes before me. Ties go to the earliest bidder. Thus, I lost the auction by 1 cent. If I would have snipe bid at $301.02, i would have won the auction. Oh well, that's the way it goes sometimes.

Morpheus1967

@davewesen said:
you are lucky that the underbidder was high bidder at $305 for a couple seconds, if they were at $356 you would not have won as it did not meet next required bid.

Are you concerned about 24 hour auction? why would someone do that?
Are you concerned that the seller sold an identical item that closed the day before?
Are you concerned about the lower feedback of seller?

Not concerned about any of the above, as I am protected by eBay and it will be simple enough to prove authenticity once it is in hand. But I definitely see your points.

amwldcoin

I won an auction last night for a little over 1/2 my Max bid!