Alan -- Isn't it in eBay's interest to get the highest hammer price possible? I too, think that bidders who pull that crap should be shot. But eBay is only about maximizing profit. It's not like you aren't going to bid on their auction site anymore.
Earlier Stump wrote: I ticked a guy off on 75's once and he followed me to the 68's. He had and still does not have a 68 set registered. He bid only on the 68's I bid on and never won one. I retracted a bid once to see what he would do and he also retracted his bids.
For future reference bids can not be retracted within 12 hours of the auction with some very limited exceptions. If someone runs you up several days before the auction ends, retract your bid within a minute or two of the 12 hour deadline and the only way this run-up artist can weasle out of it is if he asks the seller to retract his bid(s). Hopefully the seller won't and it probably wouldn't hurt to e-mail the seller and explain your position and ask him not to retract this vermin's bids.
Also, I ran into this problem in 1999-2000. Some of it was clearly due to shills by the seller and others were vengeful losing bidders. It's sad on both accounts, but sniping does seem to be the best solution.
Plus -- it is only through look at people's historic bid patterns that I (and others) have been able to so easily report blatant shill bidders to Ebay.
I am actively buying MIKE SCHMIDT gem mint baseball cards. Also looking for any 19th century cabinets of Philadephia Nationals. Please PM with additional details.
MS -- But does eBay really do much to stop shill bidding? Unless a person with the same name and address is using two accounts, they pretty much don't do a thing.
Recently, I was clearly shilled by a guy. The reason I'm so certain is that the shill beat me out on one of this seller's auctions and the seller e-mailed me and said that he noticed that I had the second highest bid on a 1968 Oyler PSA 8. The seller told me that he has another '68 Oyler coming from PSA in week and wondered if I would buy it if it came back the same exact grade. I was suspicious of the winning bidder since I never saw that eBay ID before and that same bidder only placed bids on this seller's auctions, so I saved the scan of the card. Sure enough a week later, the seller e-mails me and says that the card just arrived from PSA and graded 8. I asked for a scan. As expected, the card had the exact same cert number of the card that the shill won a week earlier. I reported all of this to eBay and they found no wrong doing. What a waste of time.
I'm sure the seller simply sent the one that just came back to the original high bidder "by mistake". EBAY could care less about shill bidding unless theres a major news story published...at which point they are "really serious about cracking down" on shilling.
Again, why would they care if it means more money for them? eBay couldn't care less about you and me because there is nowhere else to go and they know it.
For future reference bids can not be retracted within 12 hours of the auction with some very limited exceptions. If someone runs you up several days before the auction ends, retract your bid within a minute or two of the 12 hour deadline
Stump , and if you really want to stick it to him make sure you rebid up to his high bid since you will know what it is before the cancel. I don't think the person will bother you anymore after that if they have no intentions of buying the card.
Comments
For future reference bids can not be retracted within 12 hours of the auction with some very limited exceptions. If someone runs you up several days before the auction ends, retract your bid within a minute or two of the 12 hour deadline and the only way this run-up artist can weasle out of it is if he asks the seller to retract his bid(s). Hopefully the seller won't and it probably wouldn't hurt to e-mail the seller and explain your position and ask him not to retract this vermin's bids.
eBay Bid Retraction Rules
Also, I ran into this problem in 1999-2000. Some of it was clearly due to shills by the seller and others were vengeful losing bidders. It's sad on both accounts, but sniping does seem to be the best solution.
Recently, I was clearly shilled by a guy. The reason I'm so certain is that the shill beat me out on one of this seller's auctions and the seller e-mailed me and said that he noticed that I had the second highest bid on a 1968 Oyler PSA 8. The seller told me that he has another '68 Oyler coming from PSA in week and wondered if I would buy it if it came back the same exact grade. I was suspicious of the winning bidder since I never saw that eBay ID before and that same bidder only placed bids on this seller's auctions, so I saved the scan of the card. Sure enough a week later, the seller e-mails me and says that the card just arrived from PSA and graded 8. I asked for a scan. As expected, the card had the exact same cert number of the card that the shill won a week earlier. I reported all of this to eBay and they found no wrong doing. What a waste of time.
I'm sure the seller simply sent the one that just came back to the original high bidder "by mistake". EBAY could care less about shill bidding unless theres a major news story published...at which point they are "really serious about cracking down" on shilling.
Regards,
Alan
Stump , and if you really want to stick it to him make sure you rebid up to his high bid since you will know what it is before the cancel. I don't think the person will bother you anymore after that if they have no intentions of buying the card.