EBAY Investigations

austinmoviemakerMember

First post, so please keep flames to a minimum.

Here's the story:
I bid on an item and was outbid by quite a bit.
Next day, the top bid (much higher than anyone else) was retracted. Next thing you know, another bidder bid over three times the amount of the previous bid. That raised a red flag, so I looked into the sellers feedback history and found over 40 positive feedbacks by this winning bidder. Here's the interesting thing-all of these positives were within 2 minutes of each other and all said exactly the same thing. When I looked further, I found another instance of this with a different buyer. So, I reported this monkey business to EBAY and they came back in a day and said there wasn't enough evidence. I wonder what they would consider enough evidence, a videotape of the crime?

1/14/0410:32 PM

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idratherbeshoppingMember

Hi and welcome. It does sound suspicious, but this kind of conversation does belong under the heading of ebay in general. I really don't have an answer or a suggestion, maybe someone has an answer.

"Shop" and My Snipes

1/14/0410:51 PM

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austinmoviemakerMember

just another newbie who doesn't read the catagories, thats me!

1/14/0411:08 PM

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bartelbyMember

Hiya and Welcome

Definately sounds fishy to me!! I have never seen or reported anything like that so I dont know what kind of evidense they are looking for.

Sorry - not really any help

Lexie

1/15/041:11 AM

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jabbergahMember

...to the forum, Austin.

I agree with you & Lexie, it does sound fishy. I suppose you suspect shill bidding? Does the "buyer" have any feedback transactions with OTHER sellers?

I have read, and can concede, that some bidders develope "favorite" sellers, whose auctions they frequent. Might that explain this case?

Jabbergah

1/15/045:08 AM

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puppyraiserMember

quote:
Here's the interesting thing-all of these positives were within 2 minutes of each other and all said exactly the same thing.

I've seen this before. Went to the seller and looked at feedback left for others. Turns out the seller only does feedback once a month, and leaves identical feedback for everyone. Does a huge amount of business, so guess I don't blame him for not typing something different for everyone. I assume he stays a month behind to weed out those he wants to feedback with something less than positive.

About the bidding: Is the item worth that much? It could be the bidder was using the 'proxy' bid like they should. (except they bid WAY to early

)

Sometimes a bidder (or a seller for that matter) will violate the rules and bid a huge amount to discover what someones max is. They will then retract the bid to hide that amount from anyone else. If they know what your max is, they know what to bid.

1/15/047:30 AM

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shirleyMember

Welcome, Austin -- is that Texas? If so, I'm jealous -- that's home, and it's darn cold up here in the Great Lakes State!

I don't understand the first part of your post -- how do you know that the bids were "much higher than anyone else" or "three times the amount of the previous"? All you can see is one increment above the previous bidder, right? If only one bidder was bidding that high, how would you know it, unless someone came along and bid even higher? I'm not doubting your story, just wondering what else you saw that made you suspicious. Was the max on the retracted bid revealed at some point?

I agree with Puppy about the feedback. I bought eighteen items from the same seller just before Christmas (gifts for family) and he left all eighteen fb's at the same time, identical comments. What I would look at is how much time there was between auction's end and feedback timestamp -- enough time for the item to be paid for and shipped?

I have heard of cases where a shill would place an outlandishly high bid on an item, just to draw out the max bid. The shill wins, but then the seller contacts the backup bidder with a story about the shill disappearing, and informing the backup that they are now the official winner and are obligated to pay up -- at their MAX price, rather than their previously "winning" bid. But it would be VERY hard to prove that the shill and the seller were in cahoots, unless there was an obvious pattern.

Can we have an auction number?

1/15/049:25 PM

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mrsmMember

I, as a seller, have had several bidders buy from me many times. I don't know what evidence they would need, but I guess before I accused a seller, I would ask Ebay that question and then see if the seller "fits the bill".

Also,