Bid retractions ... I call shenanighans

[Vroomfunkel]

Recently someone placed a £200 on my Panzer Dragoon Saga auction, and then retracted it a few hours later .. now, given that the auction was at £100 at the time, I don't think that it can really have been a typo (i.e. they can't have meant to type £20 or £100).

However, it did reveal that the max bid of the current high bidder was £105. My suspicion is that the guy just wanted t scope out what the high bidder's max bid was, and he's probably going to try to snipe the auction.

Given that the auction is now standing at exactly the max bid of the high bidder, I suspect that I am not the only person who was able to work out the max bid from this guy's actions.

Whilst I am fine with people sniping on auctions, I don't like people playing with the retraction system like this to scope out someone else's max bid - apart from anything else, I dislike having my auction's price falsely raised, even for a short time, because it could put genuine potential bidders off if the artificially raised price is above what they would be willing to bid.

Anyone else come across this kind of activity before? (or even tried it themselves?) What are your opinions?

Vroomfunkel

[gepeto]

I don't know if you can do this but I would ban the retractors from bidding on it. As well as the right to cancel bidders without zero feedback who don't get your approval to bid on the auction first.

Good luck.

[Griking]

Recently someone placed a £200 on my Panzer Dragoon Saga auction, and then retracted it a few hours later .. now, given that the auction was at £100 at the time, I don't think that it can really have been a typo (i.e. they can't have meant to type £20 or £100).

However, it did reveal that the max bid of the current high bidder was £105. My suspicion is that the guy just wanted t scope out what the high bidder's max bid was, and he's probably going to try to snipe the auction.

Given that the auction is now standing at exactly the max bid of the high bidder, I suspect that I am not the only person who was able to work out the max bid from this guy's actions.

Whilst I am fine with people sniping on auctions, I don't like people playing with the retraction system like this to scope out someone else's max bid - apart from anything else, I dislike having my auction's price falsely raised, even for a short time, because it could put genuine potential bidders off if the artificially raised price is above what they would be willing to bid.

Anyone else come across this kind of activity before? (or even tried it themselves?) What are your opinions?

Vroomfunkel

If it bothers you that he did it then block him from bidding on your auctions. When he emails you asking why tell him the truth. That's what I'd probably do because little stunts like that generally piss me off.

[almostgotthemall]

You really should report the invalid bid retraction here: LINK

You will need to sign in. I believe it will count as a strike against him(3 and your NARU).
Maybe the warning he will get from Ebay will curb his irritating actions. I see that he has 2 bid retractions within the last 6 months.

Fill in the comment form with 'Bidder retracted bid using explanation Entered Wrong Amount, but did not enter any new, correct amount.'

I have found in my past auctions where the high bidder retracts the bid, the second highest bidder no longer wants the item either.

Oh, and personally I would block him as a bidder.

[rick weis]

i've never had that happen to me as a seller, but as a buyer it has happen to me TOO many times!!! it's always on high end items!

sometimes it just someone spiteful because you have a high bid on it, then other times it's the seller (or the friend of the seller) just wanting to take as much as they can.

i wish they would do away with bid retractions or maybe only e-bay can have them retracted (if you have a good reason) say if you use the "i entered the wrong amount" form there will be a place to add the right bid amount. then ebay will make the correction. but even that is still not going to keep them from placing a higher bid just below yours later on. or if you use the "i can't contact the seller" ebay would try to contact the seller to see if you can't. i don't know, e-bay has it's problems and they let these non-humans (and i'm being polite calling them this) do these things!

Rick

[rick weis]

I have found in my past auctions where the high bidder retracts the bid, the second highest bidder no longer wants the item either.

i don't know about other people but with me this statement is true!

Rick

[kevin_psx]

I have found in my past auctions where the high bidder retracts the bid, the second highest bidder no longer wants the item either.

i don't know about other people but with me this statement is true!

Why don't you want it?

[Zing]

A true sniper does not care what the other person bid. Snipers bid to win and bid the max they are willing to pay. Snipers have no fear of some newb that has already placed a proxy bid. Someone who uses proxy bidding has already lost to the sniper. Proxy bidders are like Neanderthals.

[rpepper9]

I have heard of a similar scam on eBay before.

Basiclly you have up to 24 hours before the auction ends to retract your bid. So you bit the item up to like 500.00 so that no one else bids on it because it is too high. Then you retract your bid before the 24 hour rule is up, and place a reasonable bid. Then you only have 24hr to worry about someone bidding against you. Most people will have seen the 500.00 bid and not even think about looking at the item a second time. So basicly you get it for a really low price.

I have not tried this, but in theory it might work, and it might have been what the person was trying? I tend to snipe rather than deal with all this monkeying around.

[Darth Sensei]

I have found in my past auctions where the high bidder retracts the bid, the second highest bidder no longer wants the item either.

i don't know about other people but with me this statement is true!

Why don't you want it?

Because it reeks of shill bidding.

[rick weis]

I have found in my past auctions where the high bidder retracts the bid, the second highest bidder no longer wants the item either.

i don't know about other people but with me this statement is true!

Why don't you want it?

Because it reeks of shill bidding.

BINGO!

[yok-dfa]

I have heard of a similar scam on eBay before.

Basiclly you have up to 24 hours before the auction ends to retract your bid. So you bit the item up to like 500.00 so that no one else bids on it because it is too high. Then you retract your bid before the 24 hour rule is up, and place a reasonable bid. Then you only have 24hr to worry about someone bidding against you. Most people will have seen the 500.00 bid and not even think about looking at the item a second time. So basicly you get it for a really low price.

That is exactly why the made the 24 hours period in which you can't retract your bid. Before that, you could do this in the last 5 seconds...

[kevin_psx]

I have found in my past auctions where the high bidder retracts the bid, the second highest bidder no longer wants the item either.

Why don't you want it?

Because it reeks of shill bidding.

Okay. But what if the seller --like the first poster-- is just a victim of a lousy retract-happy bidder? You're punishing the Seller for the Bidder's stupidity-- doesn't seem fair.

[yok-dfa]

Okay. But what if the seller --like the first poster-- is just a victim of a lousy retract-happy bidder? You're punishing the Seller for the Bidder's stupidity-- doesn't seem fair.

True, but life isn't fair There is no way for a bidder to find out wether the seller was shill-bidding or if someone was messing with their auctions without involving eBay staff. But their investigations, if any, usually take a far longer time than the running time of the auction.

If i were the seller i would just block the account from bidding and start the auction over. Many people, including myself, stay away from auctions that have bid retractions...