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Thread: eBay Legal Notice Received/YOUR RIGHTS MAY BE AFFECTED.

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    Default eBay Legal Notice Received/YOUR RIGHTS MAY BE AFFECTED.

    (If posted aready or not in the right place Remove it)


    Subject: Legal Notice Received: Dec-26-06
    From: eBay Expires: Feb-24-07

    eBay sent this message to
    Your registered name is included to show this message originated from eBay. Learn more.

    SUPERIOR COURT OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

    COUNTY OF SANTA CLARA


    JOHN ROCKERS, MARK RAWLING and
    BRIAN MORK , On Behalf of Themselves and for
    the Benefit of All with the Common or General
    Interest, Any Persons Injured, and All Others
    Similarly Situated,
    Plaintiff,
    vs.

    EBAY, INC., et al.,
    Defendants.

    )
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    Case No. 1:05-CV-035930

    CLASS ACTION

    NOTICE OF SETTLEMENT OF CLASS ACTION


    DATE ACTION FILED: 02/17/05





    THIS IS A LEGAL NOTICE. YOUR RIGHTS MAY BE AFFECTED.

    PLEASE READ IT CAREFULLY.


    To: All eBay users from February 16, 2001 to the present. If you claim to have been harmed by eBay raising the eBay bidder's existing bid where no higher competing bid had been made and where raising the bid was not necessary to meet a reserve minimum you are a Member of the "Class" and your rights may be affected by the proposed class action settlement of a lawsuit alleging that eBay would automatically increase in certain circumstances an existing bid where no competing bid had been made and where it was not necessary to meet a reserve minimum. eBay denies any and all of the contentions and allegations of wrongdoing relating to eBay's increasing an existing bid where no competing bid had been made and where it was not necessary to meet a reserve minimum, and denies that the Members of the Class have suffered any damage. This Notice summarizes the terms of the settlement, and explains your rights and options under the settlement.


    I. THE LAWSUIT


    On February 17, 2005, a complaint was filed by plaintiff Glenn Block in the Superior Court of the State of California County of Santa Clara ( the "Court") as a class action alleging that eBay's automatic increase in certain circumstances of an existing bid where no competing bid had been made and increasing the bid was not necessary to meet a minimum reserve was improper and artificially inflated the bids of eBay buyers, thus causing damage to eBay buyers (the "Action"). On April 17, 2006, an Amended Complaint which, among other things, substituted Plaintiffs John Rockers, Mark Rawling and Brian Mork for the original plaintiff was filed in the Court. The caption of the Action is Rockers v. eBay, Inc., et al., Case No. 1:05-CV-035930.


    II. THE SETTLEMENT TERMS


    The parties participated in mediation with the Honorable Read Ambler (Ret.) in an effort to resolve the Action. As a result of the mediation and in order to settle the allegations in the Action, eBay has agreed to cease the conduct alleged by making the following "curative disclosure" that is relative to the misrepresentations claimed by Plaintiffs:


    In response to a system prompt, if a high bidder attempts to raise his maximum bid when such bidder is then between bid increments, eBay shall first disclose to such bidder the exact amount of any resulting bid increase that would otherwise occur by virtue of the bidder raising the maximum bid. By way of illustration only and using the facts set forth in paragraph 23 of the Complaint, upon raising the maximum bid once plaintiff had reached his existing bid maximum of $111.00, eBay would disclose whether raising the maximum bid level would result in the $111.00 bid being raised to the next bid increment over the last competitive bid of $110.00 and, if so, specify the exact amount to which the bid would be raised - that is, $112.50.


    In addition, eBay has agreed to pay the sum of $2.1 million ("Settlement Fund"). The Settlement Fund will be distributed to one or more federally tax exempt charities chosen by Plaintiffs' Counsel and approved by the Court. None of the charities selected by Plaintiffs' Counsel and approved by the Court shall be directly or indirectly affiliated or associated with Plaintiffs or their counsel. Based on information provided by eBay to Plaintiffs' Counsel, the $2.1 million is estimated to be approximately 50% of the claimed damages and all other economic harm allegedly incurred by Members of the Class. Distribution of the Settlement Fund to charitable organizations is appropriate because any attempt to distribute the Settlement Fund to individual Members of the Class - whose average recovery would be less than $1.00 - would result in administrative costs that would consume any settlement proceeds.
    eBay has also agreed to separately pay Plaintiffs' Counsel $800,000 for past and anticipated future attorneys' fees and expenses regarding the Action, subject to Court approval ("Attorney Fees"). This amount was negotiated and agreed to after the substantive provisions of the settlement were reached and after the memorandum setting forth the material terms of the settlement was executed. Plaintiffs' Counsel, subject to Court approval, intend to pay up to $104,300.00 and $150,000.00 to Glenn Block (or Glenn Block, P.C.) and Daniel Block (or DSB Consulting, Inc.), respectively, for their expert services in this Action from the Attorney Fees. Glenn Block was the original plaintiff in the Action and provided technical assistance to Plaintiffs' Counsel regarding eBay's auction practices, the allegations in the Action, the calculation of damages and economic harm, and due diligence. Daniel Block is Glenn Block's son and provided computer, programming and data mining expertise that was otherwise unavailable to Plaintiffs in a timely and efficient manner. Their expertise was unique and necessary for the successful prosecution of the Action.
    eBay shall also separately pay, subject to Court approval, the three Plaintiffs named in the Amended Complaint, $1,000 to reimburse them for their time, costs and efforts in representing the Class.


    III. CONSEQUENCES OF THE SETTLEMENT


    If the Court approves the settlement, a judgment will be entered dismissing the lawsuit with prejudice against eBay and all of its past and present officers, directors, shareholders, employees, insures, agents, representatives, partners, joint-ventures, parents, subsidiaries, affiliates, and attorneys (the "Released Persons"). This means that Members of the Class will be barred from bringing their own lawsuit against any of the Released Persons relating to eBay's alleged practice of raising an eBay bidder's existing bid where no higher competing bid had been made, and where raising the bid was not necessary to meet a reserve minimum. If you do not want to be barred from bring your own lawsuit on such claims, you must validly and timely request exclusion from the Class, as set forth below.


    IV. YOUR OPTIONS


    If you are a Class Member, you have the following options:


    (A) Participate in the settlement. To participate in the settlement, you do not need to do anything. If the Court approves the settlement and the judgment is not successfully appealed, the terms of the settlement will be implemented.


    (B) Request exclusion from the Class and settlement. If you wish to be excluded from the Class and the settlement, you must send a written request for exclusion by regular or express mail, so that it is postmarked no later than January 30, 2007. Your exclusion request must include (1) your name, address, and telephone number; and (2) a statement that you wish to be excluded from the Class and settlement in Rockers v. eBay, Inc., et al., Case No. 1:05-CV-035930. If you submit a valid and timely exclusion request, you will not participate in the settlement. You will not be bound by the judgment dismissing the lawsuit with prejudice as to Released Persons, and your claims will not be released.


    (C) Comment on the settlement. If you remain in the Class, you may comment in support of or in opposition to the settlement. To do so, you must, no later than January 30, 2007, file your comment or objection with the Court and send copies by regular or express mail to Plaintiffs' Counsel at the addresses below:

    The Court:

    Clerk of the Court
    SUPERIOR COURT OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA
    COUNTY OF SANTA CLARA
    Civil Division
    191 North First Street
    San Jose, CA 95113

    Plaintiffs' Counsel:

    Jeffrey D. Light
    LERACH COUGHLIN STOIA GELLER
    RUDMAN & ROBBINS LLP
    655 West Broadway, Suite 1900
    San Diego, CA 92101-3301



    Your written comment or objection must include (1) your name, address, and telephone number; (2) information sufficient to establish your membership in the Class; (3) a statement of your views; (4) any supporting documentation you wish to submit; and (5) a reference to Rockers v. eBay, Inc., et al., Case No. 1:05-CV-035930. If you wish to appear and present your objection orally at the fairness hearing described in Part V below, your written objection must contain a notice that you intend to appear and be heard, a statement of the positions you intend to present at the hearing, and any supporting arguments. You may, but need not, appear in the lawsuit through your own attorney. If you do so, you will be responsible for your own attorney's fees and expenses.


    V. FAIRNESS HEARING


    A hearing will be held on February 13, 2007, at 9:00 a.m. before the Honorable Jack Komar, Superior Court Judge, in Department 17C at the Santa Clara Superior Old Courthouse, 161 North First Street, San Jose, California 95113. The purpose of the hearing will be to determine (a) whether the proposed settlement including the attorneys' fees and expenses and service awards that eBay has separately agreed to pay should be approved as fair, reasonable and adequate and should be granted; and (b) whether the Action and the claims of the Members of the Class should be dismissed with prejudice pursuant to the settlement. This hearing may be rescheduled without further notice to the Class. You may attend the hearing if you wish, but are not required to do so to participate in the settlement.


    VI. HOW TO GET MORE INFORMATION


    You can get more information by contacting Plaintiffs' Counsel at the address listed in Part IV (C). Complete copies of the settlement agreement and all other pleadings and papers filed in the lawsuit are available for inspection and copying, during regular business hours, at the Office of the Clerk of the Court, Superior Court of the State of California, County of Santa Clara, Civil Division, 161 North First Street, San Jose, CA 95113.



    PLEASE DO NOT CONTACT THE COURT REGARDING THIS NOTICE.


    DATED: November 8, 2006
    BY ORDER OF THE COURT
    SUPERIOR COURT OF THE STATE OF
    CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SANTA CLARA

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    Pac-Man (Level 10) ryborg's Avatar
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    what?
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    Last edited by ryborg; 05-08-2011 at 05:41 PM.

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    Can someone sum it up for me please

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    Read: "If eBay fucked with the amount of your bid for no good reason, contact us and help bored lawyers make money. And if you do and we fuck with your bid again in a confusing manner, you can't sue us again".

    Basically, this is a class action suit to make them handle better the way they deal with maximum bids, and the ability to change it while involved in an auction. If you take part in this and they still suck at handling it, you can't take part in another class action.

    Additionally, i'm going to file a class action against whoever wrote that. There are about 20 words that actually meant anything in there.

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    Pear (Level 6) scorch56's Avatar
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    evilBay has never screwed with the bids I make.. or recieve.. just everything else.
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    Bell (Level 8) Darren870's Avatar
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    It has nothing to due with them altering bids. Its like this:

    Lets say I am a high bidder of an auction at $20 (and thats my max bid), yet i know that wont last so I want to bid $50. If I put in a bid while I am the high bidder it counts as a bid and the auction goes up to $21, even though I am still the high bidder.

    It was a dumb system and i noticed it when it happened to me once.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Darren870 View Post
    It has nothing to due with them altering bids. Its like this:

    Lets say I am a high bidder of an auction at $20 (and thats my max bid), yet i know that wont last so I want to bid $50. If I put in a bid while I am the high bidder it counts as a bid and the auction goes up to $21, even though I am still the high bidder.

    It was a dumb system and i noticed it when it happened to me once.
    Happend to me too, but afaik it only accures when your highest bid is just above the next highest bidder, i.e. next highest bidder got $19.95 and your bid is $20.01. Bids increase with $0.50 or so and in this case the difference is only $0.06. So if you place another bid it will go up to match the $0.50 difference.

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    Apple (Level 5) ckendal's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by jajaja View Post
    Happend to me too, but afaik it only accures when your highest bid is just above the next highest bidder, i.e. next highest bidder got $19.95 and your bid is $20.01. Bids increase with $0.50 or so and in this case the difference is only $0.06. So if you place another bid it will go up to match the $0.50 difference.
    Exactly!

    PS.. the class action lawsuit is pointless!
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    That's it?!

    Jesus, I thought this was for excess charges, what with the eBay and Paypal fees. :P
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    Quote Originally Posted by Darren870 View Post
    It has nothing to due with them altering bids. Its like this:

    Lets say I am a high bidder of an auction at $20 (and thats my max bid), yet i know that wont last so I want to bid $50. If I put in a bid while I am the high bidder it counts as a bid and the auction goes up to $21, even though I am still the high bidder.

    It was a dumb system and i noticed it when it happened to me once.
    Oh that! I LIKE that system! But I can't tell you why.. because if I did you'd think I'm evil (and no.. it doesn't have anything to do with "shill bidding" either).

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    Distribution of the Settlement Fund to charitable organizations is appropriate because any attempt to distribute the Settlement Fund to individual Members of the Class - whose average recovery would be less than $1.00 - would result in administrative costs that would consume any settlement proceeds.
    Did I read that wrong, or is eBay just going to donate the 2.1 million $ to charity because it costs too much to pay back its members that were affected by the high bid problem? This high bid increase has happened to me a couple of times, but these kinds of things are generally too much trouble to deal with, much like that time when the price of CD's were too high... Still waiting on that payout. Hopefully the charity's will benefit from this $


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    Pac-Man (Level 10) ryborg's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by scorch56 View Post
    evilBay has never screwed with the bids I make.. or recieve.. just everything else.
    Well put. Same here.

    I do a ton of bidding on several accounts and I never got that email. Is this something EVERYONE is supposed to get, or only the people that were affected? I've never ever "bid twice" against myself since I typically either use BIN or use a program to snipe.

    After reading everything over, I really don't see what the big deal is. If you're going to go after ebay/paypal, go after something more worthwhile. I hate needless lawsuits.
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    Last edited by ryborg; 05-08-2011 at 05:41 PM.

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    I've been an ebay member going on 8 years now. This DID happen to me once or twice in the first couple of months after I joined, but once I read about it in eBay's policy and understood what was going on.. I never really gave it a second thought. It's always been that way.. so what. I actually use it to my advantage against others. In my years on ebay.. I've become pretty ruthless in my biddings.. especially when a clueless noob gets in a bidding war with me over something that's gone way over it's value. You can use this little quirk to your advantage when you bid someone up.. just to give that little extra "twist of the knife" to them. Bidding up.. most everybody's done it at one time or another.. whether to truly try and find the other bidder's limit preceding your hopefully winning last-minute bid.. or simply out of spite. Some people say it's mean.. but the way I see it.. whenever you bid someone up.. you're taking the chance that you MIGHT go past them and end up stuck with the item when maybe you didn't intend to.. so that's the risk.. and 1 time out of 10.. I end up eating crow.. the other 9 times.. I get the satisfaction of knowing that little last hour snipe paid his max.. and then some. <evil grin>

    example (purely made up actually):

    NEVER bid on the dollar. Also.. know how the eBay bidding structure works.. as in (and I'm just recalling off the top of my head.. this isn't exact) .01 to $1-increments are 5 cents; $1 to $10 is it?-increments are 25 cents; above $10-increments are $1.. and so on.

    So.. let's say you've put in a proxy bid $5.77 on an item on a 5 days sale and the item starts at 0.99. Your current bid is 0.99 cents.. obviously. 4 days go by and you've seen no more bids or perhaps a few "feeler" bids. One competitor came in the next day and bid $1.04.. still yours. On day 3 someone comes along and bids $3.00 and your bid is still in the lead and now at $3.25.. still yours. Let's also assume the game is fairly worth about $7.00 so if you get it for $5.77 or less.. it's a bargain. Day 4 comes and goes and no more interest and you think you're going to win. Day 5 and 7 hours left.. you wake up that morning and see that last night someone out bid you. You're a collector.. you've been trying to score the game at a decent price for months and you thought this time.. you may. You have feedback in the hundreds and your new competitor is a noob at feedback of zero.. or 5.. an overenthusiastic noob. The bidding is now at $6.02 (Your $5.77 max + 0.25= his $6.02). At that point what do you do? You figure the game's worth $10 tops but certainly not $20. However the noob has clearly put in a proxy bid because he just surpassed your max bid by the increment and you haven't a clue what HIS max is.

    Here's where it get's interesting. Most noobs.. hell.. most bidders period.. DO bid on the dollar. So at this point do you bid him up? To try and discover his max? Thinking maybe he won't check back and you can pass him in the final moments? Or do you just try and go ahead and max over him now? Or maybe at this point you've simply given up but would like some revenge. At any rate.. here's what you can do. You already know the guy has bid somewhere from $5.78 on up to an unknown. My next bid would be $6.99. Ahh!.. the bidding has gone to $7.24 and he's still winning! At this point.. you can either bid him up a dollar every time (which kind of makes "bidding up" obvious) or you can make a leap of faith. In my case I'd try $7.99 next.. now he's at $8.24! Screw it.. skip thinking he bid $9 max and go for $10. So bid $9.99. Comes up he's still in the lead.. but the bidding is at $10.00 even.. one penny over your last bid. You now know what his max is and you have three choices:

    A) bid $12 now because that's what you'll pay and hope (possible bid war)

    B) wait now.. until the last minute and place a bid of $10.25 and beat him (only works if he doesn't come back, or isn't watching also.. or gives up)

    C) you're really not interested anymore and don't care.. but guess what?

    It doesn't matter because.. according to what we're discussing when the noob comes back and sees that he's close to being outbid.. he'll panic. 9 times out of 10.. he'll put in another bid above his $10 and no matter what it is.. guess what? He just overbidded himself and now has to pay $11 for the item (according to my sample increment scale). You may not win.. but you sent him a message. I rarely have dealers or noobs bid against me after one of these episodes.

    THAT'S.. why I've always liked this policy.. work it to your advantage.

    SEE? Told you I was evil.

    About two years ago.. this little rich f*ck came on eBay and he had lots of cash. It seemed for a couple of months.. he bid on everything I did and usually won.. oftentimes paying WAY too much for everything. I thought he must have came into an inheiritance or something. He also would buy MULTIPLE copies of some of the most sought after games. Money seemed to be no object and 90% of the time.. he'd snipe.. every hour of the day and night (didn't actually work for a living I guess). Obviously.. he DIDN'T bid just against me.. it just seemed that way. I got pissed and started playing this little game with him. I watched his every bid (he had about 80 or so auctions going at any given time) and bid up every one I could find.. and yes.. that 1 time out of every 10.. I passed his bid and paid.. that's part of the "game"; but 90% of the time.. he paid dearly. After about two weeks.. he stopped bidding on any items he saw that I did. It's a cruel world.

    One last tip.. if you're getting signals that a person DOESN'T bid on the dollar.. go look at their own wins in their auction history in "search by bidder" and you will see if they use random amounts or some kind of pattern by looking at the auction's they've participated in's bid histories whether they won or not. It helps.

    Hence.. it's alway best to pick a random bid amount.. it works both ways. In other words if an auction starts at 99 cents.. bid $5.43, because if Joe Blow comes along and bids his max at $5.. he'll see you beat him at $5.25 and won't know YOUR max and 9 times out of ten if that's HIS max.. he'll give up.

    I could write a book on this crap..

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    ^ Revenge bidding, now that's funny.

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    I got one of those eBay message "legal notices" the other day, too.

    I hadn't been affected by automatic upbidding, except when increasing my own high bid a few times. I don't think even those bumps are fair, even at "only" a quarter. Now I'll usually just enter my high proxy and forget about it, or try to catch the end of the auction if I want to increase my max bid.

    Recent goings-on is another story...

    I made a bid, and was in the lead at around $20; my high proxy didn't show. I ended up winning the item for around $30. There was NO other bidding since my previous one and my proxy still had ceiling left to it. There was no reserve shown. The win was still a good deal, and in the range I was willing to pay. Considering the item's average sale price I still got what I considered a decent deal. How or why it happened? Still would like to know. No answers forthcoming, and I have asked!

    I saw the same thing happen on a more costly scale a while back. Was watching an auction with intent to bid if still in my range at conclusion. I ended up just watching when I saw the unexplained bumps begin. Over a few days I watched the bidding go up in $10 increments, the high bidder's cost rising steadily. I don't know if they were entering a higher max bid, and somehow causing the bump, but I was NOT willing to go that high, nor risk the chance of what I preceived to be unfair bumping.

    Something's definitely fishy with this bid-n-bump BS.

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    So I can get about 25 cents back from ebay so some greedy lawyers can make 40 percent of this? This is why the legal system is so screwed up, people pissing away time and energy on stupid lawsuits like this.

    Danny

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    Insert Coin (Level 0) Mark30001's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by scorch56 View Post
    It doesn't matter because.. according to what we're discussing when the noob comes back and sees that he's close to being outbid.. he'll panic. 9 times out of 10.. he'll put in another bid above his $10 and no matter what it is.. guess what? He just overbidded himself and now has to pay $11 for the item (according to my sample increment scale).
    !!! Well, that's happened to me a couple of times then...

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    Bassgrabber.. until I read the notice (I actually got one too) I thought it was referring to the kind of scenario you're referring to. It infers, as you are.. that somehow eBay raises a proxy bid with no activity.. but I've never actually seen that and there's a logical explanation for when it appears so.

    Pick out an auction that has a LOT of bids on it and a long history over a given period of time. Click on the bid history link and examine it closely in one of those cases. The thing here is that most people generally asssume that the bid history is ALWAYS listed in chronological order.. it isn't. Look at one that fits your bill closely. What you'll probably notice is that some of the date and times are OUT of order when looking at the history from top to bottom. That's because evilBay lists the history in order of amount increase.. NOT chronologically.

    For instance.. you may very well see that you put a last bid in.. of let's say $70 (proxy high of $100) on December 20th. There appears to be no bids by anyone else after that and yet on the 22nd and 25th.. your bid was escalated by proxy to $75 then $85 respectively.. so it appears your proxy has been escalated for no reason and YOUR 3 bids are lumped together on the end.

    Now look further back in the history just before your 1st bid and what you'll notice is that someone actually DID come in after you placed your 1st bid (but you don't notice it because 95% of the people think it's alway's chronological.. the dates are the dead giveaway actually) and made bids also. Whether they were simply one-time bids or what they perceived would be proxy ones at the time.. doesn't matter. The fact is that their bids were lower than your max proxy so they didn't have a chamce and yet.. pushed up yours. In this example you would see two bids BEFORE any of yours (including your first on Dec. 20) in amounts of $74 on the 22nd and one of $84 on the 25th. It's a hard concept to grasp.. I'll admit.. but I'd bet 9 times out of 10.. such is the case.

    I've been competitively bidding on eB since 1999. I don't always win.. FAR from it.. but 7 years of observation and thinking there are flaws in the system.. complaining to eBay and being told "this is the way it is.. it's all explained here>(usually a link to a page)" has led me to the conclusion that ebay's system rarely makes "mistakes".

    Granted.. many of their policies and "workings" make no logical sense.. but once you've learned it.. and start developing your OWN strategy to work with it (like my "revenge bidding" explanation) one can actually make it work 80% of the time.. to their advantage. It's an auction site.. the object is to WIN an auction.. and if you've ever attended a live auction in real life.. you'll see those people use strategy too. Same on the internet.. even better though where time isn't a factor and an auction progresses WAYS less quickly. I call it "turn-based auctioning".

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    Cherry (Level 1) Bassgrabber's Avatar
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    Yanno... I just went and pulled "my" old auction up. I had asked the seller if there was a reserve on it, cuz I didn't remember seeing one. They told me, "NO", so I shook it off since I still got a good deal and was in the range I was willing to pay for it.

    Just NOW when looking at the bidding history it has that very small "reserve met" where bid retractions or other info of interest would show for the auction. I missed it, more than once! So... my bad.

    I know how the proxies work by date, and amount. Someone bids higher than me, earlier, they'll win, unless I outbid them, outright. If we're dead-on tied at the end and they bid earlier then they win. If their bid is earlier, but less, they WILL push mine up, until mine is above theirs, at least.

    What got me was the reserve in this case!

    But I do stand by saying that I have seen previous auctions where the bidding escalated for no apparent reason, to me, anyway. Could it have been how the "bidding ladder" was set up by the seller, with higher bids by same bidder causing a jump? Is that possible? <shaking head>

    If something seems fishy I usually just leave it alone, or back off bidding. So far, so good.

    I'll keep an eye out for ya over there, and keep a mind to stay away... or at least not get caught in one of your traps!

    Thanks for the insights!
    Last edited by Bassgrabber; 01-02-2007 at 08:42 PM.

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