This can definitely happen. A shill can place a very high bid, say $300, which would insure that your bid would be raised to your maximum of $98.50 and any other bidders' maximums would be entered. Then the seller contacts the second high bidder whose effective bid has been increased by the shill. One might say that one would usually be willing to pay the maximum one bid, but If you think there is improper conduct, I don't blame you for refusing. Also, if you think the seller has rigged the auction, how can you trust him to deliver the merchandise as promised?
Regards,
Jerry Moos
Huemax@aol.com wrote:
> Hi, Jerry, and guys,
>
> I am a Japanese(American) ebay player, ebay is one of the great resources to
> find parts we need for vintage bikes. But what do think about my experience
> here?
>
> I saw a bad trick; Say item worth about 100.00. the bid was running 40.00.
> Pretty low. So, I placed my bid for 98.50 in last 15 seconds left.
>
> Well, I was outbid by unknown bidder who never bid in that auction before.
> The final bid was 99.50. I gave up, BUT 2-3 days later( not a week or 10
> days), seller e-mailed me saying that the high bidder never came through, and
> offering me the item for 98.50 (my bid). But I refused.
>
> Another case, again the bid was relatively low, so last minutes I and other
> bidders
> running up bid so high. Say this bidder who had a bid at 40.00 level, but
> never
> outbid by several other bidders even went upto 150.00. Then, if you check
> back feedbacks, there is no posting of happy exchanges even after 4 weeks.
> It means that
> it is possible that the second high bidder was asked to buy for his/her bid
> at 147.50, and NOBODY was able to outbid this SETUP bidder.
>
> See you can get your buddy to place over pricing (proxy bid of say 300.00) to
> win, and trying to sell the item at the highest bid of the second bidder.
> This is not a fair auction. Do you see this tricky pattern??
>
> KEN TODA, buying more than selling in ebay, am not sure how many times
> tricked!