Topic: Strange Dealings In Ebay

[KarlG]

I'd need some brake cables for #1, so I had a look in ebay.de for a set of Gore 'Road on' cables. I found two sets being offered by the same bloke, termination for bidding was today and they lay a couple of minutes apart. I normally snipe but today I had to go somewhere and wouldn't be at home to give a last minute bid, so I placed a bid on the second item, at the starting price of €20, so if someone else wanted a pair there would be no conflict.

When I returned home I found that the first pair were unsold and I had been outbid by 50 cents on the second pair.  I found this to be somewhat strange, why would someone miss the first pair out and want to pay more for the second?

OK these things happen and I've seen many strange things on ebay, just wait and see if he repeats the offer on the first pair. This is where the really strange part takes place. The auction finished at 11:27 and at 13:16 I receive an email from ebay offering me, as second highest bidder, the opportunity to to purchase the cables as the highest bidder was unable to pay. 

I've had offers in the past, were I've been second highest, and the vendor has more than one identical article, but never with the comment that the winner was unable to pay. 

[Retro Andy]

I have had problems with ebay recently, my wife sold a dress and the bidder clamed it did'nt get delivered, but what was strange she never contacted us untill over two weeks after we had posted it  This weekend we won an auction, paid for the item and then the next day received a refund from the seller saying they had removed it from ebay two weeks earlier ? Strange as it was a seven day listing, I think they expected to get more money for it  We also received something damaged a few months back, returned it and the seller then relisted it got the money from a second auction before returning my refund which then the funds failed to transfer to my paypal and had to wait another week before they returned my payment  All in all a bit annoyed with ebay over the past few months.

Retro Andy. 

[Dave.76]

Hi Karl

I must say that sounds very fishy to me. It almost sounds like the seller has being bidding against you to bump the price up and then given you the second chance offer when he realised he had out bid you!

[KarlG]

Hi Dave,

this was the first thought that went through my mind.

I'm not going to take up his offer, I'm in no hurry, I'll wait and  see what he puts into ebay in the future.

[coverman]

I personally would report the suspicions about the brake cable dealings to eBay because they come down hard on that sort of thing to try to stamp it out.

[KarlG]

I've read that ebay is tough with dealers, but it would appear they don't give a toss about private sales, it's a good source of income. Plus it's too much effort to try and control the vendors who, unlike the dealers, only pop up now and again. The cables being offered were a private sale.

Here are two very good examples of cases that I reported. Both these cases were some time ago before they changed the regs.

The first was when I was looking for a harness for my RC transmitter. There was only one person offering them at this time, even though he was selling them regularly he was registered as private. The end bid was too high for my liking so I watched the next item, this was also too high. After a while I noticed it was always the same three bidders up to a certain price, I checked his feedback and found the same three names time after time. I then checked the bidders location and found that they all lived in the same town.
I reported this to ebay only to receive a reply that they could find nothing suspicious. It must have cost him quite a bit of cash as these three won quite a few times.

In the second case I wanted to buy a scooter. I found one being offered by a chap who lived up in the Alps, collection only. I found this to be a good bet as there are not many people who are prepared to travel all the way to the Alps to buy anything, so I placed it in my watch list.
I had no idea how much this model was worth or what I should bid, so I checked though the IN and one of the items I found was a back dated sale from ebay. To my surprise I found out the back dated sale was THE SAME SCOOTER being offered by THE SAME VENDOR,  and one of the bidders in the current sale was THE WINNER of the previous auction.    I checked the location of the bidder and found out he lived in the next village. I checked his bidding system and found out each time a bid was placed he placed a counter bid, his last bid was placed five seconds before the end of the auction. I noted the winning sum, which was very low, then I added one cent to this sum, I then placed my bid at ten seconds to go, AND WON BY ONE CENT. 
I also reported this to ebay, but never received a reply. About a month later I checked on the vendor and found out he was still active. 

I have a feeling that there were too many complaints based on actions similar to mine that caused ebay to hide the bidders identity. It makes it harder to track bidders, but it's not impossible. 

[coverman]

So you won with a bid only one cent above the bogus bidders final low bid! Great work-that will have taught them a lesson!!

[KarlG]

It may have taught them a lesson, but I certainly didn't let on. The last thing I wanted was to pick-up a sabotaged scooter. 

[coverman]

Absolutely!

[KarlG]

I contacted a guy concerning an article in ebay.uk.co and asked if he would deliver to Germany, his reply "no problem". Just before the end of the auction I placed a bid only to receive the following message "This item can not be delivered to Germany".

I contacted the guy concerned and informed him that I couldn't place a bid due to the fact he had select delivery to UK only and my bid was being blocked, then I received the following reply "do yoh want me to list another with a but it niw price?" ? ? ? ?  (Reply is cut and paste, not my mistakes).

I know that I drop cods now and again, after all over 40 years out of the UK plus I can use English very rarely, but this takes the biscuit.