leroydb 0 #1 February 20, 2005 THIS IS TO INFORM YOU OF THIS POSIBILITY! DON'T ALLOW THIS TO HAPPEN TO YOU! eBay loophole-- there is an easy way to win any eBay auction for almost no money. I just had it happen to me, and I'm very unhappy with the results of my lost time, and eBay charging me fees that I now have to try and get retracted. While in my case, I had a reserve, many auctions out there do not, and eBay encourages no reserve with their 'hot item' section. To make matters worse, if you start your item off at a reasonable price, you'll get very few bids, and thus less people watching it during the final minutes of the auction. Normally, on eBay, the process works like this: You place a max bid for the item. Say the item is an antique vase. You like it, think its worth $100. Bidding opens at $2. You place a bid of $100. eBay gives you the opening bid at $2. You are protected up to $100. Another bidder. Bidder 2 comes along and he wants the vase for $50., so he bids that amount. Bidder 1 is still the high bidder, at $55 ($50 + $5 increment). So Bidder 2 comes back and bids again, this time at $105. Viola! Bidder 2 is now winning at $105 (he met your high bid of $100 + the $5 increment. More bids. Bidder 3 thinks the vase is worth $125, and bids that amount. He becomes high bidder with a price of $110. Bidder 4 thinks the vase is worth $130, and becomes high bidder posting that amount. The auction continues in this way until the end. Usually, in the last minutes, the bidding gets very heated, and the vase may end up selling for $600., which is close to what your local antique shop might charge. This is how the scam works: Same vase, opens at $2. Only this time, Bidder 1 bids $1000. The opening bid still shows only $2. He immediately follows with a false identity Bidder 2, at $990. Bidder 1 becomes high bidder at $995. Since this is more than you can get a similar product locally, and in a price range the average user is not going to spend lightly, there are no other bidders. Scam complete. 15 seconds before the auction ends, Bidder 2 rescinds his bid, the "high" price drops back to the opening bid of $2, and Bidder 1 wins at that amount. Unless the seller has a substantial reserve to protect his investment (which is discouraged by eBay) he will be obligated to sell the vase for $2. If he does have a reserve, he doesn't have to sell, but he still owes eBay posting fees and the auction was a waste for him. For those of you who will say that the seller is not obligated to sell -- two things: Seller must first be aware he was scammed. Seller will likely end up getting neg feedback from scammer if he does not sell!Leroy ..I knew I was an unwanted baby when I saw my bath toys were a toaster and a radio... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ltdiver 3 #2 February 20, 2005 *Bump*. Could this be made a sticky? Thanks for the information. Wow. I've used eBay alot but hadn't thought of this scam technique which could be used against those of us who sell there. ltdiver Don't tell me the sky's the limit when there are footprints on the moon Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
wingnut 0 #3 February 20, 2005 i always thought that the seller had to resind your bid.. hence why you have a confirmationpage to make sure thatis the big you want to place......... heck i almost bid 300,000 the other day when my browser was being crazy, but i didn't makeit pastthe conformation page and all was good... if i would hit confirm i would of had to ask the seller to let me take my bid back!!! ______________________________________ "i have no reader's digest version" Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ccowden 0 #4 February 20, 2005 No that is not true. You can retract your bid. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Shotgun 1 #5 February 20, 2005 Retracting a bid in the last 15 seconds is usually not allowed, but if that did happen then it should be reported to ebay. I always put a disclaimer on my auctions saying that I reserve the right to cancel bids from people with little or negative feedback - that way if something looks fishy I can simply cancel the bid myself (though I haven't had to do this so far). Anyhow, check out ebay's bid retraction policy: http://pages.ebay.com/help/buy/bid-retract.html Especially this part: QuoteeBay will thoroughly investigate bid retractions. Abuse of this feature may result in the suspension of your account. Bids retracted within the last 24 hours of listing can be viewed as bid shielding, which is a serious violation of our policy. Sounds like you should report the bidder who did that to you... (and you may not be obligated to sell the item at that price). Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
leroydb 0 #6 February 20, 2005 not me ma'am... just a cut'n'pasteLeroy ..I knew I was an unwanted baby when I saw my bath toys were a toaster and a radio... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Shotgun 1 #7 February 20, 2005 Quotenot me ma'am... just a cut'n'paste Ah, your post makes it sound like it actually happened to you... If not, then I think it's a pretty unlikely scam due to ebay's bid retraction rules. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ChasingBlueSky 0 #8 February 20, 2005 You can also put in a reserve price to make sure this doesn't happen. If your reserve price is not met, it won't sell._________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again..... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
