Ebay - prices go up at end of the auction

Any one noticed how prices on Ebay can go from Bargain basement to bloody expensive in the last 2-3 mins of the auction, or is it just me

Duh, that's the whole point..? It's an auction.

yes that bit i know, but i have seen things I wanted to buy go from €134 to €451 in the last 2 mins with the bidder I was against had a number of purchases at 958 and it didnt look like the auto bid system, 958 buys on ebay makes it look like it is a pro buyer (or the seller under another name), but I did get the other guitar I was after biding against a buyer that had 2 purchases to there name, which I would think like me is a guy who wants to buy to play the guitar rather than a guy who is looking to make a quick buck

I've noticed it as well, it seems that you can get software that will bid at the last milo second that will top the last bid up to a preset amount. For the most part I've stop buying things on ebay, you don't know what your getting, pay alot of money for some crap, that you can get cheaper in the store latter.

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It happens all the time.. The last thing i bidded on went from 120 to 480 EUR in 45 seconds... It's called bid snipeing...

You list the amount you are willing to spend and the increments all on eBay itself. If you are sitting there entering bids in the last seconds, then-

No, you don't bid at all, see how the auction is going and, then, at the last second, when the last bidder thinks he is going to win it because no one is bidding against him, you throw in your bid and beat him. It's how my boyfriend got his beloved Breitling Bentley watch for 1500€ less than in a store.

I think you are probably seeing this baby in action:

http://www.auctionsniper.com/

It chucks in your best bid at 5 seconds (or as you specify) before the end of the auction. This can be good or bad.

On the positive side it means you can pop up with a great bid at the last few seconds without ever needing to give Ebay your bid - which as you know Ebay normally uses to automatically bid in realtime. So it is great for those auctions when you don't wanna sit at home like a lemon watching your screen and hitting refresh as an auction ends etc.

However the downside is that you will never win against a higher "maximum" bid that is registered with Ebay directly - because that will always be the "last second" best bid in effect. So "Fred-the-bidder" might be the best bid 5 seconds before the end with €100 Euros, but he has already registered a maximum of €400 direct with ebay - nothing you do with auctionsniper, or a speedy keyboard is gonna stop that. So to be guaranteed the product, and not show your hand too early, your best solution is to add your maximum direct to ebay in the last 10 seconds...but that causes the last minute flurry that you see on the good stuff.

But all said and done Ebay is a great service. No one is forcing you to buy overpriced junk. Occasionally you can get your fingers burnt - I recently bought an electronic item from Taiwan that was DOA (dead on arrival) and they did not refund my returns postage costs!!! So it cost me about €45 to end up with nothing.

But I also sold my Smeg fridge this year that was in my old UK house - I got a friend to take the photos - and got a great price. How impossible would that have been in the old days?

God I LOVE EBay!!

Im thinking of selling my smeg to the highest bidder too.

I love the title of this thread:


Subtitle: "No fucking shit Sherlock".

some of the professional e bayers are known to have 2 accounts (one in therer name the other maybe in there mothers name). one to put items on e bay. the other to pump up the price.either that or they just ask a friend to put in a bid.thats one reason these days its hard to get a real bargin on e bay. mind saying that a few years ago we bought a Antique desk for 110 euros on ebay.had a visit from a friend whos something of expert who told us its worth at least 2000 euro

(Ragarding the thread title): Does anyone have any information on the religious tendancies of the Pope?

I was only comenting that some people seem to be abusing the bidding system, the guitar that I lost out on yesterday is back on sale again today from the same seller, so he was trying to jack the price up and seems to have ended up not actually selling anything, but I would assume he will still have to pay ebay their cut

you could if wanted inform e bay about this.if the top bidder changes his mind at the end.normally the second highest bidder wins.e bay does not people jacking up the price by means of friends or otherwise , if caught they will get throw out

If it's the identical item, then it does sound as if the winner was someone the seller knew. It would take a lot longer than that if the sale was to fall through. But he could be a dealer and have more than one of these for sale.

Met a bear squating in the woods recently and he ventured that the pope might be catholic, he didn't want to be quoted on that though.

unlikely that a dealer would have 2 secondhand identical 20 year old 12 string guitars from an obsure german maker, but you never know. So I guess he bought his own guitar via an alternate account and now has to resell it, but his problem, and I cant be bothered to report him/her to ebay, its not worth the agro from my view

He could very well own a music shop and sells hard to move items that way so it is possible that he has two of the same item, obscure or not.

Back in the bleedin' real world please folks! I defy anyone to believe that bollox.

Have a look at the seller's previous auctions (you can do this through their feedback page and the 'bidding history' page for each item) and see if the same users keep bidding on different items. If so, he's probably got different usernames or gets his mum to bid on his products.

I'm not sure how widespread this is, but it's pretty shit behaviour anyway.

[mode = cynic]
it is very simple, if the seller didn't like the apparent selling range (i.e. the auction wasn't bidding up fast enough to an acceptable selling price), then it is the seller coming in a the last minute to buy the thing himself (from himself, only to re-list it later). The seller only needs a secondary "buying" ID to do that.

it's called capitalism, people.
[end mode]

the seller looks like some kind of auction house with every thing from rucksacks to glass vases for sale, so I guess he/they were trying to up the price, I would think this sort of thing is going to become more commen as ebay gets more trade. and the chances of 2 guitars are as close to 0 as they can get, even for a music dealer

I would guess that Ebay tracks IP numbers? Might be able to dodge using a Web Tunnel like Primedius. But I suspect if you report the guy they will catch him.

Its called a rip off, not sure either it might not be legal

if people use maximum bids and they really want it and they put in a high bid, and someone else really wants it yeah last minute jumps in prices. if you really want a item, have two ebay pages logged in and refresh one as you bid on another to get your bids in quick.

When I went to start selling things on Ebay, I read the "rules" pretty carefully. If they suspect you (or someone on your behalf) bidding just to up the price, your account will be terminated. That may not matter to some people, but it's a good deterent for the rest of us who don't care to start over with a new username and 0 feedback. I also shy away from buying things from people with little or no feedback. Having negative feedback for someone who sells a lot on Ebay can be detrimental- so I doubt that the majority of sellers on Ebay would do this.

i am a powerseller on ebay. what annoys me a little is when i buy something on e bay , the seller will not give a comment until i give him one even if i pay straight away.so if the item is not in order and you give him a neg one he will give you a neg one .ebay does not want to get involved

I agree about what Coolerking says about comments and feedback scores. Does really seem unfair somehow.

But about jacking up the price. I agree it's wrong of the seller to do that, but the German auctions don't allow you to have a minimum reserve amount on them, except for things like cars. A reserve means that you can start the auction off at the attractive low amount to attract bidders, but if it doesn't reach your certain amount, it doesn't sell. I'm assuming that you have to pay extra for that, but it does save you from losing a lot of money on something valuable. So I can understand why a seller here might resort to an alternate ID to buy back something that no one else is willing to pay the price for.

@Showem

I was gonna say just log into ebay.co.uk and list your item with a reserve - but would it then appear for the German punters OK? I don't see why you could not do the advert in German.

I find it quite confusing as I have just shifted to also selling on ebay.de - and although I can see everything from ebay.co.uk on my account, it forces me to log in again onto ebay.de to add or change listings. I am supposed to be a web designer and blimey do I find it confusing with ebay and paypal

I always give people positive feedback when they pay, because they have stuck to their very simple part of the contract - they paid!!!

me too but like i said a lot of the other powersellers do not

Yeah but JE, a search for items won't automatically show your item from eBay.co.uk on eBay.de, especially if you are just browsing categories. And lots of people, even if the item did come up, wouldn't even bother clicking on it, seeing that it's in a foreign country (as far as they can tell).

As for paying, I always pay real quick. But I bought one item, paid for it and then gave a neutral rating when I got it because it although I accepted it was 2nd hand, it was falsely advertised as being in perfect condition when it obviously was not. The seller gave me a neutral rating back, simply because I rated them neutral.

The foreign Ebay posted item will show-up when you do a search.
When you post your item, change the items location the germany, and
change the "Ship to" to EUROPE

You can see this if you search for something like memory cards.
Every now an then you will find a great price (Price in EU and in Germany) but actually located in Taiwan and posted from the foreign Ebay.

as a powerseller they always let you know when special price day comes, .when i get the next one i shall post it straight away on Toytown

No, it's called shill-bidding, and it's against the rules.

Scogs, if you suspect that someone is shill-bidding, then report it to Ebay.

I agree I once placed a well priced bid for a photo enlarger with no competition until the last five min. The winning bid payed almost double what I offered.