THIS ebay "thing" has happened to me a LOT LATELY....

[Meridian_Mike]

I don't know if y'all have seen this or not BUT..... it has happened to me 4 or 5 times LATELY. TWICE yesterday....(Maybe I buy too many knives???....Nahhhhhhh)
.
Anyway.....
I search the latest listings for knives I want (this could be the root of this problem)....I see a knife I want to bid on..... I put in a max bid that I would pay for the knife in this auction. After a day or 2, someone bids and tops my max bid. FINE.... NO PROBLEM SO FAR.... My max bid is EXPOSED but no big deal. I just figure I won't be buying this one.
.
Then, inside a 24 hour period, the HIGHER bidder retracts his bid.... SO, the bid on the knife goes back to the original starting bid ($9.99 or so) BUT, anyone watching the auction KNOWS what my max bid is.
.
Maybe I just taught everyone how to find out if they want to SELL a knife on ebay for the ONLY bidders high bid..... all you need is a shill bidder to put in $.25 under my high bid. If you don't like my high bid, have your shill bidder go $.25 over my high bid. Something fishy is going on.
.
Do y'all see what I am saying?
(Or was I too confusing to follow)




Here is one auction in particular that it JUST happened to me AGAIN......
https://www.ebay.com/itm/pal-cutlery-co ... 1431.l2649
.
Do y'all see anything unusual here.....
Yes, the knife is NICE. Whoever topped my bid YESTERDAY, has retracted so high bid is BACK TO $9.99.....
My high bid is $25.25 so if y'all want it, go get it......
(I probably shouldn't have said that..... I am NOT blaming anyone here....)
I'm just FRUSTRATED!!!

[DM11]

I see what your saying. I use a sniper program so I don't have that problem.

[peanut740]

I,like David use a snipe program.Most knives that draw lots of attention,the winning bid is made in the last 3 to 5 seconds.

[EeDeCe]

Don’t bother with bidding until the end. IMO, most prolific sellers prob have two accounts to drive up the bids. OR, even more likely, there are people who have “issues” and bid for the excitement of getting on top, influencing auctions and then back out or get off raising the bid and barely getting off the hook at the end.
I don’t even look at long term auctions now, that being another problem. A month long auction is ridiculous. I just look at those ending in a few days and I don’t bid until the end so I don’t get screwed.

[Doc B]

I use a snipe program, too...but, it sounds like it would be nice, if there was a way to put a bidder in "time-out", for a while...if they retract a certain number of bids, within a certain time period.

[Meridian_Mike]

Yep, if there is a knife I REALLY want, I use a snipe program too....
These are just "in passing" knives that I see.
AND..... This is just a practice I use when I see something I might like and hope to get for a minimum bid..... These aren't too important to me.
.
I guess my gripe is, when a seller uses this practice just to find out where the max bid might be then decide if they want to take it or not.
It is sort of underhanded..... Makes me want to retract my bid TOO!!!!
I know we have all gotten decent knives for the starting bid just because no body else found it or maybe didn't want it.
I guess I was just aggravated because it happened to me TWICE in 2 days.

[Meridian_Mike]

but, it sounds like it would be nice, if there was a way to put a bidder in "time-out", for a while...if they retract a certain number of bids, within a certain time period.

YEP!!!

[Sharpnshinyknives]

Mike, I have never encountered this as a buyer or a seller. It’s the first I am hearing about it. I have seen sellers end an auction early because the bids were lower than they thought. I won’t look at their knives or consider them once I see that happen. Maybe I am naive, but I think that we should honor our commitments and keep our word. Bidding or offering for sale is a commitment and it should be honored. Those that don’t, aren’t trustworthy. And just because money is involved doesn’t excuse it. I think I would move on and not do business with the people who do these things. Just my opinion.

[LDF Knives]

Stick with AAPK!

[Steve Warden]

Stick with AAPK!

AMEN!!

[XX Case XX]

Then, inside a 24 hour period, the HIGHER bidder retracts his bid.... SO, the bid on the knife goes back to the original starting bid ($9.99 or so) BUT, anyone watching the auction KNOWS what my max bid is.

I'm confused here. If the high bidder retracts his bid, then it goes to the next highest bidder (You). Why would the auction revert all the way back to it's original starting bid when there are clearly several bids that are more than the starting price?

_____________
Mike

[Meridian_Mike]

Maybe I am naive, but I think that we should honor our commitments and keep our word. Bidding or offering for sale is a commitment and it should be honored. Those that don’t, aren’t trustworthy. And just because money is involved doesn’t excuse it. I think I would move on and not do business with the people who do these things. Just my opinion.

I agree 100%.... Thanks!!
I guess I saw this as a way some of the ebay sellers could start a knife at a low price and then "cheat" to get a better price if only one bidder had put in a bid....oh well.

Stick with AAPK!

YES... I always find fair sellers here. I usually get my collector knives from AAPK sellers.
I just shoot for some on the bay tat I figure I might get cheap. Then, I either clean or repair them.
.
Thanks all for your input!!!

[RalphAlsip]

Here is one auction in particular that it JUST happened to me AGAIN......
https://www.ebay.com/itm/pal-cutlery-co ... 1431.l2649
.

This particular bidder has 287 retractions in the past 6 months. If eBay had integrity, they would find people like this (sellers and bidders) and ban them.
eBay has analytics capability that far exceeds what it would take to identify stuff like this. eBay chooses not to act.

[Meridian_Mike]

I'm confused here. If the high bidder retracts his bid, then it goes to the next highest bidder (You). Why would the auction revert all the way back to it's original starting bid when there are clearly several bids that are more than the starting price?

_____________
Mike

I think this will only work if there is only one bidder in at the low starting price.
Then is when the shill bidder can put in a REALLY HIGH bid and see where that bumps the high bid price.
Then he can retract his bid, the bid goes back to the original starting bid from the original TRUE bidder....in this case...me.

[Meridian_Mike]

This particular bidder has 257 retractions in the past 6 months. If eBay had integrity, they would find people like this (sellers and bidders) and ban them.
eBay has analytics capability that far exceeds what it would take to identify stuff like this. eBay chooses not to act.

Annotation 2020-07-16 095616.png

Ah-ha!!!
SO.... this guy has been doing what I have tried to explain.
Thanks for pointing that out!!!!
(I didn't know that info was available)

[XX Case XX]

I think this will only work if there is only one bidder in at the low starting price.

It can't work like that if there's only one bidder. If there's only one bidder and he retracts, then it goes back to the original starting price. If there are two bidders and the high bidder retracts, it automatically reverts to the next highest bidder.

___________
Mike

[Meridian_Mike]

I just went back because I WAS GOING TO RETRACT my bid from this auction.....
WELL, someone has come in and placed a bid over mine now so I am locked in to this auction. I am DONE with this seller.
I hope he gets the money he wants for this knife. I don't think much of his selling practices. He DEFINITELY has a shill bidder working with him.

[Meridian_Mike]

It can't work like that if there's only one bidder. If there's only one bidder and he retracts, then it goes back to the original starting price. If there are two bidders and the high bidder retracts, it automatically reverts to the next highest bidder.

___________
Mike

The starting bid was $9.99.... I put in $25.25 and the bid sat at $9.99....
Then the shill bidder came in and put in something up there to bump the high bid to $25.50 and HE was winning.
Then HE retracts his bid and the bid price goes back down to $9.99..... it show the auction as if I am the only bidder.
BUT.... anyone watching this auction see what my high bid is.

[XX Case XX]

It can't work like that if there's only one bidder. If there's only one bidder and he retracts, then it goes back to the original starting price. If there are two bidders and the high bidder retracts, it automatically reverts to the next highest bidder.

___________
Mike

The starting bid was $9.99.... I put in $25.25 and the bid sat at $9.99....
Then the shill bidder came in and put in something up there to bump the high bid to $25.50 and HE was winning.
Then HE retracts his bid and the bid price goes back down to $9.99..... it show the auction as if I am the only bidder.
BUT.... anyone watching this auction see what my high bid is.

Okay, I get it now. Ya, that stinks to high heaven all right.

___________
Mike

[Meridian_Mike]

This particular bidder has 287 retractions in the past 6 months. If eBay had integrity, they would find people like this (sellers and bidders) and ban them.
eBay has analytics capability that far exceeds what it would take to identify stuff like this. eBay chooses not to act.

Annotation 2020-07-16 095616.png

.
How did you find this Ralph?
.

(Never mind Ralph..... I went back and found it.....)

[zzyzzogeton]

Probably won't do any good, but I'd report the apparent shill bidder to ebay and see if they do anything. Wouldn't hold my breath, but it MIGHT cause something to happen.

[Meridian_Mike]

Probably won't do any good, but I'd report the apparent shill bidder to ebay and see if they do anything. Wouldn't hold my breath, but it MIGHT cause something to happen.

I think I will do that..... AND, you are probably right!

[Sharpnshinyknives]

This is some really good information. I had no idea you could see a bidder’s history of retractions. You can also see how many times a he bids on that seller’s items. That would be valuable for figuring out shill bidders. I really hope this isn’t going to be something that happens frequently. Ebay doesn’t seem to police this very well when you report a problem.

[Gunsil]

Know what the difference between ebay buyers and sellers and a new puppy is? After a couple weeks the puppy stops whining.

[zzyzzogeton]

I went and looked at this - if you look at the report on the bidder above, there is a line that has "43%" at the end. That's the percentage of this bidders retractions/bids have been with THIS SELLER in the last 30 days.

So this bidder has done this bid/retract 43% of the time over the last 30 days. How ebay came up with 43% is a mystery since 2/5 would be 40%, 3/5 would be 60%, 2/6 would be 33% and 3/6 would be 50%. Must be that "new math" they teach now-a-days.