General Forum

I noticed I was outbid on an eBay auction EXACTLY 24 hours before the auction's end on ebay and viewed the bidding details of whom outbid me since I thought it was strange. 

I found that under the 30 day summary of the user, he/she bid 285 times on 231 items and 20% of those bids were on items from the same seller (the same one we're both bidding on an item from)

This is a pretty big seller on eBay (not PWCC big or anything) but doesn't that seem a lot suspect?
Anyone else have input on this and if you are familiar of any programs that will auto bid a certain amount at a certain time?

Thanks

ebay does allow "third party" programs to make bids.  Below is an excerpt from ebay's site, which basically says, "good luck with that".  They used to crack down on bidding "assistants" - people bidding on friend's auctions to drive up the price, but they probably realized it's more money for them, so they started looking the other way.

Automated bid sniping software

Many websites and software packages offer automated bidding based on the end time of an eBay auction. They try to place your bid automatically just before the auction ends, and some try to synchronize with eBay servers to make sure your bid is the winning one.

When you sign up with third party providers that offer automated bidding, you should make sure they are trustworthy before entrusting them with any personal data, like your eBay password. Remember, you're responsible for any information you give to third party services.

This makes sense why the bid was 24 hours exactly from auction end, but it's mainly the 20% of all 285 bids from last 30 days was for same seller that seems suspect. Just seems shady. Whether or not I win this one auction it's a seller i'll stray away from in the future now.

I don't know of any snipe services that you can set to trigger a bid that far in advance of the auction end.  The max I can set mine for is 12 seconds prior.

20% isn't suspicious at all to me, it's the 90+% ones with multiple bid retractions I run away from.

Happens to me all the time, pisses me off. However I get in bidding wars until I am done and then they can pay the winning bid. And about 50% of those cards just so happen to reappear on their online store within 72 hours or so. eBay is the home of unfair bidding practices. I see it with the online break auctions all the time. About 6 hours before it ends all the low bids suddenly get increased by the same couple of bidders. It is how they keep thier own stock for resale. Its sad really.

yep.. auto bidders and other people also have multiple accounts or friends that bump prices up .. one reason i never bid with many hours left on the item. always wait with seconds remaining unless it ends early morning then a bid before bed and cross fingers

Anything is possible with today's technology.   The negative side of using a shill is that if the shill wins (friend or family bidding),  they will still have to pay ebay the selling percentages.     If you feel someone is doing this, don't bid with that person.

I don't get this bid sniping at all. I know how much I am willing to pay for an item. I use that as my maximum bid and walk away from it. If I win... great. If not... I have not wasted much time and effort on it!

Sniping isn't so much about winning, it's about saving money for me. If my max bid is secret until the final seconds there isn't time for an underbidder to think about raising his bid higher ultimately. I'm not sure if it saves as much as it did a few years ago but you'd definitely save money 

Bid sniping isn't the problem. Artificial bumping is.

forester7 wrote:

I don't get this bid sniping at all. I know how much I am willing to pay for an item. I use that as my maximum bid and walk away from it. If I win... great. If not... I have not wasted much time and effort on it!