First time I have been faced with, or at least noticed this dilemma. Now I question how many times in the past it happened without me noticing it. I always put in my max bids on auctions and let eBays proxy bidding take me away. I don’t ever return to auctions or snipe at the end really. I place tons of bids every week and usually end up with a second chance offer at least every other week or so. This time I thought to go back through and check the bid history, as well as the contents of the lot, as you cannot directly see bids from the second chance offer. I probably have only decided to buy about 5 of the 50 or so second chance offers I have been sent and it is annoying as if you want to investigate the auction, you have to manually go back to your “didn’t win” items and then find it and check the bid history. Sure enough I see the telltale shill bidding with one low feedback bidder doing most of the final bidding against me and having 100% bid history with the seller. He also has another recent auction with shill bid activities in his history, though looks like the shill didn’t win that one, just pushed the price up.
With the shill bid, I got a good deal on the second chance offer, even though it should have been better without the shill bidding. How would you folks go about bringing this up with the seller? Would you bring it up? I mean I put in my max bid and got it for that, but it still pisses me off knowing it should have been cheaper and I want this guy punished. The thing is I normally place bids quick and don’t dig too deep, but this lot was a ~$100 buy and I should be able to profit $100 or so off of it even at the inflated price I paid. So I did go through with the payment knowing about the shill bid, and I am avoiding sending any message until I receive it because I am happy with the price regardless. I don’t want to accuse him of shill bidding to only have the item not sent. Kind of an interesting scenario. I will think about what to send in a message while it is being shipped and I am interested to see how he replies. I’ll document that journey here.
Make sure to always check back to the bid history on any second chance offers you are sent!
Had the same thing happen to me this week, User shill bid and then I got a second chance offer for what my highest bid was. I wonder if we bid on the same item haha. Had this happen to me a lot. very annoying.
I wouldn’t play that game myself, basically lets them decide if they want to sell it for your max. Its an awful practice and accepting the second chance offers(IMO) lets them continue to keep doing it. They have no risk with auctions and you have no chance of getting an item at the best price.
I guess it depends how bad you want the item. Ideally, I’d like to say just cut the loss and don’t support scum bags.
But then, I know that if someone had the last two cards I need for an unreleased set that I don’t publicize because I’m afraid someone else will finish the set and rob the market of the cards I’ve spent years of my life hunting for, i would probably buy them from ISIS if they had them.
So i guess only buy it if you have absolutely no other way of hoping to obtain the card. Otherwise, reject it on principle.
When I receive second chance offers I always tell them I’d like to buy the item for the price I would have paid if the winning bidder didn’t bid (aka the price the third highest bidder placed + $1). Most of the time a second chance offer comes because there is a non paying winner, and in that situation, it’s always a shill bid.
Thanks for all the input. My thoughts in completing the transaction:
Why should I keep myself from what is still a great deal just because someone is a scumbag? I really got a great deal still, though it should have been even better at about 20% or $20 cheaper from what I can tell. The cards are something that are easy to find, but this really is a great deal along with a bunch of random bonus exc WOTC holos thrown in.
I figure by buying it, once I get the item I have some leverage and some ability to make them pay for their deeds. If it is a good transaction otherwise, I will then call them out on the shilling before leaving feedback and see which route they take. If they take the route of continuing the lie and such I will use a neg feedback to call them out as shillers and report them. If they own up to it and offer any kind of a refund I could do a neutral mentioning them owning to their mistake, but still pointing it out. They have hundreds of feedback, all positive but only a few as a seller most as a buyer. Perhaps they are very new sellers and once pointed to the shill bidding policy they will see the light and own up to it all.
Basically, if I had simply declined the second chance offer I would have not had the opportunity to leave feedback at all and I would have kept myself from what is still a great deal in my eyes. I am getting it for the max bid that I easily could have otherwise bid up to in an honest manner.
I have had a time as a seller though where I have legitimate non paying bidders and have successfully completed a transaction through second chance offer. You don’t know how frustrating it is to need to free up some cash so to put some things to auction only to have non payers message you literally one hour after the auction saying “car broke can’t afford now”. Or “my kid placed that” etc. etc. we all know the stories. About 1-2% of my auctions never get paid for and it is frustrating when it is $100+ you were kind of banking on having.
If my memory serves me I have reached out for 2nd chances as a seller about 5 times and one of them was completed so to say “it’s always a shill bid” is a little drastic. eBay is full of a lot of garbage shilling, but it is also full of other garbage non payers that lead to 2nd chance offers being useful in certain cases. Sure a second chance offer sent in two minutes is beyond suspicious, but as a seller I have known well within 1 hour of the end of an auction that my winner wasn’t going to pay and have sent out a 2nd chance offer.
When I say it’s always a shill I’m not saying it’s always the seller shilling. A shill bid is simply a bid that was placed to artifically inflate the price. If someone doesn’t pay the price the listing ended at, it’s not the true price the listing would have ended at. Therfore a shill.
Do you have a link to the auction? It is more likely a shill bid. However, I occasionally get winners after an auction with bidders remorse, saying they can’t pay, their kid bid, paypal is broken, they forgot how to type, etc.
I’ll link the item once I see this through. Not a big time seller and I will have an eye on his auctions here on out. He mainly sells Disney stuff. Just must have gotten a few Pokemon cards. I don’t want anyone to end up messaging him or anything in the mean time, no active auctions anyways. I’ll keep an eye on him and report any shilling if I see it in the act this time.
I don’t plan to blackmail, I just plan to call them out once I get the item and see how they respond. In the end I’ll be happy with the price anyways, and I’ll be happy to see a shill bidder with a negative on a so far perfect record.