Surely this is the answer, Blowero?
Um, was I asking a question?
Chill, dude. What I mean is, isn’t the annoyance you describe avoidable by doing what Cheesesteak suggested?
Ah, gotcha. Right, you can normally see the max bids of everyone but the winner of the auction.
Then there’s the possibility that Bidder B is not stupid at all. Bidder B is a friend of Auctioneer, and Auctioneer has already arranged with Bidder B to drive the price up by making high bids, but then not actually take the item after the auction ends.
It’s probably not always stupid and flakey, but probably sometimes downright deliberate.
It’s just that we already covered this. I already read and responded to what Cheesteak said. Your question has already been answered. Of course I could email the seller and ask him to sell the item to me for less*. That is beyond obvious, and isn’t the point. I’m not asking for advice. If I just wanted advice, I would have posted in GQ.
*However, it’s no guarantee that he will.
Really? I have been to Live auctions, and I failed to notice “Vinnie “the Kneecap” Capitutu” sitting there with his tire iron. :dubious: They could sue you, but unless you were bidding on a zillion dollar item, they won’t.
Why not just make it so the person who retracts the bid has to pay the difference between their bid and the previous bid?
I went to an auction where they required all participants to submit their credit card number ahead of time. I’m thinking they didn’t do that for no reason in particular.
yes, but a charge is hardly valid without your signature. You could easily & successfully dispute it.
You can dispute any charge, whether it bears your signature or not. What’s your point?
Every purchase I make on Amazon is invalid?
What a moron. :rolleyes: There are special rules for Mail Order- where you get to dispute unless the merchant can show you recieved the item. We weren’t talking about Mail Order- we were talking about an in person live auction- although that might not be so obvious to the functionally illiterate. :rolleyes:
No. The seller just has a million of the items for sale, and will make the most money by offering the losers the item at the price they were willing to pay, no additional listing, waiting, answering stupid questions. It makes almost no sense to “shill” bid in the hope of getting someone to take a 2nd chance offer, as the seller will still have to pay listing and final value fees based on the winning bid amount.
If you can price descriminate and sell 2-3 items with one listing, getting the maximum amount from bidders A and B, plus B’s high bid plus one dollar, the seller wins, as well as bidder A and B in my book. They got the item at the price they were willing to pay and didn’t have to play the “pissing contest” with last minute high bids.
Well, that’s not true. Leaving aside the matter of how much it’s actually occurring, it does make sense to do it that way. Your point about the final fees doesn’t make any sense. The fees are a percentage of the final value; they do not completely negate it. Hypothetically, if say someone was set to win your auction for $20, and your shill succeeded in bidding him up to his max of, let’s say $50, and he buys your item as a second chance offer, you still made more money than you would have without the shill. Yes, even including the fees.
Or more succinctly: If X>Y, then [X minus Z percent of X] > [Y minus Z percent of Y] if Z<100.
Shill bidding for second chance is a waste of time, because your bid isn’t binding, as it is with a regular auction. You don’t have to honor a second chance offer. It doesn’t pay for me to shill an auction that doesn’t require you to pay up.
Does it happen? I guess, but there seems to be much more predictable methods of using a shill.
I use the second option all the time, as a method of maximizing my profits with a minimum of work. I have an item that I think will be a big seller, but I’m not sure how much, so I only list the one as a teaser. Turns out I’m right, in fact the item that I listed at $15.00, ends at $40, with 20 different bidders. It’s win-win.
What do I do? I contact all the second chancers and offer them the item at their max which is still less than the final bid was. If you’re the guy that bid at $20, you’re getting a bargin. I win because I don’t have to deal with relisting and tipping my hand that I have another 10 and i don’t have to pay listing fees, just the final value AND I have people who have a vested interest in my product.
You win because you’re not paying $40. Ebay wins because they still get some fees, but don’t have to host the auction again.
It’s all good.
That sounds dishonest to me.
After said sellers finish looking up “rare” they should proceed directly to “unique.” :smack:
Certainly not. Any fool knows it’s spelled LQQK.
Exactly what I meant to say if I wasn’t an, or “a” moron. 
It works, its good and it makes money for ebay and the seller and “saves” money for low-bid buyers.