On this auction here , I got caught in a bidding war with someone who has zero feedback. The bidding got too high so I backed out. The Zero Feedback guy won. About an hour after the transaction I got a second chance offer on the item. But for some reason the whole situation seems a bit fishy.
I am asking for help in trying to figure out if I should avoid this item and keep looking. I am not so wise in the ways of the world. Any advice would be tremendous.
If it was only an hour after the action I would say it definatly fishy. I have sold on ebay and I would think it would be very rare to find out that someone who bid and won the item was not going to pay in only and hours time.
Thanks, that is kind of what I am thinking, the seller told me this: “The reason is the guy who won it has the Name “Boagus1” with 0 feedback, but the 0 is actualy made up of a posiyive and negative from 2 years ago. He is a fraudulent bidder and its even got my paypal account locked up.
I can arrange another paypal address if you decide to do the 2nd chance offer.”
But couldn’t he of just cancelled the bid before the auction ended?
It may be shill bidding, but that’s a weird way to go about it. It’s more common for the fake bidder to cancel their bid before the auction ends. Since the seller is a newbie, they may be under the impression that they can pick and choose which bidder they want to sell to.
You’re under no obligation to accept a second chance offer (you probably already knew that).
If you do an advanced search on completed items for that seller, you could take a look and see if this bidder has been part of the picture before - if so, I’d report the seller for shill bidding, if not, I’d just walk away. I wouldn’t buy the item - no way.
The auction you linked to is a buy it now auction (not really an auction so there is no bidding) and it isn’t over. how did you get in a bidding war on this again?
I think when it became a second chance thingamadoodle it changed over to a BIN item. It was just a regular auction that ended at about 1:30 PM Eastern Time. But yeah I noticed that the listing had changed.
Wouldn’t it be nice if to not have to worry about stuff like this?
A second chance offer does change into a BIN, but only the bidders being offered the second chance can see it. Since we can see the one in the link AND since it says “3 day listing”, The seller relisted it.
This is why I love the SDMB. It never hit me about the name.
Thanks for all the replies, I’ve learned alot and I know to trust my gut in the future. I don’t know if this is something I should report or just leave it alone. I’d hate to report it and then be wrong, but I’d also hate for someone else to get taken. Sort of a moral dilemma (sp?).
While rare, it’s not impossible. Example: I looked at an item that had about 15 minutes before the auction ended. No shipping charge was listed, so I emailed the seller to ask. I calculated that it would be ~$35 given my guesstimation of the weight, and what it has cost me to ship to buyers via FedEx ground. No response, and I’m into the last five minutes of the auction. On dial up, you don’t tax resources. I win, and then get an email asking for $100 to ship! :eek: So, I tell the seller I’m not going to pay if that’s the shipping terms and we make it a null transaction.