Got an intersting e-mail from E-Bay today...............................

A couple of days ago I placed a low bid on a Breedlove SC22 Cedar / Cocobolo, with the not too often seen sharp "fallaway". I do bids like this, because every once in a while I get lucky, and snag something for hard to believe prices. Anyway, this time I was out bid as soon as I placed my bid. I added a little more to the bid, and same thing. Someone had set his or her auto bidding to a certain dollar figure, so I forgot about it, and moved on. Now, two days later, I get an e-mail from E-Bay saying the other guys bid was retracted. I didn't know you could take back a bid? The bidder who took back his bid gave his reason as "entered wrong amount" Really? You have to enter and confirm bids when you place them, so I find this hard to believe. Anyway the e-mail went on to say that I was now the high bidder. I'm cool with that, but how can you take back a bid? That makes me glad I dont SELL on E-Bay!

It is actually easy to enter the wrong bid with fat fingers and then if you do not pay attention when it asks you to confirm your bid...well you just confirmed your incorrect bid. Did it once when I meant to enter 9.99 on an item and actually entered 999. Luckily no one else bid beyond the sub ten dollar mark but it sure taught me a lesson.

Also a bidder is allowed to retract his/her bid right up to the auction end I believe, not one hundred percent sure as I have never sold on the bay. So I could be making this up. < grin > Lets say you bid $$$$ on a new idgit grinder and the day after you enter your bid you get layed off or get really sick or some other hardship...you can retract your bid.

I have had sellers contact me after an auction where I was second high bidder saying the high bidder backed out and they are willing to sell to me for what my high bid was. In fact this has happened about a dozen times to me. I always refuse. For one thing you are not covered by the bays protection as the deal is taking place outside of the auction site. And the second reason is I being the conspiracy minded guy I am figure the high bid(der) was a shill. I have gotten very good at spotting shills or shill bids over the years on the bay and will not pursue any item that raises this concern in me. The bay site has gotten very good in last five years or so at stopping this practice and I applaud them for their efforts.

You might want to look close at the sellers feedback on this item you are now currently high bidder on. There might be a red flag there you missed earlier and the other bidder who retracted his bid found and caused him/her to say "Whoa!" and retract the bid. In which case you might want to retract your bid. Just saying.

I've read that some people who sell on ebay have a few other accounts other than their selling account. What they do is from their main account put an item up for sale. Then wait till they get a bid or 2. Then they take their other account and place a higher bid on that item just to try to get other people to bid higher. If the other bidder does not bid higher, they will retract so they don't have to pay for their own item.
Scammers!

That is what a shill bid is Trevor. Shilling is against the bays rules and they do work pretty hard to prevent it. But like alot of things in life it is a cat and mouse game to be sure.

Tele wrote:A couple of days ago I placed a low bid on a Breedlove SC22 Cedar / Cocobolo, with the not too often seen sharp "fallaway". I do bids like this, because every once in a while I get lucky, and snag something for hard to believe prices. Anyway, this time I was out bid as soon as I placed my bid. I added a little more to the bid, and same thing. Someone had set his or her auto bidding to a certain dollar figure, so I forgot about it, and moved on. Now, two days later, I get an e-mail from E-Bay saying the other guys bid was retracted. I didn't know you could take back a bid? The bidder who took back his bid gave his reason as "entered wrong amount" Really? You have to enter and confirm bids when you place them, so I find this hard to believe. Anyway the e-mail went on to say that I was now the high bidder. I'm cool with that, but how can you take back a bid? That makes me glad I dont SELL on E-Bay!

Yeah, I had someone do that to me a couple of months ago with something that I was selling. I'd never heard of being able to retract bids before either. The bidding continued so it all worked out. But I was pretty ticked off for a little while.

ohhh! Good to know. Bad Shillers!!!