Originally Posted by
Dave Mayer
Well, this was a scam. The seller was obviously and repeatedly employing a shill bidder to expose my high bid, and run up the final price. When the shill bidder inadvertently 'won' the auction, the shill (the seller, under a different IP address) pulled out of paying - hence the reason for the Second Chance.
In the Second Chance, the item was offered to me at a higher price than would have been the case if the shill hadn't been bidding against me.
This is another reason why bidders should never bid on an auction with more than a few seconds to go. Or bid in even dollar increments.
Now I understand what was going on. Sneaky git; gets to run up the price based on the last bid or adjust to your last-known cutoff price.
As for bidding on an auction with seconds to go - I just put in a snipe and let the sniping system do the work for me.
Originally Posted by
wrk101
When I used to do auctions, at least 10% of the time, the winning bidder never paid. So I did make some second chance offers.
Now I just avoid the headaches and do buy it now with immediate payment required (check the box in your listing). No more deadbeats.
When bidding, bidding during the auction just reveals your interest to others. Which to me is a bad idea. Bid your maximum at the end. If you lose, then the item was worth more to someone else. Buy it now is a lot less trouble for buyers and sellers alike.
I still find auctions do better, if you've got a product that's desirable and have the guts to start the listing low. Everybody gets emotionally hooked early, and the watcher count goes up, giving you better chances when the "don't miss out" email is sent out.
BIN with immediate payment works, but I find that it can't hurt to have a Best Offer on some items.
As for bidding, as I mentioned to Dave: Snipe at your max, and forget about it. Does the job and guards against impulsive upping of one's max too.
-Kurt