On Sun, 13 Feb 2005 12:46:12 -0000
"Antonio Carlini" <a.carlini_at_ntlworld.com> wrote:
> > I won an auction recently in which there were two bids.
> > Mine, made a
> > day before auction end, and the second bid 5 minutes before
> > the end, for
> > $.50 *less* than my high bid. Raised my winning bid by 400%.
> > What made
> > the shill obvious was that I usually bid odd numbers -
> > $16.88, $27.92,
> > etc. In this case my high bid (on a $4.99 starting bid) was $26.86.
> >
> > The other bid was $26.36.
>
> I also bid odd numbers, mostly because if I bid ?10.01 on a ?0.99
> item (so it shows as ?0.99 high bid) and someone later bids ?10,
> I'm still winning *and* they have to jump by a whole bid increment.
> If I'm bidding against a ?0.99 item where someone else has bid
> ?10 and I come in with ?10.01, I'm winning - if I'd tried ?10
> I'd be losing.
>
> I don't see how a seller could have known you'd bid $26.86
> unless there was a high bid that was retracted.
A good question to ask: are bid retractions by third parties recorded
visibly on the bid page for buyers? I know that the seller is notified
of a retraction. Is it possible a third party shill bid 'high' in
order to suss out what his high bid was, then retracted it and bid again
to drive his bid to his max.
I'm not clear in who is notified when a retraction occurs. Surely Doc
as the former high bidder would have received an 'outbid' notice before
the retraction would have occured, though.
> If the item
> could reasonably have been expected to go for $10, then a
> shill bid of $26.36 would be insane.
>
> Is there any evidence of it being a shill rather than just
> hugely unfortunate for you? Did the other bid come from
> a zero-feedback buyer or a buyer who has made no bids on
> anyone other than the seller or anything else that might
> suggest a shill?
>
> Antonio
>
> --
>
> ---------------
>
> Antonio Carlini arcarlini_at_iee.org
>
>
Received on Sun Feb 13 2005 - 10:43:04 GMT