Taking a beating on EBAY lately

[Rico]

I think it's when the high bidder backs out of the deal, they then go down the list to the next highest bidder and give you a another chance at it.
You have to be very careful as sometimes it's not a valid second chance, just someone trying to scam money from you.
Ebay has definitions somewhere on the website.

 

[UP2CSX]

I agree with Rico that you have to be careful about second chance offers, but I've gotten a few of them that were legit. The top bidder either backed out or didn't pay, so the seller offers it the next highest bidder. On occasion, the seller also has more than one of the item and, rather than list it twice, is willing to take the next highest bid. I always e-mail the seller to find out the exact reason for the second chance before I pays my money.

 

[LarryT]

I was bidding on a Rail Crane last week & the bids got way over my budget. About 12 hrs. later I got a second chance offer to buy it at my last bid which I did.
What is a second chance buy?

I believe a second chance bid is when the winner of an auction backs out, or is otherwise disqualified, and so the person holding the auction offers the item to the next highest bidder at the price they had bid.

It's a pretty good option for the person holding the auction, because it is far more common than you would think for the winner to "change their mind". Without the second chance you would need to run the very same auction all over again.

 

[LarryT]

I think it's when the high bidder backs out of the deal, they then go down the list to the next highest bidder and give you a another chance at it.
You have to be very careful as sometimes it's not a valid second chance, just someone trying to scam money from you.
Ebay has definitions somewhere on the website.

Yes, I'd only consider a second chance offer if it came directly through the eBay system. And, I would have only bid in the first place if the seller had many transactions with a positive rating.

 

[LarryT]

I agree with Rico that you have to be careful about second chance offers, but I've gotten a few of them that were legit. The top bidder either backed out or didn't pay, so the seller offers it the next highest bidder. On occasion, the seller also has more than one of the item and, rather than list it twice, is willing to take the next highest bid. I always e-mail the seller to find out the exact reason for the second chance before I pays my money.

Yah, if the seller has multiple items and is using the second chance option for that I'd be leery. They should really be doing a dutch auction in that case - although they might not realize that.

 

[jayl1]

Larry,
Second Chance Offer - perhaps the seller had more than one or the original buyer didn't come through. Make sure the email came from the original seller & not from a scammer. That has been known to happen!!
Jay

 

[Larry]

I got the Email from EBay.

 

[stang_crazy]

Yah, if the seller has multiple items and is using the second chance option for that I'd be leery. They should really be doing a dutch auction in that case - although they might not realize that.

Ive had a few guys on ebay i buy from regularly send me 2nd chance offers on stuff i bid on but didnt win because he has mutiples of that item.

Its legit and ebay offers that option. I think its great. Some times the price they offer is lower then what the one i bid one went for.

 

[Larry]

I was bidding on some Amtrak cars 2 days ago & the bidding started out at $9.99. That was 6 days out. I waited till the last 15 minutes & bid that amt. Then in those 15 minutes a bidder bid at least 15 times on those cars. The same bidder got the price up to $40.00. Is this legal & do you think it was the seller that was doing this to get the price up?

 

[tankist]

I was bidding on some Amtrak cars 2 days ago & the bidding started out at $9.99. That was 6 days out. I waited till the last 15 minutes & bid that amt. Then in those 15 minutes a bidder bid at least 15 times on those cars. The same bidder got the price up to $40.00. Is this legal & do you think it was the seller that was doing this to get the price up?

of course its legal. who is to say how many bids you allowed to make in given time frame? perhaps its someone was trying to get best price possible by gradually increasing his bid (someone who is clueless about ebay bid system)

seller can sertainly ask his friend to bid the price up. the possibility that seller lost actual bidders if it is his friend who "won the auction" is always there.
however, regardless of legality and ethics, this is something not only not enforceable but unprovable. you can not prove it was the bidder loggin in from another account and jacking bid up and as such - "not guilty"

 

[Rico]

Some people bid up in tiny amounts, it can take several bids to get a few dollars higher depending on the min. bid amounts.
Ebay watches for repeated bids from one user to another.
They caught one guy that I know of whos friend always bid on his stuff and jacked up the prices.
I get a kick out of the second chance offer thing. I recently sold some items that are not only paid for but have been delivered and recieved that are still eligible for second chance offers.

 

[bigford]

take a look at this listing on the bay

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=180446014706&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

same bidder blew the price theough the roof

 

[tankist]

take a look at this listing on the bay

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=180446014706&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

same bidder blew the price theough the roof

i see nothing wrong. buyer with nick E***C was trying to gradually beat buyer S***5
who placed bid of 280 two days before him. E***c didn't know the amount obviously and was trying to not overshoot it by too much hence small incremented bids.
or could you expain where do you see an issue here?

 

[tomustang]

i see nothing wrong. buyer with nick E***C was trying to gradually beat buyer S***5
who placed bid of 280 two days before him. E***c didn't know the amount obviously and was trying to not overshoot it by too much hence small incremented bids.
or could you expain where do you see an issue here?

z***t( 547Feedback score is 500 to 999) US $316.65
Dec-20-09 18:11:34 PST

e***c( 361Feedback score is 100 to 499) US $311.65
Dec-20-09 18:08:50 PST

4***l( 99Feedback score is 50 to 99) US $310.99
Dec-20-09 17:03:18 PST

e***c( 361Feedback score is 100 to 499) US $286.65
Dec-18-09 20:05:26 PST

s***5( 42Feedback score is 10 to 49) US $280.00
Dec-16-09 02:32:28 PST

e***c( 361Feedback score is 100 to 499) US $275.00
Dec-18-09 19:28:50 PST

e***c( 361Feedback score is 100 to 499) US $265.00
Dec-18-09 19:28:37 PST

e***c( 361Feedback score is 100 to 499) US $250.01
Dec-18-09 19:28:25 PST

e***c( 361Feedback score is 100 to 499) US $222.50
Dec-18-09 19:28:06 PST

e***c( 361Feedback score is 100 to 499) US $209.95
Dec-18-09 19:27:52 PST

e***c( 361Feedback score is 100 to 499) US $195.00
Dec-18-09 19:27:38 PST

e***c( 361Feedback score is 100 to 499) US $175.00
Dec-18-09 19:27:26 PST

e***c( 361Feedback score is 100 to 499) US $150.00
Dec-18-09 19:27:16 PST

e***c( 361Feedback score is 100 to 499) US $120.00
Dec-18-09 19:27:06 PST

e***c( 361Feedback score is 100 to 499) US $95.00
Dec-18-09 19:26:55 PST

The guy bids against himself, you don't think that is fishy??

 

[tankist]

not fishy whatsoever. does "bidding against himself" sounds as logical statement at all?

you guys are probably missing 2 facts:
1. ebay only take ammount required to beat second best bid and not full bid ammount.
2. list of bids is not sorted chronologically but by ammount.

so thats why s***5' bid is on top, with bid 280 on the 16th.
e***c came 2 days later. since all his bids were below s***5's, e***c still was not the highest bidder all that time and couldn't known max bid of s***5 (and probably did not want to overshoot it by to much). s***5's bid was automatically increased by the system.

 

[Larry]

That explains a lot, but a person that bids against himself 15 times in a row w/in 15 minutes to me is only jacking up the price hopeing someone will bid in the last 2 or 3 seconds at the bid he was actually asking. Seems like it would be better to start out at $40.00 instead of $9.00, but, I guess no one would bid on it at the higher price.

 

[UP2CSX]

Anton is correct. e***c was actually trying to find out what s***5's bid, that was placed two days earlier, was. He kept raising his bid by $10 or $15 until he became the winning bidder, thus knowing s***5's top bid. 4***l came in with his first bid an hour before the auction closed. e***c then waited until three minutes before the auction closed to raise his bid by 66 cents. He was sniped by z***t for $5 more just before the auction closed. I see this kind of thing all the time. If e***c really wanted this engine, he should have raised his final bid to $350. I don't think the engine was worth that, but there's a good chance a sniper is going to come in a few bucks above the last bid, not knowing you have a higher bid waiting. The sniper won't have enough time to get bids in high enough and you'll will win for maybe $5 or $10 more than the snipers bid. I only do this for something I really want. Otherwise, if people want to bid more than I'm willing to pay, more power to them.

 

[tankist]

That explains a lot, but a person that bids against himself 15 times in a row w/in 15 minutes to me is only jacking up the price hopeing someone will bid in the last 2 or 3 seconds at the bid he was actually asking. Seems like it would be better to start out at $40.00 instead of $9.00, but, I guess no one would bid on it at the higher price.

could you link to such auction?

what you needed to look for that those 15 times he bid, did he ever win? if not (and in the example presented so far he didn't), as i said he was gradually increasing his bid subsequently pushing the winner higher.
it could have been someone who tries to jack up price but not likely since he doesn't know where the other bid is set.
and even if so, it is only your suspicion. hopefully no matter how upset you are the concept of "inocent until proven guilty" is not lost by you. and since there is no way to prove it - inocent . always

 

[Larry]

Last nite I was bidding on 2 Amtrak freight cars & after the bid closed I found out that I actually won 3 of them. About half way thru the last 30 seconds a screen popped up & said I was bidding on 3 cars & not 2. Never saw that before. Today I got the email that they were shipping the 3 items by flat rate of $6.00. So, probably get them next week.
The more I do on EBay the more I learn. For years I would never buy anything on EBay, but, a lot of my friends do & they said they were getting good buys. So, I tried it & have done the same. I'm like a lot of the guys here on the forum, if someone else is willing to pay way over retail for the item, they need it a lot worse than me. I have a limit & I stick by it 100%. I've only been taken once & hope it never happens again.

 

[tankist]

but while we at it, id like to rant at reservist sellers.
i received a lecture about "real worth of items" trying to explain near retail price reserve. i guess the consept that items on the ebay are not sold but Auctioned is slipping past by those peps. and as such there is no such thing as worth. the only number of relevance is the winning bid.