Ebay..just scratching my head!

[Rodney]

I don't know how often you buy from ebay, your experience or satifaction. I have bought many items, most aircraft related and have had no issuses until the last week. I have bid on 3 seperate aircraft items, all from one store and the items remain stagnant on bidding until the last 3 minutes of the auction. Then I'm out bid. OK, so I don't watch them, and don't really mind that I was outbid. But what has me asking questions is that 3 out of the 3 items were again for sale in less than 24 hours, same picture, different ad verbage, same starting bid price, same city, different sellers name. Now I could understand that the seller had a reserve amount in mind, but not stated as all 3 items were "Won" by a higher bidder. So mayber somethings not quite right, but doesn't it cost a seller when an item is placed for sale and then sold? OK, I won't bid from these names again, being reluctant to do ebay anyway. Off soapbox now.

[Geremy Britton]

That's one of 2 things:

> There is a genuine seller bought the item locally but has resold for a profit. Seen the good price. Names do spring to mind on that front when ebay is concerned.

>Or the seller has a friend who has bid on the item for him and not payed him so he can keep it, because he thinks the price is too cheap to let it go at.


It'll be one of those 2 reasons.

[BHawthorne]

I would turn their *** into ebay for investigation. If nothing becomes of it, at least they investigated. I typicaly window shop at ebay to price out things. A couple times a week I see scams with shipping charges and other nonsense I report. One I recently found was a listing claiming to be old Air Force stock footage and it evened up being a DVD-R bootleg of a Discovery Channel documentury that I already owned. That definitely got turned in.

[cscotthendry]

Last second bidding on ebay is a well worn tactic. You can even use it yourself. I've been outbid many times at the last second as someone watches the clock tick down with their finger over the bid button. I think it's nasty, but it's legal by the bidding rules.

[AndyT]

You can even get software that does the last second bidding for you. By the way, its called 'Sniping'. And in many cases its the best way to get the item at the lowest possible price.

[tomenglish2000]

Hi Rodney.

Im affraid I am one of those people who bids at the very last second. I usually dont place any bids before that.

Couple of reasons.
1. I dont want to show other bidders that I am interested in this item.
2. If I bid and get outbid then the sale price has just gone up and I have gained nothing.
3. I dont want to show the seller that I am interested. Sometimes a seller will reduce the reserve price of an item if it has no bids.

Tom.

[Efe Cem Elci]

As I understood it Rodney was not really complaining about the last second bids as much as to the possibility that some sellers might have multiple accounts or accomplices that allowed them to get the price they wanted for items whenever they were about to finish below the said amount.

[xlonglife]

Ebay related sniping with ESNIPE.COM is a very common way to get in at the last moment.

Steve

[Michael Carter]

James Buffy is known to have two accounts. I don't know how often he uses them, but that sounds like whom you are refering to. He also will list items he doesn't have in his possesion which is why I refuse to bid on anything he has no matter how scarce or rare it is.

I too am a last second bidder for something I absolutely have to have if I've never seen a piece of equipment offered anywhere else in the past. It may be the only chance to aquire a seldom seen or rare piece.

Stick to buying from Batcat, Aircraft Stock, Snap and other regular trustworthy parts sellers.

[BHawthorne]

As I understood it Rodney was not really complaining about the last second bids as much as to the possibility that some sellers might have multiple accounts or accomplices that allowed them to get the price they wanted for items whenever they were about to finish below the said amount.

Yep, that's what I understood the post to be about too. If it is really the case, they're breaking ebay policy.

[Geremy Britton]

Yep as mike said. James was that person that sprung to mind. And i agree with the reasons put forward by the last minute bidders. I am also guilty of that.

[DarrenBe]

Unfortunately its one of the problems with Ebay, not much one can do apart from report it.

With regards sniping, must admit doesn't bother me in the slightest. I'll always bid early and will always put in the maximum amount I'm willing to pay for an item. If I'm outbid, then so be it.

[BHawthorne]

I have no ethical issue with bid sniping. If it's something I need, I will get it. Then again the stuff I buy I tend to want to reverse engineer and offer the community anyways. There isn't like there is a big rush on F-84 parts in the community though. ;)