Ebay malfunction or deliberate ?

[uk_vette]

Hi all,

I had an item in my watch list, which I planned on bidding on, if the bidding didnt go through the roof.

The items new cost is 329.00 GBP
I put in a bid at about 30 seconds to go, for 234.56
Which you all agree is an unusual random number.
As the action ended I get an Ebay notification that I have not won this item.
Then about 15 seconds later, another notification saying I HAVE won this item.
I found it strange, then I seen that my winning bid just happen to be my high bid of 234.56

Is it me, or has some thing strange happened in the bidding?

It just seems strange that the winning bid, was my 1 and only "high bid"

vette

[Ste1987]

You sure you just didn't bid on a different listing as well?

[gazza285]

Somebody bid £230.

[boyse7en]

gazza285 said:

Somebody bid £230.

This ^^^^^.
It's how eBay has always worked, and why you put in the odd price in the first place.

[LotusMartin]

seller bid with another account to find out your highest bid, then bid just below it to maximise their sale price

I think its called Shilling or something and is banned on ebay but hard to prove. I'd report them.

[Adam B]

gazza285 said:

Somebody bid £230.

eh? which is lower than 234.56 so why would OP initially have been told he hadn't won?

[Jonboy_t]

Seller bid themselves from another account then withdrew their bid after they won (or lost, depending how you look at it!)

[havoc]

Concur - looks like shill bidding to me. Report to eBay.

[NickM450]

Yup, that would be my guess.

As for the strange number, I do the same

[northwest monkey]

Not sure you can retract a bid with less than 12 hours to go. There is a way of checking though if you're Ebay savvy.

[uk_vette]

Thanks every one,

I also think that the seller (or friend of seller) had another Ebay account open.

Then bid "high" in a way to expose my high bid.

What should I do?
Do I approach Ebay, ?

[blueb8]

Regards not being able to cancel your own bid, thats right you can't, but the seller can, especially if he knows its from his mate

[anonymous-user]

Is it worth £234.56 to you?

[uk_vette]

Yes, it is worth it, but it's just the crookedness of it I dont like.

[Jim the Sunderer]

He's takin' the piss.

Feed 'im to the pigs, Errol uk vette.

[oldcynic]

Shill bidding - been there, seen that.

Report to ebay and don't buy the item, and in future bid with 3 seconds to go - not 30.

[rxtx]

I've never sold anything on eBay before, but doesn't the seller see what the highest bid is?

It sounds like perhaps he thought you had some software sniping the auction that stopped when it reached the highest bid, so it was increased by someone to see if your bid would automatically increase in the closing seconds. That failed so the last bid was cancelled and you became the winner.

I'd query it with eBay and forward them the emails, but if you're happy then there's no harm done

[uk_vette]

Onto Ebay chat now,
Ebay say the seller cancelled a bid in the last few seconds,
Now was the bid from the sellers second account, or was it the sellers friend ?

[oldcynic]

If you really care them look through seller's history, and the history of the bidder that withdrew.

Ebay will do sweet FA about it, whatever they tell you.

[uk_vette]

The seller only got feedback of 10
All items less than 40.00