Avoiding Scams........free booklet available(an example).

[Dave7]

My local library was giving a good brochure on scams and how to avoid them. Most of them are common sense to most people but obviously vulnerable people get caught.
One that I had never thought of.
You advertise an item on Ebay (say a bike worth £200ish)..........you don't set a minimum price.
Joe Bloggs puts a bid of £10.00 in.
Joe Bloggs has another Ebay account/name and puts another bid of £1000.00 in
Anyone else bidding gets knocked back as its never going to be high enough.
Last minute... Joe Bloggs retracts his 2nd bid.......leaving you forced to sell it to him for £10.00.
Lots more example..........worth a trip to the library.

 

[ColinJ]

That is very sneaky!

So, do eBay enforce the sale on the first unretracted bid? It would be very simple for them to fix this abuse by cancelling auctions in which higher bids were retracted.

 

[classic33]

My local library was giving a good brochure on scams and how to avoid them. Most of them are common sense to most people but obviously vulnerable people get caught.
One that I had never thought of.
You advertise an item on Ebay (say a bike worth £200ish)..........you don't set a minimum price.
Joe Bloggs puts a bid of £10.00 in.
Joe Bloggs has another Ebay account/name and puts another bid of £1000.00 in
Anyone else bidding gets knocked back as its never going to be high enough.
Last minute... Joe Bloggs retracts his 2nd bid.......leaving you forced to sell it to him for £10.00.
Lots more example..........worth a trip to the library.

Sounds like one, the brochure, that was being given away by one of the high street banks last year. Sneaky way of doing things, as mentioned by ColinJ.

 

[PhilDawson8270]

My local library was giving a good brochure on scams and how to avoid them. Most of them are common sense to most people but obviously vulnerable people get caught.
One that I had never thought of.
You advertise an item on Ebay (say a bike worth £200ish)..........you don't set a minimum price.
Joe Bloggs puts a bid of £10.00 in.
Joe Bloggs has another Ebay account/name and puts another bid of £1000.00 in
Anyone else bidding gets knocked back as its never going to be high enough.
Last minute... Joe Bloggs retracts his 2nd bid.......leaving you forced to sell it to him for £10.00.
Lots more example..........worth a trip to the library.

Unfortunately, that's not correct.
Ignoring that bids can't be retracted in the last 24 hours, and ignoring the fact that nobody can "force" you to sell anything, at any price.

ebay displays the LOWEST current bid, NOT the highest in somebodies max bid. So when somebody else bids, it doesn't "knock them back", it just automatically updates the price to above their maximum bid. But the bids are still there, and can be seen in the bid history. If the person with the massive maximum bid then retracts, it will still recalculate to the other bidders maximum.

 

[MarkF]

Agree, anyway....... if anything it'd encourage other bidders to overbid and result in selling your £200 bike for £250. .

 

[vickster]

Buy it now (with best offer if preferred) is the only way I'll say on eBay

 

[Pro Tour Punditry]

Has the OP been scammed by the anti-scamming brochure?

 

[Drago]

That's why we set a reserve. Don't set an auction without one unless you're willing to sell your item for 99p.

 

[PhilDawson8270]

A good alternative is to set a minimum bid at the lowest price you would accept.

When I sell via eBay I go a bit lower than my minimum on the basis of win some, lose some. But I do Cash and Collection only, I'm not dealing with scammers saying stuff is missing, or dealing with stupid returns.

 

[Milkfloat]

That's why we set a reserve. Don't set an auction without one unless you're willing to sell your item for 99p.

If it 'sells' at 99p, then the seller can just cancel the sale.

 

[vernon]

There's quite a lot of anti scam advice that gets passed on without any critical thought about the veracity/viability of the alleged scams. It's done with the best of intentions.

 

[Profpointy]

re ebay: I tend to just stick things on and they fetch what they fetch. Sold a couple of high value photographic items some years back £50 start and got rather nervous when they'd only reached a couple of hundred with an hour or two to go. On went for £600 odd and the other for a grand which was of course about right for each item. I tend not to bid on reserve not reached items now as I can't be bothered with sticking a bid in, then a bit more to feel for the reserve - which is nearly always ludicrously over the mark in any case. I've bought 700+ items and sold maybe a couple of hundred with no real problems - maybe mild disapointment once or twice and a broken in transit where the bloke strung me along till the ebay complaint timeout ran out. Met some nice people, turned surplus items into cash, and moved some stuff on that was clutter - even if I only get 99p it's better than dumping it. All in all 99+% a good thing

 

[PhilDawson8270]

re ebay: I tend to just stick things on and they fetch what they fetch.

The best valuation is what they sell for! They're only worth what somebody will pay.

 

[Globalti]

My 2013 Roubaix was on Ebay for a week, one week ago and yesterday I received two emails in very "Nigerian" language (they can't help the way they learned English) offering me almost the asking price because they want to buy the "bike" for their sons. I haven't bothered replying.

 

[ChrisV]

If it sells for a price lower than you want, you can cancel the sale and say it is broken or something.

If you wanted to. Not saying it is right.