Ebay Seller Reported

[fossyant]

Well,

I did - watching a mint pair of 8 Speed STI shifters last night, no bids other than by two folk called Bidder 1 and Bidder 2 - I smelt a rat, but the price had gone up by just a £1..... Regular seller of 'vintage' bike kit, big feedbacks of 98.5% so thought it would be OK.

Oh no, Bidder 3 suddently arrived and pushed the price up in the last 10 minutes....fishier than a fishy thing..... then Bidder 4 and finally Bidder 5 (these were the user names in use... they had never bid on anything else....)

I didn't bother bidding - some guy bid on the item to eventually win it, but the price had now gone from £45 to £77. Obviously the seller had an auto bid set up to get his 'selling price'

I was seriously not impressed by this, but fortunately I had seen it - so I've reported the seller..... ebay have replied this morning and are taking it seriously, although due to confidentiality, won't be able to tell me the outcome.

So, trust no-one !!

 

[mr_cellophane]

I usually wait until the last 5 minutes before bidding if it is something I really want. That looks fairly normal bidding to me.

 

[Panter]

All the bidder ID's appear as 1,2,3,4 etc unless you're the seller of the item.

I don't know why they changed it but you no longer get the bidder ID like you used to.

 

[marinyork]

Sunday night can be pretty busy. At some of the busier times the prices can be slightly higher than other times even with multiple items listed semisimultaneously as there's such a splurge of people.

 

[fossyant]

Ah that's changed then i.e. user ID's - as it used to give the bidder's name - not used ebay for a while....

Was over what I wanted to pay anyway...

 

[marinyork]

On the other hand I'm still waiting on some new batteries after a week . Fed up of slow dispatchers and royal fail.

 

[Proto]

I usually wait until the last 5 minutes before bidding if it is something I really want. That looks fairly normal bidding to me.

I usually wait until the last 15 seconds.

 

[Graham O]

Fed up of slow dispatchers and royal fail.

If you want quick dispatch, then support your local LBS or use one of the professional online sellers. Yes, people are selling their bike bits, but ebay is not the be-all and end-all of life for most of us, so to get the bits packaged, address labels printed and get the parcel to the post office can take a couple of days.

I've sold a lot of my radio equipment through ebay and it really pee's me off when the buyer expects to get the goods within 2 days. Sometimes, it happens, but sometimes it doesn't. Slow dispatch does not imply that the seller is disreputable.

 

[red_tom]

Last 5 seconds for me. Sniping is the way to go.

 

[gavintc]

Yep, watch and bid as late as you can. I win a few. lose a few. But importantly keep out of the bidding process until the last few seconds.

 

[marinyork]

If you want quick dispatch, then support your local LBS or use one of the professional online sellers. Yes, people are selling their bike bits, but ebay is not the be-all and end-all of life for most of us, so to get the bits packaged, address labels printed and get the parcel to the post office can take a couple of days.

I've sold a lot of my radio equipment through ebay and it really pee's me off when the buyer expects to get the goods within 2 days. Sometimes, it happens, but sometimes it doesn't. Slow dispatch does not imply that the seller is disreputable.

Well it's not bike parts I'm buying and unfortunately isn't sold locally. When I say a week, I really do mean it - 9 days ago. I also said Royal Mail as I've long suspected it's partly their fault. I have the theory that they queue parcels at the sorting office and then deliver them bulk or stagger stuff (which can lead to delays of upto 2 weeks).

2 days is virtually physically impossible. You'd have to go down to the Post Office on Monday morning (a horrendously busy time) get it in there first class and then cross your fingers. Chances are it'd be Wednesday afternoon it'd arrive or even a Thursday morning. 3 or 4 working days on arrival is fine for me. In only got miffed off once when a seller posted something on the 5th working day despite the high delivery charges, they only needed to tell me that and that was fine after that. I understand sellers may take a while to get to the PO, I even understand since the postage for parcels that some sellers are a bit naughty and add on a large 2nd stamp on to make a bit more money.

 

[Danny]

Last 5 seconds for me. Sniping is the way to go.

5 seconds is for wimps - I've get it down to 2 secs without using software agents.

Having said that you need a perfect connection, as I've sometimes submitted bids that haven't registered in time.

 

[fossyant]

I usually wait until the last few seconds, set my price and see how it goes......, but in this case I hadn't realised the 'bidders' id was hidden - doh......

When I need something I use the web, but ebay is useful for 'vintage' parts that are impossible to buy anywhere else - especially if you want to keep a bike original. It took me ages to get some rear frame adjusters for my Herety - one of the adjuster knobs had fallen off one of the drop out adjusters (it's a tiny part, worth nothing) - not stocked on-line, Merlin wouldn't post them as the value was too low...eventually got some off the bay....

 

[gbb]

Could well be legit bidding fossy....but now they've hidden bidders IDs, you've NO chance of telling if someones shill bidding...worst thing ebay ever did

You do see the eventual winning bidders ID...but as shillers dont aim to win the item, thats no good either.

I wonder if ebay found shill bidding too difficult to police, so they've side stepped the issue...b'stards...cos i cant see why else theyve done it.

 

[Trillian]

5 seconds is for wimps - I've get it down to 2 secs without using software agents.

Having said that you need a perfect connection, as I've sometimes submitted bids that haven't registered in time.

2 seconds?

I wait until at least 1.15 seconds!