Re: Shill Bidding (Are we getting hosed?) A New Experience?

[John McEwen <moparrr@xxxxxxx>]

Here's an interesting coincidence.  Some of you will recall that I am 
searching for Barcelona medallions for my '78 Coupe.   I was notified 
by several attentive listers of a lot that was on eBay.  I 
subsequently bid on this lot.  With four hours to go I was the sole 
bidder at the opening bid price.

I watched the item for a while, then another bid was placed.  This 
was followed by  two more bids from another bidder, neither of which 
beat the second bidder.  By now, a considerable amount of money was 
on the table.  At this point, with about 10 minutes to go, I made a 
(in my opinion) very high bid - which failed to win.  I let the item 
go as I was not going to pay for three items when I needed only two 
of them - particularly as I considered the price too high.

Just now - some 4 hours after the sale, I've been offered a "Second 
Chance" at my too-high bid.

I'm not going to suggest that a shill was working on this but I have 
my suspicions.  The high bidder appears to be a dealer in old car 
bits as is the seller.

I'd like the opinions of the list.  Note that I have purposely not 
identified the seller, or the lot number - and don't wish to bring 
that information forward to the list in view of the legality of such 
a revelation.

John

> Armand,  in 4 years of ebaying  I have never had another bidder 
> contact me, this sounds very suspicious, my choice would have been 
> to tell dannie 01 that he is welcome to it. Actually if you haven't 
> sent the money yet, and I know this sounds bad, but if you feel 
> wronged, tell the seller you have no intention of following through 
> on the deal and take the hit on the negative feed-back.

snip