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Providing a word of caution....

I was searching for Forge World Tau suits on eBay, and came across a couple that I wasn't sure were 100% legit.

The color in the pic was a bit off when you compare it to the FW site. I thought "well, maybe it's the camera...it can do things to color".

But then...the starting bid price of $29.99 was another FLAG.

I thought maybe I would give it a try, not too serious a try though, to be honest. Not wanting to waste a bunch of $ on something that turns out to be garbage.
So I bid like $31.

Instead of the price showing $29.99...it immediately showed a bid of $30 by "private bidder" and then I got the high bid.

I hadn't ever seen a "private bidder" before, so started investigating.

Sure enough, there are *SOME* sellers that apparently hide their bidders info, and...come to find out...there are actually automatic bidding bot programs.

I was curious to see what would happen....so I bid again...and sure enough...within a very short amount of time....there was our "private bidder".

I started investigating more and read that unethical sellers will also do one of the following: Offer you a "second chance" if their bot wins the bid (2) relist the item in a few days/weeks or (3) sell it under the bot account.
I let the "private bidder" win the auction...and within 5 minutes, I got a "Second chance offer" from the seller for *slightly less* than the winning bid.

So....

If you use eBay and see "private bidders" on an auction you are interested in or bidding on....that is a flag. If you lose and get a "second offer" very quickly....that's a BIG FLAG.

Anyway...hope this helps someone avoid a scam in the future.

Good info, glad you didn't get caught up in it!

May have come across this as well. Again, put in a 'not too serious' bid just a dollar over. Unique-ish Forge World item, very niche. I was outbid nearly immediately and the item ended with 'private bidder' as the winner and not even twenty minutes after it ended I was sent 'you have another chance on this item, do you want to buy it?'

But, I bought the item, it was shipped timely, it was the item pictured but of course no clue on authenticity. Looks good enough for me though. It was weird but it didn't affect the buying process or slow anything down, and since I wasn't intense about the purchase I spent a grand total of fifty cents over starting price ($20) so it's not like I was scammed out of anything. Maybe I was lucky, maybe the seller wanted a bit of extra competition and I'm just too much of a cheapskate to be the intended target and won that little encounter? I did think it was odd though.

As a former seller on eBay I have to say that I always set my auctions and BIN listings to display users as private bidders.

But there are unscrupulous sellers out there.

It all depends on what risk you are willing to take, especially with FW product.

AS a frequent seller, I can't see any reason to set users as private bidders, as eBay redacts the full username in all auctions.

While the OP's advice is correct, I've had people act like his private bidder on my auctions; bidding in small increments, until they just exceed the existing bid. They're often zero feedback bidders, too. I hate them as they often don't pay, and they make your own listings look like a scam. What I tend to do now is, soon as a spot one, block further bids, so their first one stays but they can't increase their bid.

As usual on eBay it's caveat emptor. There are good deals out there, but also a bunch of scamsters.

I don't understand why you'd make your bidders private unless you've got something to hide such as shill bidders. I rarely bid on auctions where the bidders are all private.

I would not say making bidding private is red flag at all nor is the colour of the resin.

I get customers asking me to make the bidding private quite a lot, not sure on the reason but I never do it for them.

The only real red flag you can be sure of is sellers selling large amounts for much cheaper than retail.

I once sold an official FW valkyrie for about 1/3 of what they charged for it.

It had the papers to go with it.

It was also a badly cast POS that I was glad to be rid of.

About the only thing you CAN count on for FW on ebay is that if it is badly cast, then it IS FW.

 chromedog wrote:
About the only thing you CAN count on for FW on ebay is that if it is badly cast, then it IS FW.

Think about how sad that really is.

I'll have to reexamine some of my settings when I set up my next listing. In never thought of folks being interested in the bidders. Good to know. Thank you for sharing.

 Rayvon wrote:
I get customers asking me to make the bidding private quite a lot, not sure on the reason but I never do it for them.

As a semi-frequent bidder, the identity and bidding practices from the Bids list can give you a good read on your chances of winning. Low bidder rating vs high; frequent bidding vs one bid at the beginning...big tells sometimes. Make all those bids anonymous, and you don't know who's bid or how often - you'll be shooting blind in that auction.

I have seen sellers that sell Hentai or other things that might be embarassing do this...

so its totally possible its a legit seller.

the auto bif is not a bot. If i bif max $40 and you bid $30 then it will look like i bid $31 right after you did your bid even though I never came to the computer.

I always use Private Bidder settings on my store. Quite frankly I never regarded it as sinister.
I sell a lot of gift items - clothing, personalised accessories, toys, etc. In my case the bidders are private so that folks can't ruin their own surprises by feedback snooping. As a sneaky kid I used to check out what my parents were buying for Christmas.

On other auction sites, all bidders are private. I don't see what knowing who a bidder is or what they bought recently adds to the experience.

I'm tired of eBay. Everyone undercuts, they charge you too much to use it. I'd rather sell privately

 TheMeanDM wrote:


Instead of the price showing $29.99...it immediately showed a bid of $30 by "private bidder" and then I got the high bid.

I hadn't ever seen a "private bidder" before, so started investigating.

Sure enough, there are *SOME* sellers that apparently hide their bidders info, and...come to find out...there are actually automatic bidding bot programs.

I was curious to see what would happen....so I bid again...and sure enough...within a very short amount of time....there was our "private bidder".

Ebay allows you to auto-bid. This is not new. Anyone can do it. If the starting bid for something is $15, and I put $21, then my first bid is for $15. If you come behind me and put in $18, it jumps my bid up from $15 to $18.25 (Or whatever the minimum over you I have to be). If you put in a bid for $21.50, then I'll lose since my high bid was $21. I would then have to come behind you and bid again if I want it.

There is nothing sinister with this.

 TheMeanDM wrote:
and within 5 minutes, I got a "Second chance offer" from the seller for *slightly less* than the winning bid.

THAT is a big red flag. I'd pass on that seller.

 kronk wrote:

 TheMeanDM wrote:
and within 5 minutes, I got a "Second chance offer" from the seller for *slightly less* than the winning bid.

THAT is a big red flag. I'd pass on that seller.

Nothing really dodgy about that either to be honest, occasionally the winner of the auction cancels the sale with the seller, the seller then sends out second chance offers to bidders further down the list in an attempt to recoup the sale.
It saves the seller having to start the auction all over again and it is functionally supported within ebay.

Even if they don't cancel the auction, sometimes Dealers will send out second chance offers to the second highest bidder to sell an additional copy without the need to relist it.

 Rayvon wrote:

 kronk wrote:

 TheMeanDM wrote:
and within 5 minutes, I got a "Second chance offer" from the seller for *slightly less* than the winning bid.

THAT is a big red flag. I'd pass on that seller.

Nothing really dodgy about that either to be honest, occasionally the winner of the auction cancels the sale with the seller, the seller then sends out second chance offers to bidders further down the list in an attempt to recoup the sale.
It saves the seller having to start the auction all over again and it is functionally supported within ebay.

This is totally true. And dont forget non paying bidders. 20% of my sales end up ont being paid and I either second chance or relist. There is no longer a penalty for non payment on ebay so it happens often

 tenebre wrote:

 Rayvon wrote:

 kronk wrote:

 TheMeanDM wrote:
and within 5 minutes, I got a "Second chance offer" from the seller for *slightly less* than the winning bid.

THAT is a big red flag. I'd pass on that seller.

Nothing really dodgy about that either to be honest, occasionally the winner of the auction cancels the sale with the seller, the seller then sends out second chance offers to bidders further down the list in an attempt to recoup the sale.
It saves the seller having to start the auction all over again and it is functionally supported within ebay.

This is totally true. And dont forget non paying bidders. 20% of my sales end up ont being paid and I either second chance or relist. There is no longer a penalty for non payment on ebay so it happens often

Fine! Have your reasonable reasons!

Except that the non paying bidder "reason" doesn't apply to the original example of getting a 2nd chance offer 5 minutes after the auction ends with you being outbid seconds after your own bid. Bidders have (when I last checked which has admittedly been a while) several days to pay according to ebay regardless of what is unilaterally written in the auction.

The author having a second item is a possibility but if it happens with them repeatedly (and they never get feedback for the same item from the supposedly not a bot wiinning bidder), that does increase the chances that it is just shill bidding to raise the final price. That shill bidding though comes at a risk as stated in this thread.

I think I am bidding against a seller at the moment, Does this look like a shill account to anyone?

http://offer.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewBidderProfile&mode=1&item=161661744354&aid=g***z&eu=&bidtid=1242081762006&view=BUYER&ssPageName=PageBidderProfileViewBids_Buyer_ViewLink

Here is some examples of their biding behaviour;

http://offer.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewBids&item=161657115124&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2565
http://offer.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewBids&item=161665029758&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2565

and lastly

http://offer.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewBids&item=161661744354&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2565

Thats my £60 did on the 4th April. The previous three bids from what I believe is a shill account came 5 minutes after the seller responded to my message for a buy it now price.

 kronk wrote:

 tenebre wrote:

 Rayvon wrote:

 kronk wrote:

 TheMeanDM wrote:
and within 5 minutes, I got a "Second chance offer" from the seller for *slightly less* than the winning bid.

THAT is a big red flag. I'd pass on that seller.

Nothing really dodgy about that either to be honest, occasionally the winner of the auction cancels the sale with the seller, the seller then sends out second chance offers to bidders further down the list in an attempt to recoup the sale.
It saves the seller having to start the auction all over again and it is functionally supported within ebay.

This is totally true. And dont forget non paying bidders. 20% of my sales end up ont being paid and I either second chance or relist. There is no longer a penalty for non payment on ebay so it happens often

Fine! Have your reasonable reasons!

Better to be safe than sorry though !!




Automatically Appended Next Post:

 warboss wrote:
Except that the non paying bidder "reason" doesn't apply to the original example of getting a 2nd chance offer 5 minutes after the auction ends with you being outbid seconds after your own bid. Bidders have (when I last checked which has admittedly been a while) several days to pay according to ebay regardless of what is unilaterally written in the auction.

The author having a second item is a possibility but if it happens with them repeatedly (and they never get feedback for the same item from the supposedly not a bot wiinning bidder), that does increase the chances that it is just shill bidding to raise the final price. That shill bidding though comes at a risk as stated in this thread.

My answer could well apply to the given example.

Sometimes you are informed as the auction ends that the bidder does not want it, an accidental bid or whatever, It is in the interest of the seller to get the second bids out as soon as possible, its quite common for the seller to get out the second chance offers within minutes of auctions ending.
Its the same case if the seller has multiple copies as well, which is also very common, the sooner the second chances go out, the more chance of the bidders still wanting the item, it makes perfect sense.

There is no evidence of shill bidding either from what i can see, it looks like a coincidence, although it is pretty hard to determine from our end.
If you ever do suspect anyone on ebay of shill bidding, they can and will check if you report it, I would advise people do so as well, it makes it a more reputable place.

Just my input, but getting a second chance offer so soon after you lose is reason to be suspicous, I mean there might be a reason, but with in such a short time frame just seems...off.
Also, if only some of the bids are private and others aren't seems a little off...like why hide that one in particular and not all bids. I had one bid where every bid buy different bidders was then trumped buy "Private Bidder" and it seemed a mite strange.

I find eBay confusing, but I just want to point out that my eBay account for buying is marked private and I did this intentionally. It means folks can view my rating and see my feedback info (positive, neutral, negative), but folks cannot see "what" items I've won before.

But I'm assuming this is entirely separate from what folks are discussion here, sellers making bidders "private"?

I have to laugh....I was curious to see if my suspicions may have been correct and I think they may be even more confirmed.

The seller posted the exact same item about 6 days later...actually...the exact same *2* items that I was looking at previously. Same pictures too on these "new" auctions.

Definitely not a person I will be buying from...ever...

I snipe.

I wait until about 10 seconds and then put in a bid that is around $20 more than I expect to pay (roughly around $20 more than the showing price).

I also have another window open where I just constantly refresh the item's page (to see if another bidder happens that doesn't register on my "confirm bid" page (I usually have about three "Confirm Bid" pages open, with bids at $10 intervals.

So... If I am bidding on something like Epic Tau Firewarriors, or Drones (things I still need a few of) that are showing a bid price of $30, I will have four windows open. In one of them I will have entered a bid of $57.50 (assuming that the current bidder has bid at least $20 more than the shown bid. The extra $7.50 is in case they have bid some squirrely number just over $50), but which still must be "confirmed".

Then I will have other bids set to be confirmed at $67.50, and $77.50.

Then the other window will just be constantly refreshed.

If I never see the bid jump up any in the last few seconds, I will hit the "confirm" on the $57.50 bid at around 5 - 3 seconds left.

If I see it jump only a few dollars, then I will hit the confirm for the $67.50, and if it jumps up $10 - $20, then I will hit the $77.50.

But usually, even with the bid at $30, and it jumps to $40, when I confirm the $67.50 or $77.50, I rarely wind up paying much more than $50 for epic Firewarriors.

And if I see a "Private Bidder" (I check before hand to see if the bidder list includes one), then I don't even bother to bid, usually.

But the OP's advice is sagasious.

If you bid on an auction, and a "Private Bidder" pops up.

Contact eBay and the Seller and Withdraw your bid.


MB

I don't bother messing about with bidding, I set a snipe and forget about it. That said I normally enjoy just fishing out the little gem auctions for around £1 or £2.

The way to get things cheapest is always to snipe, and simply bid the most you're willing to pay. That way you get all the benefits of sniping, without worrying about being beaten by any other last minute bids (and if you are, you weren't willing to pay that much anyways). Quick and easy. Never bid before the last minute (or last 10 seconds), it's just throwing money away.

Unless you ascribe to the old adage of time is money. If you don't have the patience or ability due to time contraints of setting aside the exact minute and hour of the end of an auction to snipe, it is worth it and you're not throwing away time/money. YMMV.

Winning bids on ebay is easy...no sniping required. Just set the max price you are willing to pay and walk away. If they win the bid they paid more than you were willing.

I got an IK NIB for 77$ dollar setting a max bid of 80 it works...now I just gotta put this bad boy together - man now I kinda regret it. lol.