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another ebay gem !

A mere £90 and someone's made a bid !
Are these people for real ?
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Apologies if it's someone on this group - surely it can't be, can it ? -
but you could probably get a half-decent lobotomy for less !
TOS
PS apologies also to anyone whose name begins with J and who hates
mention of the dreaded "e" word. Just delete the message, lie down, take a
deep breath and pretend you never read it. :-)
Reply to
The Old Salt
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People have been known to place opening bids for their own items and since the bidder in this case has no previous history...
(kim)
Reply to
kim
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And the person buying it has never bought on Ebay before!! see the (0).. There's a sharp lesson to be learned there, unless of course, its the seller in disguise- tut-tut such thoughts...
Reply to
turbo
Seller may be getting desparate, since it closes tomorrow...and had to resort to drastic measures (which are against e-bay rules)
Reply to
Ian Cornish
Take a look at the "no reserve" auctions from Rails of Sheffield. The opening bid is invariably for approx half the matket value ending in an odd number of pence and often the same odd number of pence each time. Coincidence or what?
(kim)
Reply to
kim
Yes. Many people use bids of an odd number of pence to try to fool other bidders. I always look out for auctions from Rails, because they offer good customer service, and you can often get a good bargain. I can't say I have noticed anything suspicious on their auctions, and they have many auctions where there are no bidders for quite some time.
Reply to
John Ruddy
I usually bidd an odd number, i.e. £10 03 p etc, beats the £10.00/1p bidders!
Pieman
Reply to
Piemanlager
On 24/02/2005 21:18, turbo wrote,
Hmmm..... but has anyone actually read all through the repetitive mumbo-jumbo describing it, and got to the end, and was still awake?
Reply to
Paul Boyd
Yes but identical amounts for completely unrelated items and always the first bid to be received? eBay pages don't show up for an hour or so after listing so any bids placed before that must come from someone with access to the page number.
(kim)
Reply to
kim
...
No, well not quite, if you hit the "Sellers other items" link you get everything they've currently got on offer. I for one when looking at a "rails" advert almost invariably also have a peek at what else they're currently selling using this link ... and like piemanlarger and others invariably bid an odd amount. FWIW I'm another "rails" customer and more than happy with the service etc ...
Reply to
Chris Wilson
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What the hell is it meant to be?
Reply to
mark_newton
To judge by their writing style, the seller has already had the lobotomy another poster mentioned...
Reply to
mark_newton
In message , mark_newton may have written...
Looks like a Terrier, with a rather suspicious looking chimney/flower pot...
Reply to
James Christie
Terrier? It's certainly a dog!
Reply to
mark_newton
It is true that if you browse by category then auctions dont show up for an hour (or sometimes longer). If you search by a keyword which appears in the title of the auction, or if you search by Seller, then auctions can appear within minutes of them being live.
Reply to
John Ruddy
Nothing sinister, just the way Ebay's proxy bidding system works with fixed increments. A lot of Rails non-reserve auctions start at 99p and bids then go up in increments of 20p, 50p or =A31 or whatever, depending on the current price. So if someone bids =A32, they'll become the winning bidder at =A31.19 (20p above the current price). Then someone else bids =A33 and the proxy bidding system applies increments of 20p until they become the winner at =A32.19, etc. So it can quite easily look as though all the items have the same number of odd pence.
Only if two bids are closer than a bidding increment will this change. So in the example above if the second bidder had bid between =A32.01 and =A32.18 then they would win with that bid but if they bid =A32.19 or above they would win with =A32.19, preserving the odd 9p.
MBQ
Reply to
manatbandq
Nothing sinister, just the way Ebay's proxy bidding system works with fixed increments. A lot of Rails non-reserve auctions start at 99p and bids then go up in increments of 20p, 50p or £1 or whatever, depending on the current price. So if someone bids £2, they'll become the winning bidder at £1.19 (20p above the current price). Then someone else bids £3 and the proxy bidding system applies increments of 20p until they become the winner at £2.19, etc. So it can quite easily look as though all the items have the same number of odd pence.
Only if two bids are closer than a bidding increment will this change. So in the example above if the second bidder had bid between £2.01 and £2.18 then they would win with that bid but if they bid £2.19 or above they would win with £2.19, preserving the odd 9p.
The opening bids for new items are invariably 50% of retail plus a few pence. If they were to impose a reserve or minimum bid of that level they would have to pay an extra listing fee. If they were to place a fake bid for that amount they would avoid the extra charge. eBay no longer allows reserves for items under £100 so this is now the only way of doing it.
(kim)
Reply to
kim
Here is an example from their auctions - chosen at random -
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The auction is over 2 and a half days old. It started at 99p and after 3 bids, it has reached the dizzy heights of £4.20. The first bid was nowhere near "50% of retail" and the first bidder has feedback of 21 - none of their previous successful auctions involving Rails of Sheffield.
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is another example of an auction where 2 bids have been placed - the first being for only slightly more than the starting price, again both bids are from people who have good positive feedback and who seem to be regular purchasers of model railway equipment.
Reply to
John Ruddy
These are not *new* items. They are secondhand items - probably being sold on behalf of customers - so it makes no difference to Rails how much they get for them.
(kim)
Reply to
kim
My apologies. Would you care to post a link to an auction where you think this is happening?
Reply to
John Ruddy

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