Mike999 Posted October 23, 2018 Share Posted October 23, 2018 (edited) For any eBay sellers out there, just checking if you've ever seen a bidding pattern like this. I've been selling on eBay since the 1990's and never seen it: At 8:22 AM this morning PDT, Bidder #1 placed a large bid on one of my kits. At 4:26 PM Bidder #2 started bidding against him. Bidder #2 placed 11 bids, all within 2-4 seconds of each other, so that was some kind of Automatic Bidding. He came within $1.00 of Bidder #1's top bid, then quit. At 5:34 PM, Bidder #1 placed a second bid, for the same amount as his first bid. Both are long-time eBay users with lots of 100% positive feedback. I still wonder why Bidder #2 only started bidding 8 hrs. after the first bid was placed. But maybe they live in different time zones or something. I'm probably just being paranoid and everything is fine, but this struck me as weird. Edited October 23, 2018 by Mike999 error Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bucky Posted October 23, 2018 Share Posted October 23, 2018 Bidder #2 might not have seen the auction until he got home from work, would be one guess. My question is, why did #1 cast the same bid, again? Was he not still winning the auction? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gman Posted October 23, 2018 Share Posted October 23, 2018 It wasn't a listing for a model car, but I experienced that years ago on some parts for one of my 1:1 vehicles that were listed for sale on eBay. Nobody was bidding on the parts (a set of mint hubcaps), so I bid in the last few minutes of the listing thinking I had it in the bag. Someone else bid shortly after using an automated bidding program, and within a few seconds it was bid up way beyond the maximum I could justify. I contacted the seller to see if he had any other parts for the vehicle, and it turned out he did (he had the rest of a complete vehicle, and was local to me). He was very happy with the final price he received on the hubcaps...they went to a bidder with very deep pockets. While I haven't used one, automated bidding software is apparently pretty common. Some of us random bidders are less predictable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
89AKurt Posted October 23, 2018 Share Posted October 23, 2018 I tried making a bid at the last minute on a kit recently, first time I tried. When I clicked, new windows came up saying it needed to be higher, and required restarting all over again, and of course I blew it. So if there are programs to do this at the last second, that's BS. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mk11 Posted October 23, 2018 Share Posted October 23, 2018 2 hours ago, Mike999 said: At 5:34 PM, Bidder #1 placed a second bid, for the same amount as his first bid. The first bidder could see the second getting close to his bid so he raised his maximum bid. It doesn't change what shows as his current leading bid. I've had bidders raise their max bid two or three times if others were getting close. mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peteski Posted October 23, 2018 Share Posted October 23, 2018 3 hours ago, Mike999 said: For any eBay sellers out there, just checking if you've ever seen a bidding pattern like this. I've been selling on eBay since the 1990's and never seen it: At 8:22 AM this morning PDT, Bidder #1 placed a large bid on one of my kits. At 4:26 PM Bidder #2 started bidding against him. Bidder #2 placed 11 bids, all within 2-4 seconds of each other, so that was some kind of Automatic Bidding. He came within $1.00 of Bidder #1's top bid, then quit. At 5:34 PM, Bidder #1 placed a second bid, for the same amount as his first bid. Both are long-time eBay users with lots of 100% positive feedback. I still wonder why Bidder #2 only started bidding 8 hrs. after the first bid was placed. But maybe they live in different time zones or something. I'm probably just being paranoid and everything is fine, but this struck me as weird. Also a member since late '90s. I haven't sold anything there for a while, but I do buy or bit in things.I don't really see anything unusual here. As a seller you should also be able to see each bidder's history of bids on other auctions (or at leas some subset of it). As I see it, bidder #1 is one of those bidders who bids a high amount in their initial bid and eBay does the proxy bidding for them when others start bidding on the item. The 2-4 seconds bids from the #2 are probably manual bids. When you place a manual bid and eBay proxy outbids you, you see that in your bid dialog box - it asks you if you want to place a higher bid. It basically entices you to bid higher, and I think the next bid amount is already pre-filled for you. If you are not a very slow typist and don't have a slow computer or Internet connection, you can place consecutive bids seconds apart. Then #1 looked at the bid status and saw that another bidder is threatening his high bid, so he upped his maximum bid (by outbidding his original amount) to "cement" the chances of him winning the item. If the lower bidders do not exceed #1's first bit amount, then both of #1's bids will show the same amount (since there was no need to go over their fist bid amount. I see that often. I really miss the openness of early eBay, where you could get full contact and bid history of any eBay member. I could for example see whether the person I was bidding against was a sniper or early high-bidder.Or what sort of items they were bidding on. That would make me adjust my bidding method. But it it all is now obfuscated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peteski Posted October 23, 2018 Share Posted October 23, 2018 3 hours ago, 89AKurt said: I tried making a bid at the last minute on a kit recently, first time I tried. When I clicked, new windows came up saying it needed to be higher, and required restarting all over again, and of course I blew it. So if there are programs to do this at the last second, that's BS. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dodgefever Posted October 23, 2018 Share Posted October 23, 2018 4 hours ago, peteski said: I really miss the openness of early eBay, where you could get full contact and bid history of any eBay member. I could for example see whether the person I was bidding against was a sniper or early high-bidder.Or what sort of items they were bidding on. That would make me adjust my bidding method. But it it all is now obfuscated. Me too. It was also much easier to detect shill bidding and identify people using mulitple IDs to buy and flip. They make it worse with every "improvement". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike999 Posted October 23, 2018 Author Share Posted October 23, 2018 Thanks to everybody for taking the time to answer. I appreciate it. Looks like everything is OK, just 2 stubborn bidders. Which is something I like to see, as a seller. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Geiger Posted October 23, 2018 Share Posted October 23, 2018 (edited) eBay now has a window that pops up when your bid isn't high enough to unseat the current high bidder. The window encourages you to bid again and suggests the next 3 increments. If the current high bidder has a proxy for say $50, I can hit the $39 button and the window will regenerate at the next increment set and encourage me to bid again. This will happen over and over. That's why it appears some bidders are nibbling. Edited October 23, 2018 by Tom Geiger Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ironman63 Posted October 23, 2018 Share Posted October 23, 2018 6 hours ago, peteski said: This is my strategy. I decide what I'm willing to pay and wait until about 10 seconds to go make my move. I win way more than I lose. I learned a long time ago if I bid early in an auction, I very rarely win it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Geiger Posted October 23, 2018 Share Posted October 23, 2018 I use eSnipe.com for my serious bidding. It costs about a quarter a successful bid, nothing if not successful. I have tried bidding on cheap items both with eSnipe and just bidding. I have found that an item with a bid attracts other bids. It's best to hit it with my best and final bid six seconds before the end. I've calculated that this is enough that I don't get locked out by a web lag, and nobody has a chance to react! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
magicmustang Posted October 23, 2018 Share Posted October 23, 2018 (edited) 5 hours ago, Ironman63 said: This is my strategy. I decide what I'm willing to pay and wait until about 10 seconds to go make my move. I win way more than I lose. I learned a long time ago if I bid early in an auction, I very rarely win it. I use the same strategy. It works more often than it doesn't. I don't get in a battle with $1 bid hackers. One auction recently, however, I tried to bid in the last 20 seconds and the bid would not go thru until the auction was already over. My bid was higher than the winning bid. I don't know how the winning bidder was able to do that. Never had that happen before or after. Edited October 23, 2018 by magicmustang Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete J. Posted October 24, 2018 Share Posted October 24, 2018 Maybe I have an answer for the bidder who bid twice for the same amount. I had that happen not long ago. I placed a bid for an item and was the high bidder. A little later I logged in and raised my maximum bid and it showed as a second bid at the same amount. I guess that way, I can't be stupid and bid myself up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redneckrigger Posted October 24, 2018 Share Posted October 24, 2018 I have bought on eBay for almost 20 years.............but as time gets more precious and I find myself less able to sit at the keyboard with my finger hovering on the bid button, I now use bidnapper.com. I find that I can enter my bids whenever I see the item and simply put it out of mind. If I win, cool, if I don't, wait until the next time. And as long as my maximum bid is high enough, I win, and always at the last second, and almost always at considerably less than what I would have most likely paid against an active counter bidder. It is very efficient, and it allows me the freedom of not being tied to the computer at the end of the auction. That said, it is no where near as exciting as sitting there entering bids as the auction winds down, but it works for me! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
THarrison351 Posted October 24, 2018 Share Posted October 24, 2018 22 hours ago, 89AKurt said: I tried making a bid at the last minute on a kit recently, first time I tried. When I clicked, new windows came up saying it needed to be higher, and required restarting all over again, and of course I blew it. So if there are programs to do this at the last second, that's BS. The sniping programs have been around for as long as I can remember and I've been an eBay bidder since 2002. I've never once used one. I do snipe, but like Tom said around 6 seconds is a good time for the programs, I do it manually and wait until about 5-6 seconds and bid the max I want to pay. I get beat often, but they end up paying more because of me. The crazy thing to watch is when there is a lot of people sniping and the original bidder has put in a really high max and to see the price change ridiculously in the last few seconds. Silly bidding. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slusher Posted October 24, 2018 Share Posted October 24, 2018 I guess that's why I miss out on some is I don't watch them at the end of the auction ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peteski Posted October 24, 2018 Share Posted October 24, 2018 (edited) 5 hours ago, Pete J. said: Maybe I have an answer for the bidder who bid twice for the same amount. I had that happen not long ago. I placed a bid for an item and was the high bidder. A little later I logged in and raised my maximum bid and it showed as a second bid at the same amount. I guess that way, I can't be stupid and bid myself up. That is how I explained it earlier in this thread. That confirms it. You "cemented" your earlier bid with with an even higher bid. Edited October 24, 2018 by peteski Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrObsessive Posted October 24, 2018 Share Posted October 24, 2018 On 10/23/2018 at 2:15 AM, mk11 said: The first bidder could see the second getting close to his bid so he raised his maximum bid. It doesn't change what shows as his current leading bid. I've had bidders raise their max bid two or three times if others were getting close. mike Been on eBay since 2002, and I did that very thing just the other day. The kit was the old Airfix Aston Martin DB5 (built with original box) and it sat for DAYS with no takers. Right at the last day, it started to get bid on and I raised my maximum at least three times as I really wanted this. No one tried to snipe at the end however...............got it for $33.00! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrObsessive Posted October 24, 2018 Share Posted October 24, 2018 One thing I miss about the old days of eBay is seeing who the actual bidders are. I could see who I might be bidding against and that might have determined if I really wanted that item or not. Some of the eBay users I knew personally, and I may not want to bid against a friend for instance, especially if I know it was something they wanted really bad. Now eBay hides all ID's for good reason------lots of scammers popping up over the years and eBay wants to try to stay out of as much legal issues as possible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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