Questionable eBay User: buyselltradegolf

[haakzilla]

Not sure if any of you have dealt with this seller or not, but I wanted to share a questionable experience from last night's auction. The item up for bid was a BRUTE putter with no reserve and the bidding progressed like normal and even in the last 30 seconds when it really matters. I bid 4 times in the closing seconds and each time instantly outbid -- normal stuff here and when the auction ended I just figured someone set a max bid higher than my attempts (because this happens all the time). THEN...I received an instant 2nd chance offer (for $2.50 less than the ending price). It showed up within a minute of the auction ending. I find it very hard to believe that the winner who seemed to have set a high max bid messaged the seller instantly asking to cancel the sale. This just doesn't feel right -- dare I say, shill bidder(s)?! Anyone else have a similar experience? Was it a shady practice, or status quo nothing to see here?

[DFS PFD]

> @haakzilla said:

> Not sure if any of you have dealt with this seller or not, but I wanted to share a questionable experience from last night's auction. The item up for bid was a putter and the bidding progressed like normal and even in the last 30 seconds when it really matters. I bid 4 times in the closing seconds and each time instantly outbid -- normal stuff here and when the auction ended I just figured someone set a max bid higher than my attempts (because this happens all the time). THEN...I received an instant 2nd chance offer. It showed up within a minute of the auction ending. I find it very hard to believe that the winner who seemed to have set a high max bid messaged the seller instantly asking to cancel the sale. This just doesn't feel right -- dare I say, shill bidder(s)?! Anyone else have a similar experience? Was it a shady practice, or status quo nothing to see here?

 

Could there have been a reserve that was not met?

[haakzilla]

> @"DFS PFD" said:

> > @haakzilla said:

> > Not sure if any of you have dealt with this seller or not, but I wanted to share a questionable experience from last night's auction. The item up for bid was a putter and the bidding progressed like normal and even in the last 30 seconds when it really matters. I bid 4 times in the closing seconds and each time instantly outbid -- normal stuff here and when the auction ended I just figured someone set a max bid higher than my attempts (because this happens all the time). THEN...I received an instant 2nd chance offer. It showed up within a minute of the auction ending. I find it very hard to believe that the winner who seemed to have set a high max bid messaged the seller instantly asking to cancel the sale. This just doesn't feel right -- dare I say, shill bidder(s)?! Anyone else have a similar experience? Was it a shady practice, or status quo nothing to see here?

>

> Could there have been a reserve that was not met?

 

No reserve. The 2nd chance offer to me was $2.50 less than the ending price...

[larciel]

def. shill bidding. report it to ebay

[kdog25]

Can’t imagine it being anything other than exactly what you said it was. The seller bid it up as much as possible with the intent on issuing the 2nd chance.

[grm24]

> @haakzilla said:

> Not sure if any of you have dealt with this seller or not, but I wanted to share a questionable experience from last night's auction. The item up for bid was a BRUTE putter with no reserve and the bidding progressed like normal and even in the last 30 seconds when it really matters. I bid 4 times in the closing seconds and each time instantly outbid -- normal stuff here and when the auction ended I just figured someone set a max bid higher than my attempts (because this happens all the time). THEN...I received an instant 2nd chance offer (for $2.50 less than the ending price). It showed up within a minute of the auction ending. I find it very hard to believe that the winner who seemed to have set a high max bid messaged the seller instantly asking to cancel the sale. This just doesn't feel right -- dare I say, shill bidder(s)?! Anyone else have a similar experience? Was it a shady practice, or status quo nothing to see here?

 

Not shady. It could also be as simple that the seller had multiples of the same item as well. Some years back, golfetail, for one, offered 2nd chance offers on some items. I bought mutiple items like that. You still have PayPal and Ebay protections. Of course YMMV.

 

https://www.ebay.com/help/buying/bidding/second-chance-offers?id=4017

[grm24]

> @larciel said:

> def. shill bidding. report it to ebay

Offering a 2nd chance item to a buyer is allowed.

[haakzilla]

> @grm24 said:

> > @haakzilla said:

> > Not sure if any of you have dealt with this seller or not, but I wanted to share a questionable experience from last night's auction. The item up for bid was a BRUTE putter with no reserve and the bidding progressed like normal and even in the last 30 seconds when it really matters. I bid 4 times in the closing seconds and each time instantly outbid -- normal stuff here and when the auction ended I just figured someone set a max bid higher than my attempts (because this happens all the time). THEN...I received an instant 2nd chance offer (for $2.50 less than the ending price). It showed up within a minute of the auction ending. I find it very hard to believe that the winner who seemed to have set a high max bid messaged the seller instantly asking to cancel the sale. This just doesn't feel right -- dare I say, shill bidder(s)?! Anyone else have a similar experience? Was it a shady practice, or status quo nothing to see here?

>

> Not shady. It could also be as simple that the seller had multiples of the same item as well. Some years back, golfetail, for one, offered 2nd chance offers on some items. I bought mutiple items like that. You still have PayPal and Ebay protections. Of course YMMV.

>

> https://www.ebay.com/help/buying/bidding/second-chance-offers?id=4017

 

...you make a valid point, I suppose it was more of the rapid timing in which the 2nd chance offer came through. And yes they could definitely have more than one in their stock, but it also seems like a possible way to juice the original auction price. Also, I am not worried about being protected in this case. The seller clearly delivers the product -- I am just skeptical of the ethics behind my experience with them.

[GoIrish17]

I wouldn't just assume that this situation is a definite indicator of shenanigans. I've gotten great second chance offers on auction items I've bid on and lost. Many times for less than the auction ended at - in fact once a while back I received a second chance offer on an item that was so good, I ended up bargaining a deal on 10 of the item (golf balls or gloves or something like that). It's definitely sellers with more than one item, who would rather try this tactic to move their inventory rather than list each item individually. Besides the savings in time, I'd have to guess that selling via this method also saves on some listing fees.

[e-man]

Given the timing, it seems suspicious. If the seller had multiples, why wouldn’t he list the item again? Is there an advantage to selling a multiple of an item for $2.50 less as opposed to just creating a new listing?

[haakzilla]

...the other caveat is that I message him back asking questions about why the instant 2nd chance offer and what's going on with this item and instead of replying he cancelled the 2nd chance offer, so there's that

[jacob7071]

Sounds like shill bidding to me. Was it something where the seller clearly has multiple for sale? Or was it a used putter? Does ebay still let you see who's placing bids? Not the whole user name, but you used to be able to see enough of the username to tell if the same person was bidding up the price.

[haakzilla]

> @jacob7071 said:

> Sounds like shill bidding to me. Was it something where the seller clearly has multiple for sale? Or was it a used putter? Does ebay still let you see who's placing bids? Not the whole user name, but you used to be able to see enough of the username to tell if the same person was bidding up the price.

It's definitely a tricky one to know for sure what was really going on IMO...

 

It says Used "MINT" >> https://www.ebay.com/itm/Raw-GSS-Milled-360g-Model-1-35-034-Putter-BRUTE-with-WINN-Dri-Tac-Grip-/223599873464

 

It shows the bidders, but if I were shilling bids I would use multiple accounts to mask it...but at any rate, you can see the history here >> https://www.ebay.com/bfl/viewbids/223599873464?item=223599873464&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2565&showauto=true

[jacob7071]

If you're h^^^a and you're getting a 2nd chance offer, I would assume that means w^^^w cancelled or wouldn't pay. In that case, it only took $175 to beat o^^^s, the next highest bidder. I would explain that and counter with an offer of $175.

[haakzilla]

> @jacob7071 said:

> If you're h^^^a and you're getting a 2nd chance offer, I would assume that means w^^^w cancelled or wouldn't pay. In that case, it only took $175 to beat o^^^s, the next highest bidder. I would explain that and counter with an offer of $175.

 

...wasn't posting about the offer being too high, but rather the timing of getting a 2nd chance offer within 60 seconds of auction ending on what appears to be a single used putter (not new old stock of multiples of the same item). Still feels like the initial bids were inflated if the top 2 bidders were disregarded in favor of instantly offering me a 2nd chance. Odd behavior IMHO.