Hey everyone. So I have a current auction up on eBay. I’m not trying to promote my listing, I genuinely want to know if these bids are legit. Wasn’t sure if I’m allowed to show actual usernames, so I signed in with my siblings account to view the bid history. The user m***0 had the highest bid at $1525 this morning, but then he retracted it this afternoon. A few hours later the same guy placed more bids up to the exact max of the bidder 5***i at $1500. I messaged him about his retraction and all, and all he said was, “Oh I found a better deal today but the seller backed out on me, so I’m back.” I’m a little suspicious, but this was his only retraction in the last 6 months. What are your thoughts? Is this guy legit? Again, not promoting my listing, I just want to be sure there isn’t any fraudulent activity on my auction. Thanks so much
He already broke eBay rules with the first retraction. He knew the high bid and went for it again and then quit without taking the high bid. Why would you trust this buyer?
If you have to ask…
yeah, block his butt.
I didn’t read that the bidder retracted at first. It seems to me like he was trying to fish out the max bid. Whether they intended to shill the item or whether that’s their bidding strategy is hard to say, but that’s not good practice either way.
Block that person. Doubt it is a real bid and will just cause more headaches than any benefits for you.
Thanks for the input, and I plan to block him later tonight. Just to get a good idea, will all the price changes scare the other buyers? Auction price goes from 1525 down to 900 back to 1500 and then back down to 900. I’ve never had a bidder like this guy before, so I just don’t know how other buyers would interpret all the price changes.
Nice subtle way to promote your auctions, now I kinda want to bid
if anything, blocking someone shows the other bidders that you are actively patrolling your listing. otherwise, i think you run a higher risk of getting someone shilling and not paying at the end, namely this individual, regardless of the price.
Agreed. As a serious and veteran eBayer, if I see that a seller is active on their listing and knows they can manage things, it gives me confidence that they can be called on to help with any issues if they arise. eBay has all levels of users, and newBayers will learn through genuine errors as well, so it’s good all around. He’ll be more careful next time, and you’ll have more confidence in understanding how the system works, if you don’t already. Good luck with it!
Just blocked him. Will his bids automatically be removed or do I have to manually cancel them?
Attempted to cancel the bids today, but eBay won’t allow me for some reason. Anyway, other bidders have taken the lead so the suspicious guy shouldn’t give me any more trouble. Thanks for the input everyone