I debated whether to write about this on here or not (I don't like to name and shame without proof) but when I wrote about it on Facebook, other people thought I should start a thread on the Arena to warn others against this seller.
Basically I bid on a lot of ponies on eBay. It was a fuzzy picture of a pile of ponies - you couldn't see how many real MLPs or which ones, let alone condition, but I could see a number of decent-looking G3s. The seller, Pipesgalore, had 0 feedback but I figured this might work in my favour and put others off meaning I'd get some cheap ponies. So I took the risk.
Within an hour of bidding, I had a message from the seller (sent as a question on one of my own ponies for sale which may be worthy of note): "Hello darlin I am selling the huge lot of ponys and have added another pic so you can see how pretty they are x thank you for bidding x they have cost a lot more to buy separately as you probably know x"
I wrote a polite line back and thanked her for letting me know about the second photo. Now that I could see what was included in the lot, I put in my second (and final) bid - equating to £1.50 per pony including P&P which is what I usually think is a fair price with space to make a little on those I resell.
The seller then writes again: "I've had a lot of interest someone off entered me 200 for them but they was abroad so didn't really want to post them as would be to much hassle didn't no how rare some were x are you a big collector x"
Um...sorry. There is no way anybody would have offered her £200 for these ponies! They were almost all G3s and you couldn't even see their condition clearly!
I ignored her (I was already having bad feelings about her and wishing I hadn't placed my bid). Later that evening *somebody* started bidding against me, multiple times in little increments, until they had outbid my first bid price.
Then the seller wrote me a rather strange message: "Awww that's cute x" WHAT'S cute? I never replied to your last message?!
The same bidder then returned and outbid my highest bid. I was quite relieved (but stunned that anybody would actually pay that much for a bunch of G3s when there are so many similar lots on eBay!) The ponies ended today, going to the mysterious other bidder. The other bidder and I were the ONLY bidders, may I add, and yet by the end of the auction, THIRTY NINE bids had been placed. Yes, the other person placed 37 tiny bids on this lot before finally outbidding me.
My brain was screaming shill bidder by this point and I felt sure I would hear from the seller again in a few days to tell me that the other bidder hadnt paid and the ponies were available again. Well, hey presto! Sure enough, there was another message in my inbox...I didn't even have to wait a few days. The message was sent to me less than 15 minutes after the auction ended.
"Hi huni just had a message off the other buyer saying they can't pay as money wasn't in if you would still like these I would accept 65 plus 10 postage darlin if you would be interested x"
She emailed me AGAIN later that day to ask me if I got her last message. She MUST have been shill bidding, right? Why would somebody win something and immediately tell the seller she couldn't pay? (I wish my non-payers were so polite, then I wouldn't have to wait ages to open cases against them!) Surely all the weird goings on beforehand point to this. She messaged me again a few times over the next 48 hours to warn me that if I didn't let her know if I wanted to buy them or not, she might sell them to one of her many enquirers outside of eBay who all desperately wanted her bargain rare ponies... yeah quite.
I reckon she looked into my account when I placed my first bid, saw my pony listings and thought she must have something rare in the lot (which I recognised and was going to sell at a profit...or maybe wanted for my own collection) and she got greedy enough to push me to my bidding limit?
This is the lot in question:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/261616608573?ssPageName=STRK:MEDWX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1435.l2649 I see the other bidder (the one who wasn't going to pay) has now left her positive feedback and the ponies have since been relisted and quickly removed due to an "error in the listing".
I don't think this is going to be a regular pony seller but still, proceed with caution. You have been warned!
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