Bidders pushing the price up on ebay

[daffodil101]

I'm not sure if this is shill bidding or not.  I've seen it quite a lot especially on in-demand items. 

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On this auction they made 19 out of 37 bids, most of them consecutively.  They didn't win the item.


One time there was a lot of several hundred ribbons, and someone pushed up the price by about $300 (it sold for over $900).

I remember one auction, someone bid about 45 times on the same item.  As far as I can remember the prolific bidders usually won those auctions and I haven't seen the items relisted.

Ebay prices are high enough  (especially as an Aussie buyer-- I can't sell my ponies in the smaller aussie market for anywhere near the prices ponies go for overseas.  Plus the exchange rate pushes the US prices I pay up by 20%.  It would be great if I could sell my ponies overseas, but the overseas markets are so huge I'm just a drop in the ocean... plus shipping from my country is super high.  Once I had the crazy idea that selling my doubles would fund the completion of my collection... ah I was so naive!)

It's really disheartening when people drive up prices like this!   

[plushroo]

It's hard to tell really. I've seen countless pony auctions sell for more than their going rate because of one or two bidders bidding up the price. Now if I see something for three times its worth and still days to go, I skip it. Who knows who's shill bidding now that ebay has hidden id's. Clever idea (NOT!).

[lunar_scythe]

I don't think its actually that, I think the bidding list just shows what the high bids are.

What happens is eBay is increasing their bid when someone else bids on the lot, I think.  If I put in a max bid of, say, $250, but the starting bid is only $125, it shows as if I bid that.  Then, when someone else bids, say, $140, it increases my bid to $141, right?  But, since bidder #2 was never the high bid, it won't show that bid for $140 in the list, it would just show *my* bid jumping up.

So on the bidders page, it would show me, with a  bid of $125, then me with a bid of $141, and so on, until it got to $251 or so.  If I raise my max bid, then I show up again, same as before, if my new maximum is higher than the other persons, but if it isn't, then that persons bid will do the same, increase without showing the other bid.

[Artemesia's Garden]

Any more input on this would be good to know.  I think for high value ponies, trading and buying on the Arena is best because people here are already invested as collectors and it will be safer.  But then if no-one ever bought high value ponies on ebay we would lose this as a source of new ponies coming into the collecting community.   I'm selling on ebay at the moment 

[lovesbabysquirmy]

I believe this is Ebay's way of showing the incremental bids. The buyer isn't actually pushing the buttons this whole time.

In this photo's example, you can see that the auction was $100.  RZ came and bid, but YI really wants this item, so they bid $185.01 (or higher).  They bid so high that even when 1S came in and bid $182.89, that wasn't the high bid. 

[LadyMoondancer]

Some people really do bid like that.   "I'll bid $10 . . . No?  Then I'll bid $15 . . . No?  Then I'll bid $20 . . ."   Usually they end up getting sniped because they didn't put in their true max bid in the first place.

But in this case I do think it's eBay's way of showing incremental bids based on other people trying to top y***i's bid.

[Miss_Pompon]

I think the same, as a sellerbuyer I checked my bid sometimes and even though I only place 1 bid, I can be listed a lot of times because someone try to outbid me.

For the last 2 bids of your example, I think the buyer increase their maximal bid.

[doxiechic16]

Sometimes I wonder if people enter *really* high maximum bids thinking that they'll certainly be able to snipe the pony, but other people have that same though and the item ends up selling for a lot more than ended.

For example, this is the scenario that I imagine happens sometimes:

Buyer 1 sees a really nice Nightglider for sale and thinks to herself, "Oh, I'll put $100.  There's no way she'll go for that and I should be able to snipe her as the auction ends." 

Buyer 2 sees the same really nice Nightglider for sale and thinks, "Oh, I'll put $150.  There's no way she'll go for that and I should be able to snipe her at the end of the auction."

..............And then you end up with a Nightglider for over $100.  This is purely speculation, but sometimes I wonder if this happens when ponies end up selling for WAY more than what one would expect.   

[Breyer600]

No, that looks like actual bids that someone sat there and made one after the other.  EBay has a note just above the bidder list that says

Only actual bids (not automatic bids generated up to a bidder's maximum) are shown. Automatic bids may be placed days or hours before a listing ends.

 and a link to the side to "Show automatic bids."  If you click on the link you'll see the those bids, but they'll be grayed out and don't count toward the total number of bids.

While it can be a sign of shilling, it is by no means proof of it as some people really do bid like that - perhaps because they don't understand eBay's automatic bidding process or because they get caught up in the bidding.  It's nothing new either.  I had it happen to me years ago when I first started using ebay, and that's the reason I started sniping any auctions I want to bid on.

[slyons]

Sometimes I wonder if people enter *really* high maximum bids thinking that they'll certainly be able to snipe the pony, but other people have that same though and the item ends up selling for a lot more than ended.

For example, this is the scenario that I imagine happens sometimes:

Buyer 1 sees a really nice Nightglider for sale and thinks to herself, "Oh, I'll put $100.  There's no way she'll go for that and I should be able to snipe her as the auction ends." 

Buyer 2 sees the same really nice Nightglider for sale and thinks, "Oh, I'll put $150.  There's no way she'll go for that and I should be able to snipe her at the end of the auction."

..............And then you end up with a Nightglider for over $100.  This is purely speculation, but sometimes I wonder if this happens when ponies end up selling for WAY more than what one would expect.   

That's exactly how I think it happens to, you aren't alone!

[Haruna]

You know, in the same vein, I've noticed some strange bidding going on in the auctions of one seller in particular. A lot of her auctions go for normal prices, but once in a while they'll be crazy. This one is for a Chief and started at $.99:

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The bidding later on in the auction just seems so methodical (and really crazy-high, too!) I get a bad feeling about that seller in particular.

[slyons]

You know, in the same vein, I've noticed some strange bidding going on in the auctions of one seller in particular. A lot of her auctions go for normal prices, but once in a while they'll be crazy. This one is for a Chief and started at $.99:

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The bidding later on in the auction just seems so methodical (and really crazy-high, too!) I get a bad feeling about that seller in particular.

  For him to jump up 90 dollars at once!? And then keep going? Yikes, that would seem extremely suspicious.  I don't think that any collector would bid on a Chief that expensive, even if he was in mint shape with his accessories?? If you're spending that much, at least do it on a Mountain Boy. 

[bluerose9978]

I find it interesting, too, how that auction for Chief is a private auction. Seems a little suspicious.

[shimmlight]

Sometimes I wonder if people enter *really* high maximum bids thinking that they'll certainly be able to snipe the pony, but other people have that same though and the item ends up selling for a lot more than ended.

For example, this is the scenario that I imagine happens sometimes:

Buyer 1 sees a really nice Nightglider for sale and thinks to herself, "Oh, I'll put $100.  There's no way she'll go for that and I should be able to snipe her as the auction ends." 

Buyer 2 sees the same really nice Nightglider for sale and thinks, "Oh, I'll put $150.  There's no way she'll go for that and I should be able to snipe her at the end of the auction."

..............And then you end up with a Nightglider for over $100.  This is purely speculation, but sometimes I wonder if this happens when ponies end up selling for WAY more than what one would expect.   

I know somebody who does this so it may well happen!

[Rainbowrific Renia]

Sometimes I wonder if people enter *really* high maximum bids thinking that they'll certainly be able to snipe the pony, but other people have that same though and the item ends up selling for a lot more than ended.

For example, this is the scenario that I imagine happens sometimes:

Buyer 1 sees a really nice Nightglider for sale and thinks to herself, "Oh, I'll put $100.  There's no way she'll go for that and I should be able to snipe her as the auction ends." 

Buyer 2 sees the same really nice Nightglider for sale and thinks, "Oh, I'll put $150.  There's no way she'll go for that and I should be able to snipe her at the end of the auction."

..............And then you end up with a Nightglider for over $100.  This is purely speculation, but sometimes I wonder if this happens when ponies end up selling for WAY more than what one would expect.   

I believe that this is a thing that happens.  I've definitely been in that scenario before, where I can only assume the other person had the same thought as me and put it a really, really high bid.  I've learned since then though, and I don't put in ridiculously high bids anymore. I just stick to a lower max bid, put that in, and if I get outbid, oh well.