Zero Feedback Bidders On E-Bay

[neil poulsen]

I wonder if it's possible for a seller to eliminate a buyer with zero or negative feedback during the actual auction? I don't recall.

I've purchased many items from EBay and only had one problem. The seller, "maryland ebayer", took off with my money! While not negative, he had limited feedback with only one or two as a seller.

I only purchase from sellers with lots of feedback and minimum negative responses. If a zero feedback bidder bids up an item, one can wait until the item's up for auction again.

[Ole Tjugen]

Some of my finest aquisitions have been from sellers with no or few feedbacks. Sometimes they are just new to selling, and have genuinely great items.

But by all means - stick to buying from high volume sellers! I'll just sit quietly over here and snap up the REAL bargains

[Joe Smigiel]

If I see a zero feedback bidder enter the fray on a high ticket item, I stop bidding and alert the seller that I refuse to bid against someone with zero feedback or eBay history on such a high-priced item, particularly if they are from certain countries. I inform the seller that I'm willing to pay a certain amount for the item if something goes wrong with the zero feedback bidder winning the auction. This price is always less than where the bidder has bumped the auction. So far, I haven't received any second chance offers as a result, but I also haven't been burned. The one auction I was really disappointed in having an international zero feedback bidder against me must have been legit since the seller was one of the most reputable photo sellers on eBay. The bidder won the auction for several hundred more than I was willing to bid, and I never heard from the seller or saw the item relisted.

I've also been involved in an auction where shill bidding was going on. The seller had a bidder whose handle was the same as his user name spelled backward upping bids on an item that I and a few other people I always bid against were active on. I alerted eBay and they yanked the guy but after about a year he resurfaced with the same name. Ebay really is set up for sellers and not for buyers.

One thing I do notice is that I'm always bidding against the same people now on items from a select group of sellers. That is the only way I have any confidence in the auction. Otherwise I realize I'm taking a chance and I better be willing to eat the cost if something goes wrong.

[D. Poinsett]

Although it is tempting to be suspicious of shilling, my quess is that you are seeing the actions of an inexperienced bidder. Shill bidding is rather stupid on several levels and a seller with good feedback is unlikely to risk losing their eBay account over it.

The advice of studying the range of prices you expect and using that information to pick a reasonable bid maximum ahead of time has yielded good results for me. Unless the item is something you cannot live without or terribly rare, eventually you'll get one if your bids are in range. Also, if you find yourself in a the often inevitable last-second sniping battle, set a limit on that too.

[Bruce E. Rathbun]

The auction ended and the "zero" backed out. Big surprise. I have been given a second chance offer. As this is a new mounting press from a reputable dealer, I will consider. I am also sending E-Bay an e-mail to verify is this was indeed a case of bogus bidding. I was not looing for a steal yet just a good deal from a legitimate seller.

-Bruce

[Brian Ellis]

Who knows, it could be a fraud or it could just be new people who got caught up in auction fever. I'd suggesst using one of the sniping services. Place your maximum bid at the beginning of the auction with your service, then forget about it. Your bid will be placed about five seconds before the end of the auction. If someone beats your bid so be it, they just paid more than you were willing to pay.

With most auctions the real action doesn't take place until the last minute or so. Paying attention to the bids that go in days and even hours before then is IMHO a waste of time. FWIW I've bought about ten items on e bay and have been very pleased with the things I bought and with the whole process.

[Randy_5067]

eBay being an online "auction" should be a tip-off. Ever go to a livestock auction? You will always have somebody that will pay twice the value, just so they can have the thrill of "I won it!" An acquantice of mine is the owner of one of the larger equipment liquidation auction houses in OK. His analogy is that they get "happy feet" as the price goes higher. He will vouch for the fact that people will pay two - three times the value of an object at an auction, just for the thrill of "winning" something. I am an avid eBay junkie, but I will enter the price I am willing to pay for it, and forget it. If I win, I win. If I lose, I lose, and will bid on the next one. I have never been disappointed that way.

[Greg Tims]

Hey Joe,

You said "...If I see a zero feedback bidder enter the fray on a high ticket item, I stop bidding and alert the seller that I refuse to bid against someone with zero feedback or eBay history ..."

I have never found the need to bid for something on Ebay so my first bid, if or when it comes, will be with no feedback.

My question to you is how much feedback or ebay history did YOU have upon placing your first bid? Weren't YOU a no-feedback bidder then?

Not every no-feedback bidder is a shill!

[Ed Eubanks]

I'm sure I'm not the only one who has done a fair bit of dealing on eBay, but here is my take:

As a bidder, if I get outbid on an item I knew was only worth $x.xx, then it's no skin off my back. I learn what an item is worth, try to find one in good condition, then bid agressively until I've reached one of two points: I've hit my personal spending limit (usually set by how much i've been able to generate in my PayPal account from selling other stuff), or I've hit the cap on what I know to be a fair price. If someone is willing to pay more than what an item is worth, that's their choice, but not me. And, as others have pointed out, how do I know whether someone really is going to pay or not?

As a seller, I have gotten stiffed a few times by folks who simply wouldn't pay. My response is usually several-fold: I report them to eBay as non-paying bidders; I post negative feedback (usually at the very end of the time allowed to do so); and (here is the key for you) I contact the next-highest bidder and ask them if they are still interested. If they are not, then I re-list the item-- eBay will refund you the cost of listing the same item a second time, if it didn't actually sell the first time (for whatever reason).

The bottom line: if you suspect some shill-bidder is just running up the price, contact the seller after the auction and let him know you would be interested if the first sale doesn't work out. I promise you, he'll be glad to know it regardless of what happens, and you might get a real deal.

Also, though, it sounds like you might have been fishing for a steal on a dry-mounting press. If you're looking for a rock-bottom price on eBay for anything, don't get ticked because it moves out of the "steal" category and into the "fair price" category. Dry-mounting presses are very expensive, and they tend to keep their value.

[Dave Moeller]

As an aside on prices: Always spend time searching for the item name/model number rather than surfing to the correct category. Sometimes people list things in strange categories, and deals can sometimes be had for this reason. I got my Seal drymount press for around $100 because it was in some strange category and very few people even looked at the auction.

(As an example that I'm sure most of us who use eBay are aware of: Older wooden cameras are often listed in the "vintage" category rather than the "large format" category.)