E-Bay Second Chance Offer -- why the heck does it use the absolute highest bid?

[fantastic_four]

Normally when you enter a bid into E-Bay that's higher than everyone else's, E-Bay doesn't bump the item up to that amount, it bumps the item up whatever the second-highest bidder's bid is plus some small increment. E-Bay has some kind of "Second Chance Offer" thing sellers can use I was previously unaware of that doesn't work that way though. If the first-high bidder doesn't end up paying, the seller can offer it as a "Second Chance" to the second-high bidder, but instead of dropping the price to what the bid would have been at if the first-high bidder would never have bid, it keeps the price at the maximum bid by the second-high bidder.

 

I just got a "Second Chance" offer where the high bid was around $1000, my bid was around $990, and the third-high bid was quite a bit lower at about $800. Yet it wants me to pay $990. What the heck prevents a seller from just using shills to win their own items to unscrupulously stretch items to the maximum amount? I have no reason to believe that's what happened here, but the whole "Second Chance" thing using my high bid instead of dropping the bid down to the next-highest one plus an increment is stupid and shady.

[nochips]

Feel free to off the buyer your best bid, not the one that was bumped up in the bidding process. Many people who receive second chance offers decline to purchase the items for just that reason. They think the original bid was a shill and they want no part of it. Sometimes, the second chance offer is still very fair. Ebay wants the most money for every item sold because they get a % of the final value fee. Ebay has no interest in you getting a good deal,. they want the most for every item so they can get a higher fee collected from the seller.

[fantastic_four]

Feel free to off the buyer your best bid, not the one that was bumped up in the bidding process.

 

Is that ever an option? It doesn't seem to be one on this item, all I see is a "Buy It Now" button, no Bid options. Or I guess you mean send them an email with a lower offer...

[TMNT]

I think he means to just contact the seller directly and write in an offer you are willing to pay.

[lizards2]

I thought that was standard pracitce on second chance offers - your highest bid :shrug:

 

At least, that's the only kind I've ever gotten.

[whisp]

Yeah its lame. I bid on some gijoes at one time, lost and then he had doubles of the ones I wanted and he offered me thru ebay which was official a second chance statement.

 

I jut passed on it because it felt like it was being shilled so he could do that.

[Cheryllynn]

You should always enter the bid you are willing to pay... if you entered a bid of $990 and would have won the comic - you would not be willing to pay that amount? You obviously need to bid only what you are willing to pay. That is the beauty of a second chance offer - you CAN accept or deny the offer.

[rjpb]

What if the auction started at $9.99. Bider #1 places a initial bid of $100, you throw down a $990 bid and the next guy comes along and ups it to $1000 - meanwhile nobody else wants to bid that high, so no other bids are recorded - the winning bidder flakes out - should the second chance offer be only $100 + the next bid increment?

[lizards2]

What if the auction started at $9.99. Bider #1 places a initial bid of $100, you throw down a $990 bid and the next guy comes along and ups it to $1000 - meanwhile nobody else wants to bid that high, so no other bids are recorded - the winning bidder flakes out - should the second chance offer be only $100 + the next bid increment?

 

Nope - $990

[Boozad]

What if the auction started at $9.99. Bider #1 places a initial bid of $100, you throw down a $990 bid and the next guy comes along and ups it to $1000 - meanwhile nobody else wants to bid that high, so no other bids are recorded - the winning bidder flakes out - should the second chance offer be only $100 + the next bid increment?

 

Nope - $990

 

Of course it should be $990. That's the maximum that was bid and is exposed by the flake/shill high bidder.

[letsgrumble]

Was your second chance offer sent to your e-mail account only? If you don't see the second chance offer anywhere on your eBay page then there's a good chance that it's a fake. Happened to me a few years ago. I received a message from someone who claimed that the winning bidder did not follow through with the transaction and offered it to me... but all the "eBay" hyperlinks led to a strange address. The e-mail also looked like it was sent through the eBay site but the graphics were a little off. After contacting the seller and eBay fraud dept., my suspicions were correct. Anyway, there's no harm in contacting the seller to verify that everything's on the up-and-up.

 

Normally when you enter a bid into E-Bay that's higher than everyone else's, E-Bay doesn't bump the item up to that amount, it bumps the item up whatever the second-highest bidder's bid is plus some small increment. E-Bay has some kind of "Second Chance Offer" thing sellers can use I was previously unaware of that doesn't work that way though. If the first-high bidder doesn't end up paying, the seller can offer it as a "Second Chance" to the second-high bidder, but instead of dropping the price to what the bid would have been at if the first-high bidder would never have bid, it keeps the price at the maximum bid by the second-high bidder.

 

I just got a "Second Chance" offer where the high bid was around $1000, my bid was around $990, and the third-high bid was quite a bit lower at about $800. Yet it wants me to pay $990. What the heck prevents a seller from just using shills to win their own items to unscrupulously stretch items to the maximum amount? I have no reason to believe that's what happened here, but the whole "Second Chance" thing using my high bid instead of dropping the bid down to the next-highest one plus an increment is stupid and shady.

[joe_collector]

Just DELETE all second chance offers, as more and more sellers are just shilling their auctions and then hoping they hook a sucker with this scam.

 

I've seen them openly talking about this on some of the EBay forums.

[goldust40]

Just DELETE all second chance offers, as more and more sellers are just shilling their auctions and then hoping they hook a sucker with this scam.

 

I've seen them openly talking about this on some of the EBay forums.

 

Seriously?

 

If possible, please provide a link for these threads. They'd be of immense interest for this forum.

[Cheryllynn]

Why bid $990 if you don't have any intention of paying that much to begin with? Because you want to win the auction? If someone had bid $980 and you won at $990, what would you have done if you had no intention of paying that price? I don't understand what the problem is...

[Boozad]

I sent out a second chance offer today on a set of Chew #1 & #2 to the second highest bidder as I do have another two sets spare. Now I don't really hold out much hope of the bidder accepting the offer in case I shilled my own auctions.

 

Not saying it doesn't happen, anyone with half a brain knows it does, but all I wanted to do was save waiting a week for another auction to run. Wish I hadn't bothered now.

[fantastic_four]

Why bid $990 if you don't have any intention of paying that much to begin with?

 

Because I was willing to pay that much, but only if there was another bidder willing to pay somewhere close to that amount. There wasn't, and I resent my maximum bid being revealed and used against me. I'd far rather the thing went back up for sale so I can take my chances against the next set of bidders.

[Aces]

Why bid $990 if you don't have any intention of paying that much to begin with?

 

Because I was willing to pay that much, but only if there was another bidder willing to pay somewhere close to that amount. There wasn't, and I resent my maximum bid being revealed and used against me. I'd far rather the thing went back up for sale so I can take my chances against the next set of bidders.

You can't make a counter-offer?

 

Dang ebay looking out for it's fees...

[fantastic_four]

You can't make a counter-offer?

 

Not via the interface. I suppose I could via PM as people suggested.

[Cheryllynn]

Why bid $990 if you don't have any intention of paying that much to begin with?

 

Because I was willing to pay that much, but only if there was another bidder willing to pay somewhere close to that amount. There wasn't, and I resent my maximum bid being revealed and used against me. I'd far rather the thing went back up for sale so I can take my chances against the next set of bidders.

 

Unfortunately, that's not how the bidding works on eBay but that is why the second chance offer is good because you don't have to accept it...

 

You should beware if the second chance offer was sent hours after the auction ended... but maybe NOT several days... I've done second chance offers when the original buyer backed out, but usually you find out the sale isn't going to happen many days after the auction ends.