The Most Bid Retractions I've Ever Seen....... 0

[comix4fun]

I noticed an item I was watching on eBay suddenly had a lower top bid...

Then I clicked to find out why....retracted bid, obviously.

When I checked out the profile of the guy retracting I found this..

 

 

Sweet Lord!

The fact that almost half his bidding activity is with this seller, and that he's retracted so many bids (in this case he had a bid just below the top bid and one just above the top bid and retracted the one that would have been just above) is another story entirely. 

So has anyone else ever seen this many bid retractions in a 6 months period? 

Edited August 30, 2017 by comix4fun

[Rhymenoceros]

Seems almost like a full time job being that shilly. Is there any way to report that kind of behavior for atrociously suspicious bidding? 

[mattn792]

Could GOODNEWSCOMICS and his alter ego(s) be back???

[comix4fun]

5 minutes ago, Rhymenoceros said:

Seems almost like a full time job being that shilly. Is there any way to report that kind of behavior for atrociously suspicious bidding? 

I am trying to compile information but eBay has made it difficult to link up feedback and auctions won with the way they obscure bidder name. I can't find any auctions that this guy actually won by this seller, through feedback or through looking at recent completed auctions, but it's difficult to be sure. 

 

[comicquant]

11 minutes ago, comix4fun said:

I am trying to compile information but eBay has made it difficult to link up feedback and auctions won with the way they obscure bidder name. I can't find any auctions that this guy actually won by this seller, through feedback or through looking at recent completed auctions, but it's difficult to be sure. 

 

Ugh, almost definitely shill bidding.  Can you send a link to the item?

[01TheDude]

one thing I will add is not to look at those 6 month numbers from ebay as gospel.

I haven't made a single retraction in almost a year and it still shows me having 6 of them somehow. 

I stopped making retractions once I realized how this looked to others as possible shilling or probing for others high bids.

Now I just put in my best number and stick with it or set it up as a snipe bid as many of these sellers are shilling to raise the bids if you put one in early.

[kav]

2 hours ago, mattn792 said:

Could GOODNEWSCOMICS and his alter ego(s) be back???

If he joined after BADNEWSCOMICS was banned from ebay (around Dec 22)  I might be able to do something with this.  also if he is selling same type books.

Edited August 30, 2017 by kav

[Hudson]

1 hour ago, comicquant said:

Ugh, almost definitely shill bidding.  Can you send a link to the item?

 +1

[kav]

"Of course I bid on my items that way I get the most for the item and the buyer gets a cool book-THAT'S HOW IT WORKS"

[comix4fun]

2 hours ago, comicquant said:

Ugh, almost definitely shill bidding.  Can you send a link to the item?

Well, this one isn't on a comic, it's on a toy. 

 

[kav]

6 minutes ago, comix4fun said:

Well, this one isn't on a comic, it's on a toy. 

 

WHY did you get us all pumped up>????  

[comix4fun]

1 hour ago, 01TheDude said:

one thing I will add is not to look at those 6 month numbers from ebay as gospel.

I haven't made a single retraction in almost a year and it still shows me having 6 of them somehow. 

I stopped making retractions once I realized how this looked to others as possible shilling or probing for others high bids.

Now I just put in my best number and stick with it or set it up as a snipe bid as many of these sellers are shilling to raise the bids if you put one in early.

But jeez, even if it's in his entire eBay lifespan 70 some retractions is a gigantic number, even if it's half that in the last six months...that's a big number. I think I've had 3-4 or them in the 20 years I've used the site. 

[01TheDude]

4 minutes ago, comix4fun said:

But jeez, even if it's in his entire eBay lifespan 70 some retractions is a gigantic number, even if it's half that in the last six months...that's a big number. I think I've had 3-4 or them in the 20 years I've used the site. 

valid points

[comix4fun]

4 minutes ago, 01TheDude said:

valid points

And as shocking as that number is, his amount of bidding activity with the same seller combined with the retractions was what set off red flags for me. 

[Junkdrawer]

The practice of bidding and immediately retracting on eBay is clearly a way to expose the high bidders max bid. The hope is that nobody notices and a snipe can be made just slightly over that max. It's an unethical practice and a loophole eBay could care less about. I've had auctions jeopardized and just elected to end the listing. Even a bidder accused me of manipulating my auction. 

[Westy Steve]

So let the shill do his job and keep your bid very high.  Then in the last minute of the auction, retract YOUR bid, and let his shill buy it.

[kav]

12 minutes ago, Westy Steve said:

So let the shill do his job and keep your bid very high.  Then in the last minute of the auction, retract YOUR bid, and let his shill buy it.

freakin awesome

[kav]

Or just dont pay since ebay does nothing about that and his shill can get the second chance offer!!!

[lizards2]

11 minutes ago, kav said:

23 minutes ago, Westy Steve said:

So let the shill do his job and keep your bid very high.  Then in the last minute of the auction, retract YOUR bid, and let his shill buy it.

freakin awesome

If it were possible.  I thought a bid had to be retracted 24 hours prior to the auction close? 

Edited August 31, 2017 by lizards2
cowwpiez

[comicwiz]

17 hours ago, comix4fun said:

I noticed an item I was watching on eBay suddenly had a lower top bid...

Then I clicked to find out why....retracted bid, obviously.

When I checked out the profile of the guy retracting I found this..

 

 

Sweet Lord!

The fact that almost half his bidding activity is with this seller, and that he's retracted so many bids (in this case he had a bid just below the top bid and one just above the top bid and retracted the one that would have been just above) is another story entirely. 

So has anyone else ever seen this many bid retractions in a 6 months period? 

Not this many in this period of time, or all with the same seller, but the pattern can be seen with someone retracting this often to put a placeholder bid, and a second bid for an amount that others will deem insane/crazy and meant to drive away competing bidders. The retraction on the second/crazy amount happens a little before the allowable retraction period (I believe it's 12 hours). This has a tendency to happen on high demand/caliber pieces, with the sole intent of trying to get the item for lower than FMV. What I don't understand about eBay is when this kind of thing happens this frequently, they should ban the person. A number of times when this happened it frustrated the seller to cancel the auction, and a few times they didn't relist (likely contacted privately by some interested party, and an item I was interested in bidding on never reappeared). 

This is usually brought up in discussions on eBay scams as "bid shielding."

Edited August 31, 2017 by comicwiz