ebay annoyance

[Adam Aglionby]

Because on Ebay anything less than 5 stars is a negative against the seller.

Find about 40% of people never leave any feedback at all, of the remaining ones that do, unsuprisingly the ones who want to moan are the most vocal.

As little as three 1 star ratings, no matter positive , and happy customers who didn`t bother leaving feedback, will move your listings to the bottom of search and decimate sales.

Feedback ceased to have any real meaning to buyers on ebay sometime ago, only actually look it up on Toolhaus.org if its below 98% with a low total.

Amazon dosent play with search levels etc for listings, it allows plenty of space for honest feedback but can again suffer from happy customers who got the goods they expected in a timely manner don`t see it as 5 star service worth leaving feedback about.

Fact that ebays search dosen`t work properly at best of times probably accounts for Amazons share price being a multiple of ebays.

Ebay bought TV adverts, Amazon had loads of free plugs masquerading as `news` items from their distribution centres,

Ebay forgets who actually pays them, sellers.

Cheers Adam

[fred]

Care to explain how a the 'shilling' seller knows when to stop placing his = small incremental bids so that he doesn't end up the highest bidder ?

[Dave Liquorice]

The shiller doesn't "know" but selling a number of the articles will have a pretty good idea as to what people will pay. Even for a new line, they can look back through the price history of similar items to guage the "going rate", just like a buyer can. They simply incrementally bid to just under that level. If sensible they won't bid in the last 24 hrs or longer. If they are the highest bideer if gives the loser a chance to up their bid.

Yes they might get caught for a quid or so of fees occasionally but if the shilling ups the profit by a tenner or more on another item they are still making money.

[Apellation Controlee]

------------8><

My "buyer reaction" to that suggestion is, "Fuck that!"

If I'm bidding in an Ebay auction I want to know when the auction ends, and therefore, more-or-less, in what timeframe I can expect to receive the goods if I'm the successful bidder.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I've recently bought a few ex broadcast bits and pieces from the closure of BBC Bush House on line auction. And any bid received in the last couple of minutes extended the end time by two minutes.

[Man at B&Q]

One bid but it's a proxy bidding system so it can result in multiple increments until one or the other wins.

If the sniper bids more than your maximum then you lost, end of.

What excitement? They've bid their *maximum*, end of.

MBQ

[Bill]

In message , "Dave Plowman (News)" writes

Which is effectively the way a "proper" auction works. The auctioneer doesn't just stop auctioning an item at a specific time, he does it when there are no more bids.

I'd have bid on kit from Bush House too if it hadn't been for transport problems.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

True.

Tell me about it. I forgot all about the congestion charge despite living quite close to it.

[Andy Champ]

Yeah.. but... all they can see is my "last bid" of £12 or whatever ebay's increment was. They can't see my limit.

It's called a _h_y_p_o_t_h_e_t_i_c_a_l_ _s_i_t_u_a_t_i_o_n_ :P

By sniping they might have saved a bit less than an ebay increment. That's all.

I am thinking. If the shill comes in and goes over my limit the day before - well, I won't increment. I'm at my limit. He either has it, or he doesn't.

If the item is a commonly sold one where lots of people are bidding then the sale price will be pretty certain in advance, and the shill can push the price up to just below the normal sale price... but as there are lots going through that will happen anyway without the shill.

If the item is rarely sold then the sale price will be pretty hard to judge, and it's quite possible there is one bidder with a limit much higher than the sale price. In that case the shill might make a fat profit by forcing the price up. Or a small loss by paying the fees. Or a big loss by P**ing off the only buyer for their item leaving them with the item on the books. I don't see how they can know.

ebay know that shill bidding is a problem. I can't see that it's going to be that hard for any decent DB programmer to spot that one account keeps bidding and losing for items sold by one other account...

Besides which I closed my ebay account over their Ts&Cs.

It's odd when you compare ebay auctions with "real" ones. Most ebay bids are the ones "on the book". There will be one lucky sniper who puts in a real bid - why can't the auction keep going until the sniping has finished?

Andy

[Jim K]

:

s small incremental bids so that he doesn't end up the highest bidder ?

you might have mail?

Jim K

[Jim K]

shilling is not about what happens in the last 10 seconds of the auction....

it is about pushing early bidders upto their max in small steps.

and avoided the possibility of being shilled when bidding early

he will be doing his best not gto go over your limit by watching ebay's auto bid increment as he creeps up....

they don;t care - higher sales price =3D more fees

so it really is a _h_y_p_o_t_h_e_t_i_c_a_l_ _s_i_t_u_a_t_i_o_n_ :P

Jim K

[Thumper]

Good point. I would probably at least leave a comment if something was wrong with the product. And also comment on how the seller resolved the issue.

Think I just got annoyed because Amazon were sending a 2nd and 3rd automated repeat email asking me to rate my purchase that I had nothing to say about.

[alan]

He then contacts all losing bidders saying he has more stock and he can sell it at the same price.

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

Removes bidding wars.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Then you know what to tell him to do with it - if you suspect shill bidding.