Bidding manipulation scam, never seen this one before.

[campanaelia]

Other bidder placed bid at 1:28am for $11 and was winning auction at $10.50.

I placed bid at 1:53am for $11.01 and was winning auction by $0.01 at $11.01

The other bidder then retracted their $11 bid at 11:58am

Then the same bidder, at 3am placed bid for $11.05 after they already knew my highest bid amount was $11.01 and is the highest bidder now by $0.04

They waited until 3am so that I was unable to do the same to them since there is less than 12 hours remaining.

I can't even believe someone would go through all this for a $0.50 bid increment, rather than just placing a bid for $11.51. All this to save $0.46, unbelievable....

https://www.ebay.com/itm/196275092120

[mudshark61369]

@campanaelia,

I do not see any bid manipulation or scams happening.  What I do see, is two people with a fair number of feedback bidding like newbie nibblers, a few increments at a time.  If I were bidding on the item, I would be more worried about the seller cancelling the auction for the item, because they didn't get a high enough price, unless a couple of snipers come in and bid their max, raising the price appreciably which is how you should be bidding.  

[nobody*s_perfect]

I agree with the above observation about early bidding being a waste of effort. That includes your opponent's retract/rebid strategy which, as you said, saves only pennies.  

In this case, if your opponent had any sense they would have waited and placed that bid for $11.05 as a snipe bid, rather than giving you over 3 hours in which to see what they've done and to possibly plan your own final bid of $11.55. Thanks for providing the link to the listing.

[campanaelia]

The price is not low, I watch tons of ram auctions, ram prices have come way down. I actually get them cheaper than this most of the times. This is high for me but I needed it now for a client. The seller won't cancel.

How do you not see what the bidder did?

They were tied at $10, came back and bid $11 at 1:28am. I  bid $11.01 at 1:53am, and at 11:58 the other bidder retracted their $11 bid dropping my bid to $10.50.

Then at 3am they bid again $11.05 because they knew already my max bid was $11.01.

[soh.maryl]

Why are you, an eBayer who is not inexperienced, nibble bidding?

[campanaelia]

I placed one bid, how is that nibble bidding?

[campanaelia]

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@nobody*s_perfect wrote:
In this case, if your opponent had any sense they would have waited and placed that bid for $11.05 as a snipe bid, rather than giving you over 3 hours in which to see what they've done and to possibly plan your own final bid of $11.55. Thanks for providing the link to the listing.

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The $11.01 was my max bid, the auction ends in less than an hour. I usually get these for $5-6 a stick.

[nobody*s_perfect]

I admire your strong will. I would be planning that $11.55 snipe just out of spite.

[mudshark61369]

@campanaelia,

"The $11.01 was my max bid, the auction ends in less than an hour. I usually get these for $5-6 a stick".

So why not bid $12.06  since you're saying you'd pay $6 per stick, a few minutes/seconds before the auction ends, Then if you lose you don't have to worry about it. You may even win with your current bid.  eBay for years has never enforced its rules about invalid bid retractions, but this doesn't even seem to fall within that category. After retracting the other person did raise their price.  Their bid history shows they have bid on many items, but only 2 out of all of them have made them the leading bidder in an auction.

[albertabrightalberta]

Why are we even having this conversation?

The listing is still active (at this moment 48 minutes left) and you should have waited to bid until the last few seconds! You still can win it. 

[campanaelia]

Because there is also $4.55 shipping fee, which brings the total cost for 2 to almost $16 now. That's $8 each in my book.

Oh and when they rebid they raised their bid by a whole 5 cents, just enough to be the highest bidder by pennies after they were losing by a penny.

[campanaelia]

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@albertabrightalberta wrote:

Why are we even having this conversation?

The listing is still active (at this moment 48 minutes left) and you should have waited to bid until the last few seconds! You still can win it. 

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That should not matter, what the bidder did was wrong, that is the topic. I don't want the item now.

[mudshark61369]

@campanaelia,

You replied to @albertabrightalberta :

"That should not matter, what the bidder did was wrong, that is the topic. I don't want the item now".

And I suppose you have never retracted a bid for an invalid reason? There are only 2 reasons ebay allows for retractions.

• The seller significantly changed the description of the item
• You accidentally bid the wrong amount. For example, you meant to bid $20, not $200. In this case, enter the price you intended to bid as soon as you've retracted the incorrect bid

[*lady*madonna*]

@campanaelia 

As far as I can tell, it is not the same bidder.

The retracter was 9***1, the  high bidder was 6***i (who was also first bidder on Mar. 9 @ $10.00).

[albertabrightalberta]

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@mudshark61369 wrote:

@campanaelia,

You replied to @albertabrightalberta :

"That should not matter, what the bidder did was wrong, that is the topic. I don't want the item now".

And I suppose you have never retracted a bid for an invalid reason? There are only 2 reasons ebay allows for retractions.

• The seller significantly changed the description of the item
• You accidentally bid the wrong amount. For example, you meant to bid $20, not $200. In this case, enter the price you intended to bid as soon as you've retracted the incorrect bid

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And that's exactly what the bid-retracter did. And he ended up winning the auction. Clearly, he wanted the item more than the OP did.