Sellers have to be running up bids on alternate accounts...

[belowm49]

I am getting tired of this. I am seriously wasting so much time trying to win items worth $200 plus that are used only for them to sell at most 10-15$ less than if I were to buy it new. And a lot of the time even seeing the auction sell for more than it costs to buy it new. Also, seeing the same exact items go up for sale again by the same seller a few days later. I mean who bids on an auction of an item without first checking what said item costs new and used???NO ONE DOES THAT. Anyone buying something does at least a little research first. They certainly wouldn't pay more for the same item used instead of buying it new. Now I am seriously convinced that some sellers are doing this. And they re-list these items because they accidentally put in one too many bids and end up having to re-do the auction. It makes me sick and each day I am losing more and more of my faith in society in pretty much any aspect of my life. Am I the only honest forthcoming person left in the world? Is there anything in this world that isn't ruined and taken advantage of???? 

[whattheactualfox]

So from that I take it you don't like how the prices are a little more then buying from the big box store. As a seller the only reason I would mark up my items a little is to make ends meet.

Item cost-Price sold = Profit in my book.

[belowm49]

Not at all. It's simply ridiculous to think that someone is really paying more for an item that's used instead of buying it new. And seeing that same item go back up sale a few days later presumably because the buyer never paid. Funny how that always happens. Maybes it's the buyers, maybe it's the sellers. Either way it's ridiculous for everyone because I intend to actually pay for the items, not just run up peoples bids because I'm a garbage person and have nothing better to do. It's easy for anyone to make a new ebay account even after their's was banned or flagged. The system is broken.

[vintagecraze50]

What an item is worth to you may be worth a lot more to someone who really wants it. Some may bid extremely high and then back out and if they do this too many times they loose their privilege to bid.

[belowm49]

The items that I am bidding on are in stock everywhere and are actually sold here new on Ebay as well. The items I am talking about aren't things that hold sentimental value. I can see if it was something one off or hard to find, but it's something that can be had just about anywhere. And like I said, maybe it's not sellers, could be the buyers, but what real consequences do you have for continually running up auctions on items and winning but not paying? What they suspend your account? Make a new one and use a website like Privacy to make a temporary credit/debit card or even a brand new paypal account. It's not hard for anyone to run up their own auctions on a side account. It's really not and honestly I can understand why people do it. Times are tough right now, but it makes it really hard for people like me who actually want to buy an item and maybe save a few bucks. I have no incentive to even try to bid on auctions because every single one gets bid to within 10$ of the items price new. 

[whattheactualfox]

Well what I can tell you is that sellers can price their items however much they want to, and if people bid on it, that's good. At the end of the day, there's always other items out there at different prices.

[laperlalady]

How people shop has changed dramatically with the pandemic. 

If you want something bad enough...you will pay the price. 

If you don’t like the price and can get it cheaper somewhere else...then obviously you aren’t going to purchase. 

[di-264286]

No, you are not.  I totally understand your frustration.  There is a lot of unsavory stuff that goes on, and I think honest sellers also have problems with fraudsters.  

[kathiec]

What you're referring to is called shilling. While it does happen, it happens far less than most people think. And there are many reasons a seller might relist an item -- he has more than one, the buyer doesn't pay, the buyers asks to cancel. 

Where you err here is in thinking that everyone bids the way you do. There are countless people who do indeed bid without researching items. In fact is it almost certain that far more of the discrepancies you see are caused by ignorant buyers than dishonest sellers. It takes all kinds to make a world, not just your kind.

If there's a particular listing that you think shows signs of shilling, post the number here. We can tell you whether it shows any of the signs.

[tigercatt-16]

I can understand your frustration and all but if you are truly “losing faith in society and pretty much any aspect of your life” perhaps you should take a step back and put things in perspective.

It’s just Ebay. They are just auctions. It’s just some sellers. It’s not lifesaving medicine you’re buying that only one seller has. 

If I get a bad vibe from a seller here I move on. It’s not life or death.

Seriously, take a deep breath and calm down. Find another seller. If you can’t find it here or you don’t like the price look elsewhere. Don’t stress out over this. Life is too short.

Take care!

[mudshark61369]

@belowm49,

  "I am getting tired of this. I am seriously wasting so much time trying to win items worth $200 plus that are used only for them to sell at most 10-15$ less than if I were to buy it new. And a lot of the time even seeing the auction sell for more than it costs to buy it new".

Depending on what you are trying to buy, there could be a couple of reasons why a used item may sell for close to or more than a new item.  Often older versions are made with better materials than new "improved" ones. Many items these days are not being produced in the quantities they were before Covid, because there is a lack of components due to supply chain interruptions.  That can lead to higher prices for used ones.

  "I mean who bids on an auction of an item without first checking what said item costs new and used???NO ONE DOES THAT. Anyone buying something does at least a little research first. They certainly wouldn't pay more for the same item used instead of buying it new". 

You would not believe how many people post on these boards saying they didn't read the whole listing before buying an item, much less checking to see what the trending price is.  Some look at a photo and buy without reading anything.  Others buy things without doing any kind of research to find out if it will fit their needs or will work with something they already own.

 "Sellers have to be running up bids on alternate accounts...   Now I am seriously convinced that some sellers are doing this".

What  @kathiec  wrote is true. Often buyer behavior looks like shill bidding when it is not.   There are some people who place what is known as a nuclear bid, one so high they think no one will bid anywhere near that price.  Then some one else comes along and does the same thing, leaving the winner two choices, pay way too much for the item or not.   Other people get caught up in bidding wars, and bid more than they should, then want to cancel after winning.  Others win auctions then see the item listed for less and want to cancel.

 A seller using a shill account is not as easily done as you may think. If a seller is having to cancel auctions because their shill keeps winning then cancelling, ebay does take notice.  It also means that before the seller can't re-list the item. They have to wait until they are cleared by ebay to do that.  

FYI,  as a new member you are going to have limits on how much you can spend or how many items you can buy at any one time. The link below explains that. What is not explained in the link is what are known as open transactions.

Open transactions are;

1. Items you've committed to buy but haven't paid for yet.
2. Bids placed on auction(s) that have not ended.  All bids place on auctions are active until an auction ends even if you are outbid.
   
3. Offers on listings that have not expired. Most last 48 hours unless a buyer chooses a shorter time frame, or the auto accept/decline feature takes action.
4. You are allowed 4-5 open transactions at any one time. That is a rolling number that as an item is paid for, an auctions ends and you lose or win and pay, or offers expire or are accepted and paid for, roll over to be used again.

You can burn through open transactions when bidding on an auction if you get into a bidding war quickly. The best way to bid on an auction is to place 1 bid for the most you are willing to pay for an item + S&H, and to place that bid late in the auction so others have less time to react. That's called automatic bidding and how it works is described in the 2nd link below.

https://www.ebay.com/help/buying/buying-limits/buying-restrictions?id=4012

https://www.ebay.com/help/buying/bidding/bidding?id=4003

  " I am losing more and more of my faith in society in pretty much any aspect of my life. Am I the only honest forthcoming person left in the world? Is there anything in this world that isn't ruined and taken advantage of?"

If you spend a lot of time on social media, reading blogs or watching, reading, listening to the news. You might not think so.  Bad news is what pays the bills, and good or uplifting news is pretty much ignored. So it is easy to get a jaundiced view of the world.

[woodland_gnome]

What you are suspecting is called SHILLING:

It is illegal.

It is against the rules.

It is impossible to do so with the selling ID, and eBay also blocks bids from other accounts that it has tagged as being associated with the seller account (including some accounts that have been wrongly tagged as such, at least according to those who have posted here after having been so blocked).

eBay also investigates reports of shill bidding (there is a Report item link on each listing, and "Seller is using other accounts to inflate item price" is in the menu it leads to) to some extent and has other software in place to try to find shill bidders and does take action against them, though this is shrouded in secrecy so we have no idea how succesful it is.

Further, when a seller wins his/her own listing, s/he is stuck with having to pay the Final Value Fee (usually 10% of the winning price) on the sale to him/herself, unless s/he uses the Transaction Cancellation or the Unpaid Item Dispute to get that FVF refunded, and while I'm not 100% sure that's something eBay's shill-detecting algorithms take into account (perhaps less so now that the buyer doesn't have to agree), it's something I would be worried about if I were less than honest but fearful of consequences.

But it still happens, more often than it should and less often than it is suspected by some (most posters coming here suspicious of a particular auction turn out to be misunderstanding how bidding works, how bid history is displayed, or how other legitimate people might bid). Trying to decide how to bid based on clues that may or may not be accurate is an exercise in futility: if you set your level of suspicion required to act (not bid) high, you'll get false negatives and you open yourself up to being shilled by that seller; if low, you'll get a lot of false positives, and miss out on some good deals, in the middle and you'll get a mixture of false postives and false negatives so it's still unreliable.

The best way to protect yourself against shilling is to wait until the last minute to place your true maximum bid, which you have calculated (ideally hours or days before; I recommend using a "snipe service" to place the bid--there are reliable and secure free ones) without regard to the prior bidding on the item. If you don't let prior shill bids affect YOUR bid amount, and you don't give the shiller time to probe YOUR bid to base HIS bid on the amount of yours, the price you pay if you win will be based on a legitimate underbid or on the seller's true minimum within an increment or so.

[releasethekraken_1]

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@belowm49 wrote:

I mean who bids on an auction of an item without first checking what said item costs new and used???NO ONE DOES THAT.

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On eBay, lots of people do that. As in millions of people.

[goatlyones_2]

This is a question about seller shill-bidding in his own auctions, I think. Of course, that's going to happen once in a while, and it should be grounds for expulsion from eBay and for legal action against the seller for fraud. The door to the jail should open wide for the offender, and then slam shut hard upon his heels! But I don't think that shill-bidding happens much. Most eBay auctions are fairly run.

[belowm49]

I appreciate the kind words. I am merely getting stressed out. I'll try to implement some of your strategies and hopefully win some items because I've been trying and trying and I simply can't seem to catch a break. I guess I am just not willing to pay almost full priced value for something that is considered used when I can spend 5-10$ more and get it new. Sorry, but it's simply absurd. And maybe more sellers should accept offers as well, especially being that you can set the minimum offer you will accept so as to avoid low ball offers. IDK if I could handle being a seller due to the fact that people simply bid on things with no intention of actually paying that much and are simply butt hurt that someone bid more then what they were going to. Not saying these people do this all the time, but I guarantee people make alternate accounts covering their tracks simply to bid up the person who outbid them. I am telling you it's happened. Being bid on by accounts who have bought 1 item or even no items. Anyways rant done. Thanks for the input