Am I getting Scammed?

[jet-screamer]

Hello,

Can someone can tell me what is happening?  Yesterday the the item I'm selling had 29 bids and was up to $112.51  Now today it shows 16 bids and it's back to it's starting bid price.  Only one bid has been retracted, which was a bid for $120.  After the $120 was retracted, why didn't the price go back to $112.51?  The bid history for the 16 bids is the same bidder and the bid amount is always $49 (see photo). Am I getting scammed somehow?  Thanks for any help.

[slippinjimmy · Accepted solution]

You have multiple bids but probably only two bidders, when one bidder retracted their bids you are left with one bidder so it goes back to the starting price until another bidder enters the picture.

At least you know know that the remaining bidder was willing to pay $112.52

You are NOT being scammed (at this point) and because there is still 5 days to go chances are another bidder will come along.

It's possible that the second bidder wanted to find out how high the first bidders proxy bid was. They may still come back at the last moment and outbid your current high bidder.

[nobody*s_perfect]

The bid amount showed as $112.51 because that was one bid increment above the second-highest bid.

When a bider retracts a bid, ALL of their bids are automatically retracted but the bid history only shows the amount of their highest bid.  If your listing previously showed 2 bidders and 29 bids, and now shows one bidder and 16 bids, then the missing 13 bids must have been placed by the bidder whose highest bid was $120.

This is not a scam, just a bidder behaving badly after outbidding his competitor. As noted in the other post, he might have just been trying to figure out what the other bidder's maximum was. If so, then placing 13 bids was a strange way to accomplish that, since he could have just started out with one really high bid (especially if he planned to retract it anyway).

[mudshark61369]

@jet-screamer,

slippinjimmy's answer is probably what happened. The second bidder bid until they found the current one's maximum bid then retracted all their bids. You should block that member, and I would call customer service and report them for Invalid bid retractions.  Below is a link to the policy, read through it and then use the Contact us button to report the violation.  Know one seems to know what if any action ebay will take, but at least you will have tried.

The sad thing is the current  bidder may see what happened, and decide YOU used a shill, and retract their bid.

https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/rules-policies-buyers/invalid-bid-retraction-policy?id=4227

[jet-screamer]

Thanks to all who replied.  I didn't realize all previous bids would be retracted if one bid is retracted.  Your explanations clarified the situation.  Thanks!

[a_c_green]

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@jet-screamer wrote:

Thanks to all who replied.  I didn't realize all previous bids would be retracted if one bid is retracted. 

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Sorry, that's not correct. If a bidder retracts one bid, his previous ones stay where they are. For example, see the bidding history page of my completed auction 333072610172 here: 

https://www.ebay.com/bfl/viewbids/333072610172?item=333072610172&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2565

The bidder with feedback of (35) posted a zillion bids in an effort to uncover the lead bidder's high bid, then backed down by retracting just his latest bid, but left the others in place. (This ended up having no effect on the outcome of the auction anyway, as they were both outbid by someone else at the end.) Information about his one retracted bid can be seen at the bottom of the Bid History page.

If the auction is still running, the seller has the option of cancelling a bidder, and if I remember right, that method can whack all that bidder's bids at once. Bidders themselves can retract individually.

In the case of this auction by the OP, that bidder had made only one bid; his competitor had pushed the price up with many incremental bids. When the leader retracted his bid, the competitor was left with no one to bid against, so the price collapsed back down to its opening level. 

Just out of curiosity: It would be interesting to know how many bid retractions this bidder has made in the past. Go to his feedback page and select the tab for Feedback as a Buyer. Look for the number of bid retractions on the right side of the page, about halfway down. Tell us what you find.