Is there recourse for a bid retraction in violation of rules - suspect manipulation

[bergy88]

Item in auction format with no BIN option (my mistake). Similar items seem to sell for $400 - $500.

With one hour left in auction leading bid is $330.

48 min before end of auction bidder X bids $555 - an unreasonably high bid. Bidder X has a couple of negative comments in their history about bid manipulation and non-payment.

46 min before end of auction Bidder Y (who has never bid on this item before) bids $560, leading auction

Because $560 is an unreasonably high bid, no other action takes place in the last hour in spite of a lot of watchers - my experience (limited by eBay standards) has been that that is when the action is.

Within the last minute of the auction bidder Y retracts their bid without entering a new bid, using the reason “bid wrong amount”. Winning bid rolls back to $335 for bidder X. Bidder X saves significantly from the typical value for the item.

Bidder Y has a an activity number between 50-100, and no negative comments

Both bidder X and bidder Y live in the same state.

Questions for the community - thanks in advance for any guidance:

1. After searching fo an hour, I have found no recourse to report bidder Y for failing to follow eBay policy that an erroneously placed bid must be corrected within 2 hours AND replaced with a correct bid. Is there a way? Does it go on their record somehow?

2. Seems suspicious that bidder Y knew to bid exactly $5 more than the max bid by bidder X, and knew to retract their bid with less than a minute to go. Is there a way to report such suspicions?

[hartungcards]

Wait.  If I'm understanding this right, the current high bid on this item was still showing as $335 when the auction ended, right?  Only you know what their "unreasonably high bids" were, right?  So how did this keep other people from bidding?

Anyway, kudos on your $335 sale.

[nobody*s_perfect]

This looks like an example of "Bid shielding," in which two bidders collude to artificially lower the final bid by placing two high bids and then retracting one of them at the last minute. Unfortunately, eBay has no apparent penalty for inappropriate bid retractions; we have seen bidders who have scores or even hundreds of bid retractions on their bidder profile.

[chapeau-noir]

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@bergy88 wrote:

Item in auction format with no BIN option (my mistake). Similar items seem to sell for $400 - $500.

With one hour left in auction leading bid is $330.

48 min before end of auction bidder X bids $555 - an unreasonably high bid. Bidder X has a couple of negative comments in their history about bid manipulation and non-payment.

46 min before end of auction Bidder Y (who has never bid on this item before) bids $560, leading auction

Because $560 is an unreasonably high bid, no other action takes place in the last hour in spite of a lot of watchers - my experience (limited by eBay standards) has been that that is when the action is.

Within the last minute of the auction bidder Y retracts their bid without entering a new bid, using the reason “bid wrong amount”. Winning bid rolls back to $335 for bidder X. Bidder X saves significantly from the typical value for the item.

Bidder Y has a an activity number between 50-100, and no negative comments

Both bidder X and bidder Y live in the same state.

Questions for the community - thanks in advance for any guidance:

1. After searching fo an hour, I have found no recourse to report bidder Y for failing to follow eBay policy that an erroneously placed bid must be corrected within 2 hours AND replaced with a correct bid. Is there a way? Does it go on their record somehow?

2. Seems suspicious that bidder Y knew to bid exactly $5 more than the max bid by bidder X, and knew to retract their bid with less than a minute to go. Is there a way to report such suspicions?

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I believe the $5 is simply the proxy bid increment, not necessary exactly what that person bid.

The rest sounds sus, yes.

[ebooksdiva]

You can report the buyer but since that buyer only bid once, then retracted, eBay probably won't do anything because the policy says repeatedly bidding then retracting.

It's purely a coincidence that the buyer who retracted and the bidder that won because of the retraction are in the same state. It's not uncommon for multiple buyers from the same state to bid on auctions. 

[albertabrightalberta]

What you've described is bid shielding. 

It's (kind of) the opposite of shill bidding. 

In bid shielding, a wannabe buyer works with a friend who bids up the price to a point that others will back out. Then when the high bid is retracted by the friend, the buyer gets the item at the lower price.

Bid shielding is not allowed per ebay policy. 

https://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia/term/bid-shielding

"An illegitimate way to preserve a low bid in an online auction. It takes three people. The first places a low bid and the other two immediately bid high and keep bidding higher, which is intended to eliminate all other interested parties. At the last minute, the two high bidders drop out, and the low bidder wins by default. If you recognize the names of bid shielding bandits, the auction site may be able to let you reject their bids."

[nobody*s_perfect]

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@hartungcards wrote:

Wait.  If I'm understanding this right, the current high bid on this item was still showing as $335 when the auction ended, right?  Only you know what their "unreasonably high bids" were, right?  So how did this keep other people from bidding?

Anyway, kudos on your $335 sale.

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The questionable bid retraction happened just 3 seconds before the auction ended; for nearly an hour before that. the high bid showing was $560. And since that's an unreasonably high price for the item, nobody bid against them.  

Here's a link to the bid history, where you can compare he auction start time (12:56:04pm PST) against the exact time that the questionable bid was retracted (1:56:01pm PDT, and hour "later" due to daylight saving).

https://www.ebay.com/bfl/viewbids/145644967941?item=145644967941&rt=nc&_trksid=p4429486.m145235.l256...

[nobody*s_perfect]

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@chapeau-noir wrote:

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@bergy88 wrote: ... 

2. Seems suspicious that bidder Y knew to bid exactly $5 more than the max bid by bidder X, and knew to retract their bid with less than a minute to go. Is there a way to report such suspicions?

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I believe the $5 is simply the proxy bid increment, not necessary exactly what that person bid.

The rest sounds sus, yes.

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Yes, the bid increment is $5, so the high bid would have shown as $360 even if that bid had been much higher.  But tracking down the bid history shows that the retracted bid was indeed exactly $360.

[nobody*s_perfect]

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@albertabrightalberta wrote: ...

Bid shielding is not allowed per ebay policy. 

https://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia/term/bid-shielding

"An illegitimate way to preserve a low bid in an online auction. It takes three people. The first places a low bid and the other two immediately bid high and keep bidding higher, which is intended to eliminate all other interested parties. At the last minute, the two high bidders drop out, and the low bidder wins by default. If you recognize the names of bid shielding bandits, the auction site may be able to let you reject their bids."

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Bid shielding on eBay requires only two bidders and one very high bid from each.  Then one of them retracts at the last minute, leaving the other bidder as the winner at one bid increment above the new second-highest bidder, who is probably just an innocent bystander and valid bidder.  

Bid shielding used to happen more on eBay before they instituted the policy which constrains retractions during the final 12 hours of an auction.

[albertabrightalberta]

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@nobody*s_perfect wrote:

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@albertabrightalberta wrote: ...

Bid shielding is not allowed per ebay policy. 

https://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia/term/bid-shielding

"An illegitimate way to preserve a low bid in an online auction. It takes three people. The first places a low bid and the other two immediately bid high and keep bidding higher, which is intended to eliminate all other interested parties. At the last minute, the two high bidders drop out, and the low bidder wins by default. If you recognize the names of bid shielding bandits, the auction site may be able to let you reject their bids."

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Bid shielding on eBay requires only two bidders and one very high bid from each.  Then one of them retracts at the last minute, leaving the other bidder as the winner at one bid increment above the new second-highest bidder, who is probably just an innocent bystander and valid bidder.  

Bid shielding used to happen more on eBay before they instituted the policy which constrains retractions during the final 12 hours of an auction.

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I C&P'ed that quote from another source, but in post #6, I described how it works with 2 people: 
"In bid shielding, a wannabe buyer works with a friend who bids up the price to a point that others will back out. Then when the high bid is retracted by the friend, the buyer gets the item at the lower price."

[albertabrightalberta]

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@nobody*s_perfect wrote:

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Bid shielding used to happen more on eBay before they instituted the policy which constrains retractions during the final 12 hours of an auction.

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Per the OP: "Within the last minute of the auction bidder Y retracts their bid without entering a new bid, using the reason “bid wrong amount”

What I don't understand is how the bidder was able to retract a bid within the last minute.

[dbfolks166mt]

     When it comes to cell phones nothing really surprises me. Unfortunately you have limited recourse other than to block both buyers, I suspect they are on a number of lists already. You could cancel the sale and take the ding for out of stock and sell the phone elsewhere. You are basically in a suburb of Atlanta GA try several local forums. 

[nobody*s_perfect]

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@albertabrightalberta wrote: ....

What I don't understand is how the bidder was able to retract a bid within the last minute.

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During the final 12 hours of an auction, a bid can be retracted only within one hour of being placed.  The retracted bid met that requirement.

[bergy88]

I knew the sequence because i received an alert onnthe $560 bid, which showed the bids it exceeded. Once the $560 bid was retracted it was not possible to see the bid between $335 and $555

 and yes I got $355 which is not bad. But I don't like to be cheated if that is what happened

[bergy88]

That makes sense. Still bidding anything $560 and above in this instance did not make sense