I have been buying from sellers in China for years. This year almost every seller appears to begin their auctions showing a $1.00 bid by an anonymous bidder.
private listing - bidders' identities protected US $11.38 29 Sep 2019 at 6:53:20PM PDT rocklen60c7 US $10.88 1 Oct 2019 at 6:38:44PM PDT rocklen60c7 US $8.88 1 Oct 2019 at 6:38:31PM PDT private listing - bidders' identities protected US $1.00 25 Sep 2019 at 4:59:52PM PDT Starting Price US $0.01 24 Sep 2019 at 11:24:49PM PDT
When buyers bid the anonymous bids continue until the seller, apparently, gets the price they want and this is usually above retail value.
I contend that these sellers are rigging the auctions to their advantage. I have called this to the attention of eBay and they don't give a **bleep**.
Another problem are the Chinese sellers now who put very valuable items up for a "buy it now" at very low attractive prices. They post the same items on two or three accounts simultaneously. Sell all the items. Ship empty packages or with a cheap piece of junk inside, and take all the money and disappear, only to reopen later under an different disguise. Some post phoney tracking numbers.
These are very serious, illegal problems that eBay just does not address. At times hundreds of negative feedbacks show up and they just do nothing.
Ebay, once again, could care less as the bottom line is the drug that keeps them going....$$$$$$!!!
