Fake Sellers on eBay

[Gigant]

Since Wingnut Wings went out of business, and the main hobby dealers no longer stock their kits, I thought I would pick up a kit of theirs while shopping on eBay for other old collectible kits.

 

So I bid on a few kits from one seller, based on my Burns Guide, "PAK-20", and offered fair prices for each.

 

After a short while, I get the notice that I was "out-bid" on two of them, one I did not care about, but the other I decided to look into.

An "alternate bidder", literally bid like 12 times, and drove his bid price up to nearly double!

I told this to a friend of mine, and he told me that it is a common practice on eBay for the seller to have a second account, or a buddy to drive the price up, to see if you will bite like fish.

So then I spot a WnW Bristol Fighter kit, and the guy starts at a fair price, not ridiculously low like some, or high like Rare Plane Detective who was starting out asking $777.00 for a Gotha G IV (of course they got no bids on it).

The next thing I know, I get a notice in my inbox, where the kit's price literally was driven up to nearly 2.5 times the starting price by a single "straw bidder"!

Just to see for myself, I checked on the bidder's history and in all of his history as an eBay member, his total bidding history was 100% on this seller's kits ONLY!

And since I wouldn't bite (I sent him a message telling I was not going to, and he responded by claiming he was not the "straw bidder"). He later that day claimed he sold the kit, and re-listed the SAME KIT later that day at the same starting price!

So I sent him a message telling I would buy it for a fair price, and he literally told me he would not sell it to me for any price.

So I reported him to eBay's service department and was told his refusal to sell at all was in violation of their policy.

The nice thing was is their associate had actual access to his rude message to me, and she duly reported it.

Edited March 22, 2021 by Gigant
Clarification

[Bill M.]

Bidding on your own EBay auctions to drive up the price is or has been viewed as fraud. A few years ago, some sellers engaged in that practice were prosecuted. I would suggest you report your suspicions to EBay— not that that’ll do anything...

Bill M.

[Gigant]

5 minutes ago, Bill M. said:

Bidding on your own EBay auctions to drive up the price is or has been viewed as fraud. A few years ago, some sellers engaged in that practice were prosecuted. I would suggest you report your suspicions to EBay— not that that’ll do anything...

Bill M.

Like I noted above, I did talk on the phone to eBay's representative, and she took her time in noting everything I had to say, where I pointed out the "straw bidder's" questionable history.

As well as fraud, according to the Federal Trade Commission, it is against the law to refuse to sell anything offered to the public to anyone who has the money.

[Panzerwomble]

Sadly after 17 years on eBay , my observation is the only thing they care about are their fees , and occasionally fake products if they get into the mainstream media attention .

 

Bid up your own auction increase the sale price ?...increase the fees payable to eBay  ... and they will object because ? 

 

Bit like the endless Chinese sellers pretending to be in your country ....order something........... it turns up 2 months later instead of a coupla days , the only person loosing out is you, and eBay don't care about that much either .... they still got paid .

 

Get messed around by some idiot on something you are selling ....can't leave bad feedback now ...again eBay still get their fees . 

 

I sell models on eBay , as do a few on here , and luckily have only been ripped off once with a seller claiming "damaged I want a full refund" with not eveidence  ....do eBay care....will they investigate or just auto refund  .......I sure you can guess the answer . 

 

eBay lost it way for me some years ago , and the fees are getting higher and higher compared to when I started, and it's becoming a "Yangste" rival with lower standards and service. 

Edited March 22, 2021 by Panzerwomble

[Bob MDC]

My vice is books, so my rule of thumb is check Abe books offer about 25-30% less than the Abe price and that's my limit.

 

Bob

[Jack]

FYI....I quit "evil bay" aaaaages ago, no way i'm going that way, absolutely not...........F*** them

[ScoobyDoo]

Not sure how you could see this, eBay blocks us from viewing who is bidding now. I used to see this all the time and people were obviously using second accounts to pump-up bids.

 

There is a way to kind of verify what you say, you can view the number of feedback a bidder has. You can match bids to that variable, but bidder user IDs are not visible.

 

The upsetting thing about this change is ebay obviously did this to protect the schill bidders.

 

 

Edited March 23, 2021 by ScoobyDoo

[Gigant]

10 hours ago, ScoobyDoo said:

Not sure how you could see this, eBay blocks us from viewing who is bidding now. I used to see this all the time and people were obviously using second accounts to pump-up bids.

 

There is a way to kind of verify what you say, you can view the number of feedback a bidder has. You can match bids to that variable, but bidder user IDs are not visible.

 

The upsetting thing about this change is ebay obviously did this to protect the schill bidders.

 

 

 

They identify the bidders by listing them while giving you abbreviated versions of their e-mail address with "***'s" in it to protect his/her privacy.

[williamj]

Was bidding on an MPH Walrus...same thing,reasonable price to start but then one bidder sent it way over,I bailed and ordered one directly from MPH.

saved about 150.00 as "apparently" that's what it went for over the retail price..It's just  silly and stupid. 

I couldn't see who bid it way over retail though,wanted to because it really seemed odd.

Edited March 23, 2021 by williamj

[GrahamF]

That's also the trouble of bidding early, I still don't know why people do it, it just wakes people up to bid against you and the more time you give the higher it will surely go.

if you left it to the last 7 or 8 seconds might be better.

I've also noticed fake or fraudulent sellers trying to sell a piece of machinery that clearly is in a college etc and they invariably want payment up front and have no track record. I've also kicked ebay into touch for selling my kits as over the years they were constantly changing the rules in their favour and getting above themselves, I've just closed my sellers account yesterday.

Graham 

Edited March 23, 2021 by GrahamF
More detail

[ziggyfoos]

Some cases it may be legit, some people afterall do go "stupid" with the must-win mentality.

Seen many auctions were two (or more) people incrementally bid against each other taking the price to the stratosphere and never see it relisted again so presumably it did sell.

I got to the point where I rarely deal with the auction format anymore and just look for "buy it now" listings rather than play the auction game.

 

[Out2gtcha]

EBay has now made "sniping" the only way to actually win auctions.

I too look for B.I.N. deals

[Rick Griewski]

I filter for buy it now listings.  There has been plenty to look at. I buy my ICM from the same man from Ukraine.  No issues with this process for years. 

[LSP_K2]

11 hours ago, Out2gtcha said:

EBay has now made "sniping" the only way to actually win auctions.

I too look for B.I.N. deals

 

Me too. BiN is the only option I choose.

[treker_ed]

I used eBay once and got stung - had to threaten the seller with legal action to get the kit for which I had won the auction (I also think a certain amount of self bidding from the other side was happening).

 

In the end, a month after I had paid for the kit, I finally got it through the post. I have never used it since. This was back in 2011/2012 when I first got back into modelling after my 20+ year hiatus.