Ebay: What are people thinking??

[mywaynow]

Had an item on my watch list that went off today. I can't believe what people are paying for this auction. A powerhead only 346xp that was blown up with little time on it and rebuilt. End cost with shipping was 405.00. Go buy a bar and chain and you have almost gotten to the cost of a new, warrantied saw. Don't know what they are thinking. The place I bought my last Husky is at 499 with 16 inch bar and spare chain, shipped. That is a no brainer.

 

[Stlshrk]

It sounds like somebody got caught up in the bidding. It can be fun, but it is more fun to get a good deal...

 

[DanCorcoran]

Might be the owner, just trying to jack up the price...

 

[Thistle]

You can tell that if the bidder & seller have the same name though,Ebay dont allow 1 person to have more than 1 account.Even 2 different email or street addresses they will deny since your real name etc is on file.

 

[blel]

You can only find this out after the auction is over as they code the bidders name during the auction. I wouldn't be surprised if it happens though (seller bidding up the price). I've seen some strange bidding on ebay for whatever reason.

 

[rwhite]

It's not that hard to get your buddy. kid, or wife to up the bid.

 

[KarlP]

Ebay dont allow 1 person to have more than 1 account.Even 2 different email or street addresses they will deny since your real name etc is on file.

I have three.

 

[ScotO]

I will say one thing that I have noticed on ebay. Back in the day, when you could see who the bidder was during the auction (no longer can you do this) alot of the bidders running the bids up on some of the newer logging saws were from California, were they bidding on saws from different regions to get a more powerful saw than you can buy in California? I don't know if that was the case, but either way they were running the bids up to OUTRAGEOUS prices, not sure if it still that way but at one time it was. you gotta be careful and do your homework before buying on ebay, easy to get burned on a saw (it happened to me more than once).

 

[ScotO]

Might be the owner, just trying to jack up the price...

Dan, at one time "shill bidding" (the term for what you described) was a really bad problem and ebay went after those that did such bidding. But I am sure that people have found ways around that (like maybe having a friend or relative in another area) run up bids on items for them. I feel I was burned more than once with that happening to me. There was no reserve on an item, I got into a bidding 'war' with someone over it, ended up I quit because I felt my max value had been met on said item. So the other bidder won the item. Next thing you know, I get an email (literally that SAME DAY) from the seller saying that the winner of the auction backed out and he wanted to give me a second chance on the item for my max bid. NO WAY!! That was one of the setups that I mentioned above. Someone ran that bid up for the seller, and was trying to get me to second chance purchase it for my max bid. Needless to say I turned them into ebay and they must have been repeat offenders, because they were kicked off. So as a rule of thumb, if you suspect you are being scammed on ebay, make sure to turn the seller in because ebay will have a record of any activity like that.

 

[MasterMech]

Occasionally the buyer is located overseas (Jamaica is a popular destination) and are willing to pay what we'd consider ridiculous prices. Often times the equipment is purchased by a liaison here in the States and shipped out.