BBQ gear from E-Bay merchant

[btcg]

Has anyone here had any experience ordering their gear on E-bay?

I just had an unusual experience. I wanted an original Veg-a Matic for chopping. My Mom had one when I was growing up, and the thing chopped stuff up wonderfully, especially potatoes for french fries,

So, I Googled it, and found one on E-Bay. This woman had it up for auction for .99 cents. It had been up for quite a while, and was a day or so from the auction on it expiring. No one was interested: no bids.

So, I bid $10.00. After doing so, I get this message from E-Bay that made me add another $10 to my bid: so now, it's at $20.00.

All of the sudden, there becomes a bidding war. These "phantom" bids got the item up into the mid $30 range. Me? I didn't bite. I never added more to my bid. The thing wasn't worth the $40 + shipping it would take to buy it.

So, E-Bay messages me and tells me I wasn't successful on my bid, but in the body of the e-mail, gives me a link to another merchant who has the same item, and guess what... I can buy it right now for $20.00.

So, I did. It should be here in a week or so.

But I'm suspicious. This seems all to convienient to me. There was only 1 available, I don't match the bids, then suddenly one becomes available for exactly what I was willing to pay.

Hmmmmmmmm.

[Sunra]

I just did a search on e-Bay for Veg O Matic and quite a few showed up
http://desc.shop.ebay.com/i.html?_nk...LH_TitleDesc=1

[Lake Dogs]

Being of programmer scum myself, it isn't too hard to write a screen scrape
program to automatically do that very thing. Then, set up a few user accounts,
and *voila* you have this. They then go back, look for your highest bid, and
then decide to sell it for that. *BAM*

They dont pay ebay commission either.

Be careful. Some of these are out to steal your money rather than sell you
the item(s).

[btcg]

Originally Posted by Sunra

I just did a search on e-Bay for Veg O Matic and quite a few showed up
http://desc.shop.ebay.com/i.html?_nk...LH_TitleDesc=1

Yep, did that myself, and got the very same results. All the more strange. First there are none, now there are a page full. Fishy, for sure.

[btcg]

Originally Posted by Lake Dogs

Being of programmer scum myself, it isn't too hard to write a screen scrape
program to automatically do that very thing. Then, set up a few user accounts,
and *voila* you have this. They then go back, look for your highest bid, and
then decide to sell it for that. *BAM*

They dont pay ebay commission either.

Be careful. Some of these are out to steal your money rather than sell you
the item(s).

I'm a programmer too. I agree, the merchant could have a conditional statement (probably a SELECT CASE that loads the correct Select * query from the merchant database)... but this would have to be server-side. And if you're correct, that means E-Bay is in on it. Makes sense, the more it sells for, the higher the commision, I assume.

Sounds like a crime.

[SuperQue]

I once lost out on an item only to have the seller come back and say that the winning bidder backed out and that I can have the item at my last bid. I saw right through this since I noticed that the winning bidder was also bidding on other similar items. It pays to notice who's bidding.

[btcg]

Originally Posted by SuperQue

I once lost out on an item only to have the seller come back and say that the winning bidder backed out and that I can have the item at my last bid. I saw right through this since I noticed that the winning bidder was also bidding on other similar items. It pays to notice who's bidding.

Yeah... I think you're right... and I'm sorry I got involved. Hope I get the Veg-A-Matic, as I did pay the $20 for it.

[Big Mike's BBQ]

I would report your suspisions to E-Bay. I ahad a friend do that one time and he got money back from the seller because E-Bay found that the seller was scamming people. They made them pay so they would not lose the right to sell their stuff.

Big Mike

[btcg]

Originally Posted by Big Mike's BBQ

I would report your suspisions to E-Bay. I ahad a friend do that one time and he got money back from the seller because E-Bay found that the seller was scamming people. They made them pay so they would not lose the right to sell their stuff.

Big Mike

I will. Thanx Mike!

[bbq lover]

if you payed with pay pal just do a fraud claim get your money back and be on the lookout for these sellers playin games

[1FUNVET]

Originally Posted by bbq lover

if you payed with pay pal just do a fraud claim get your money back and be on the lookout for these sellers playin games

What he said.

[lunchbox]

Originally Posted by bbq lover

if you payed with pay pal just do a fraud claim get your money back and be on the lookout for these sellers playin games

Yep, i buy stuff off ebay now and then. But when i do i ALWAYS pay with paypal. It protects your rear incase people try to scam you.

[The BBQ QB]

Originally Posted by btcg

After doing so, I get this message from E-Bay that made me add another $10 to my bid: so now, it's at $20.00.

btcg,

Of all the things you wrote, this is the most concerning. What made you add another $10.00?

There is only one person able to do that and it is you. Did you recieve a "You've been outbid" email in your "My EBAY" inbox? If so, it was legit. And nothing would have "made you" add another $10, other than your desire for the product.

As a matter of fact, that seller has a perfect 100% rating with over 1125 sales. In todays EBAY that is remarkable. I took a look at the bidding history and it looks fine.

The bidder who won, bid 3 days early with enough maximimum in his original bid to win the auction. This is not the traditional tactic with shill bidders, they will usually nibble away at your maximum until they beat it then retract the last bid.

The after auction email you recieved is a standard EBAY sales tool. Again, if it arrived in your "My EBAY" inbox as well as your re-direct email acct then it was also legit. This tool will use "Like" logic, not the the spelling you use for the search.

As for your search criteria explanation. There is no such a thing as a Veg-A-Matic, However, there are 47 current listings for Veg-O-Matic and 69 completed sales for the same going back to January 25th.

I see no fraud from the original auction at all.

Mike D

[NeoTrout]

The most important rule, as always is, Caveat emptor (LET THE BUYER BEWARE). You cant get ripped off unless you let them. Know what your buying and what its worth.

[Grillman]

Originally Posted by SuperQue

I once lost out on an item only to have the seller come back and say that the winning bidder backed out and that I can have the item at my last bid. I saw right through this since I noticed that the winning bidder was also bidding on other similar items. It pays to notice who's bidding.

This was probably normal. I have bought and sold many things on E-Bay
and E-Bay always sends me a message that I can offer the item to the
next highest bidder if the winner doesn't pay.

Some people also bid on the same item from different sellers and back out
of all but the cheapest winning bid.

But; if you really think something fishy was going on...go ahead on notify
E-Bay and they can check it out and ban somebody if they are crooked.