Okay, so I bid on item that I really wanted...stuck in by best and max bid first 5 days from auction close (in hindsight should have done a snipe). Anyway the item price doubles went from $200 to $400, I'm outbid...fine no drama's, but it has exposed my max bid...no problem...

Anyway a few days later the below email comes in..I'm now the highest bidder and the previous bidder has retracted their bid...it has gone back to $200 where my first bid kicked in...

My issue with this, is that is surely shill bidding...and ebay is facilitating a method to do it for the seller....i.e Seller gets a mate (or even another of his own accounts) to bid and run the bidding up...in the process exposes the highest bid by legitimate buyer....then pulls out the dodgy bid...the seller now knows what the legitimate buyer has bid (I'm still committed to my highest bid) and can happily get someone to bid it back to that point just before the end of the auction!! 1800 Dodgy Ghey Bay... Hope this makes sense!! Have any of you experienced this before? What are your thoughts?


Dear eBay Community Member,
The following item, on which you placed a bid (item number) has had a bid retraction or cancellation, and you are now the high bidder. Congratulations! You can view the retraction/cancellation and the reason provided by selecting the (bid history) link from the individual item page. As a result of this retraction/cancellation, there is a possibility that the high bid amount and the current high bidder have changed. You can always view the current status of any item by going to the individual item page. (Be sure to refresh or reload the page to view the most up-to-date information.)

Regards,
eBay

Yep, someone's shill bidding and that sucks. I went through that a few years ago with an expensive DSLR camera on ebay. I ratted out the seller and he got booted. I would retract my bid, and for an explanation, add that the seller is bidding on his own junk. Then drop a dime on him to ebay. It's real easy for them to tell if someone's using a 2nd account. Mark my words, if you leave your bid in, you're going to own it just shy of your max bid.

Hey fred, thanks for your comments...I'm sure you are right...I'm just surprised that Ebay allows it! I'm actually surprised it doesn't happen all the time!

Just do what most people do, bid in the last minutes, that way it wont give the guy enough time to put and retract his fake bids..