On Mon, 16 Feb 2009 19:18:26 -0800 (PST), "
wrote:

Today I watched auctions and bid on auctions for mill accessories.

a) I bid $1250, the winner bid $1275
b) I bid $10, the winner bid $10.50
c) I bid $20, the winner bid $52
d) I bid $100, the winner bid $107
e) I bid $255, the winner bid $260
f) I bid $30, the winner bid $31
g) I bid $10, the winner bid $36
h) I bid $10, the winner bid $11
i) I bid $66, the looser bid $47.98, causing me to pay $48.99

In all 9 auctions, I was the first to bid, or bid several multiples of
the existing high bid.

Most watched auctions end without any bids.

So why in all cases does another bidder appear if I bid?

Could it be the seller has another identity to shill up the price?

There's a whole bunch of reasons - most likely the "another bidder
appears" is a bid placed through a monitoring proxy bidding service.
The original one was eSnipe, there have to be others by now.

If nobody bids on the item, the eSnipe program charges in in the
last thitry seconds and bids the minimum to get past the reserve, or a
ridiculously low price if there's no reserve. And if there's another
bidder or sniper out there, the programs can fight it out till time is
up or limits are reached.

Item I: When you put in your max bid of $66, you probably placed an
immediate one of $20 or $30. They tried sniping till they hit the
other buyer's limit of $48, and when you notched over their limit by
going to $48.99 the program hit it's stop point of $48 and let you
have it.

And some sellers gladly shill the hell out of their own auctions, even
though it's against the rules. Because they have maybe $10 invested
in an item worth $100 "Street Price" - but the MSRP List Price is $200
and some people don't question it.

It's worth the risk to shill up the price if they can get some sucker
that doesn't know what the item is worth to pay $200 or more for it...

Worst case the shill goes past your limit, and the seller has to "Buy
it from themselves" to complete the illusion and eat the fees. But
they can give themselves positive feedback, so it isn't all bad.

And now you know why I stay far, far away. Den of thieves. If
their worst fault was only "Honest Al Babin" I'd deal there, at least
he was easy to spot.

-- Bruce --