In message , sweetheart
wrote

Long story. I saw a plate ( there are four or five available in fact).
Five days ago I put a bid in for the asking price which was £4.99 .
Most of them are around that on e bay. This was the first to finish.

Most Ebay bids occur in the closing minutes of the auction and there are
mechanisms to increase the bid automatically up to the maximum you are
willing to pay.

Now I might have chalked that to experience except I then watched the
next three plates go down. Each time they went to this same buyer. He
( or she) is obviously a dealer!!!!!

Supply and demand. The dealer obviously thinks the product is worth more
than you have bid. Don't be fooled into thinking that Ebay is cheap
place to buy goods, it may be more a convenient place to buy the odd
item but watch the prices. I've regularly seen people in an auction pay
a lot more than the "buy it now" price offered by another seller.

I have put in a bid but I need to know how much is too much for a
dealer but not a rip off for me?

Are you by any chance the only bidder so far? Try next time to wait
until VERY near the end of the auction, put in a bid and then take up
Ebays offer for automatically increasing the bid (in 50p or £1
increments - the amount depends on the current price ) to the maximum
you are prepared to pay.

For instance if the starting bid is £4 and you indicate that you are
willing to pay up to £10 then anyone bidding less than £9 will be
immediately told that they have been outbid by you. If they only bid
£5.50 you would get it for £6 or £6.50. However if they have done the
same and their maximum bid is £10.50 they will win.


I wouldn't mind but this seems common now. I had a similar experience
with my aunts house that I have just put on the market. These dealers
and builders etc. are dishonest in that they pretend to be ordinary
buyers which looking into it they clearly are not.

Builders etc. are ordinary buyers.

--
Alan
news2009 {at} admac {dot} myzen {dot} co {dot} uk