Ebay Auctions and Dummy bidders

jigsaw wrote:... and there are the sellers who are not happy with the 'natural' bidding price, see it as too low, and then have a second account that will outbid any competition to save themselves from selling a bargain. i have seen some items magically appearing over and over again.

PrincessLime wrote:

jigsaw wrote:... and there are the sellers who are not happy with the 'natural' bidding price, see it as too low, and then have a second account that will outbid any competition to save themselves from selling a bargain. i have seen some items magically appearing over and over again.

i know someone who does this, she thinks its funny and brags it works easy. i dont think its fair. dont worry kaila u just have to outsmart them! hugs!

Aww thanks Lime and don't fret since I just won the auction Turned out to be a major anti climax (which is good for me), I was prepared to pay almost double the amount I actually got it for but it seemed all the other bidders were asleep or something so my bid in the final few seconds worked just fine.

Kudos to Jigsaw for the tip on this auction

Paul B wrote:I always bid as soon as I see something to the maximum that I am prepared to pay and then I leave it, if it goes over my max then I walk away from it.

Locomotive Annie wrote:
What does annoy me though is vendors who describe anything they're selling as being 'rare' when it's nothing of the sort and is if anything completely ordinary and commonplace.

timmyc1983 wrote:

Locomotive Annie wrote:
What does annoy me though is vendors who describe anything they're selling as being 'rare' when it's nothing of the sort and is if anything completely ordinary and commonplace.

This doesn't annoy me as much as the dummy bidding. At least if they say 'rare' and you know it isn't (cos you've done your research) you can scoff at them and move on to something more interesting

Maybe one day we'll have a retina scanner on all our computers, and if someone tries to have two accounts with the one ball they'll get in some sort of trouble.....

Great idea on the scanner I hate the 'rare' thing too! But even more so another pet peeve of mine is people who describe sets as 'perfect/complete' but guess what.. it's missing a plastic tray/lid/cover/instructions or the box itself.

So okay I know there's two camps on this debate but understand on this occasion I'm only speaking from a collectors point of view when I say I find it very annoying. If the seller includes a full set of pics to go along with the ad then it's forgivable but most don't - especially on BL - I mean how hard is it to put a link to brickshelf/flickr images of the set?

Whilst I was still using BL I had to send off tons of emails to every seller asking if the trays etc were included and could I see pics, such a pain. Barely bother with BL these days since you find nothing special that isn't horribly overpriced (there's your cue 'Brasletty' and 'Coincoinbrick', take a bow) OR guaranteed it's in rubbish condition with a torn up box or missing trays. Ebay is where the gems can still be found with regular everyday people digging Lego out of their attics or wherever and simply putting it up for auction.

Before anyone goes getting upset at my strong-ish comments please keep in mind I'm only referring to OLD Lego sets. For anything recent of course Ebay is a rip-off and BL is better. Also keep in mind it's just my own opinion and i'm not God so my methodology/thoughts certainly aren't infallible!