Ripoff Ebay

<p>Today I bid on a nikon f3 with 2 lenses,35mm 28mm. and I...I had high bid on the screen and I counted it down till 0 sec my bid waw $275 hi bidsaid in email hay stay in you've got the high bid,but when it hit "0" my screen went down and I lost the bid, so I called ebay they said sometimes there's a hidden bider. I said why wasn't his bid on the screen . Ebay said i was highest bidder, but the camera went to someone who bis $374.14 how can that be it's an auction not a stet up. there was no reserve. He said it came with two lenses 35mm 28mm,but picture showed at least a 50mm. i messeged him and asked what was up with that? he said "it comes with 2 lenses"<br>

i counted down to "0" and nobody entered a bid bit the winning bid was $374.14??? why would someone jump that high when they could have hit $300. but there was no time. I clearly won. ebay said they get a lot of there complaints. Come on, its suposed to be an auction not a set up where his brother or he could out bid the hell out of the high bid (too low for him) but there was no time on the clock. has anyone experienced this kind of bullshit? Ebay gave me the run around. it's joke, how can you win a camera with a decent price without getting shafted?</p>

<p>1) take two quarters and go phone someone who cares........</p>

<p>2) build a bridge and get over it...........</p>

<p>3) don't waste p.net Nikon forum space with an issue that relates to your perceptions of a scam / dodgy eBay auction or otherwise</p>

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<p>Subject: Ripoff Ebay</p>

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<p>If you did not pay for the auctioned item then how do you consider yourself ripped off. There are plenty more F3's out there. If someone wants to outbid you , be it at the very last moment allowable under eBay's rules then that indicates the market price of the item...... if you don't like the price don't buy it.....</p>

<p>I had this happen to me in the UK some time ago.Lost out at the last few seconds.After the auction ended I got an email from the seller saying the winner had backed out and he was giving me a "second chance offer".It is a known fact that some sellers have some friend place a higher bid just to put the price up.It is just a chance you have to take.There are some rouges out there.</p>

<p>Sorry everyone, I am new at photograpy and was trying to get an inexpensive camera. Didn't mean to ruffle your sensibilities.<br>

Regards<br>

Jay</p>

<p>There is no "ripoff", just your lack of understanding how it works.</p>

<p>In last few seconds of bidding there are too many bid submissions for the server to handle and update your screen instantly. All bids are in a queue, not being able to process that fast.<br>

Once it is over, the highest bidder wins. It is that simple. No fraud, no wrong doing.</p>

 

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<p><em>"There is no "ripoff", just your lack of understanding how it works...Once it is over, the highest bidder wins. It is that simple."</em></p>

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<p>Exactly. You got outbid by a last second snipe bidder. There is no fraud. There is no scam. There is nothing fishy going on. Someone was will to pay more than you were for the auction. In actual fact for that particular auction (which I happened to be watching), there were *FOUR* people willing to pay more than $275 and they all bid within the final few seconds, which is why the closing bid jumped to $373.14.</p>

<p>You lost. Next time bid the maximum amount you are willing to pay. If nobody else is willing to bid more than you, you will win. It's that simple.</p>

<p>Take Matthew Brenan's #2 advice above.</p>

<p>This is one of the many reasons why I do not ever ever ever buy something on an eBay auction. Too annoying. There are other places to find a good camera, like the classifieds here which, although occasionally littered with some scam artists, has served me well both buying and selling. Adorama and KEH are also pretty good for used gear, and I've had some good luck with georgeury.com.</p>

Frank has it right. I've worked at a company that holds several US patents on the types of activity that

can happen as an auction comes to it's closing time. It's far more complex than it may appear on the

surface. I don't know ebay specifically does.

 

That said, this is a known part of the game with auctions. Generally, the auction house (ebay in this

case) fees make it difficult for people to benefit from having "friendly" bidders drive the price up. If they

get stuck with it, they still pay the fees and end up owning what they already owned. Now they have to

incur more fees to list and sell the item. I guess if you have a enough time, you might be able to figure

out how to make this work in your favor but it's pretty risky.

 

Finally, the number one rule in auctions is do not get emotionally involved in the transaction. Find the

maximum price that you are willing to pay for the product and don't bid one cent above that. I always win

this way.

 

Good luck.

--Wade

<p>2 words.</p>

<p>auction. sniper.</p>

<p>Lets just say that you were prepared to enter what would have been the winning bid seconds before the auction's end and your internet service goes out or your power goes out, is that also eBay's fault?</p>

<p>Snipe programs are available to everyone. So the playing field is level. You can also enter your maximum bid at any time before the auction ends. Although this is not the best way to get the lowest price, you are covered as far as your maximum bid being placed.</p>

 

<p>What happened to the first F3 you were writing about? Was it nonfunctional? But anyway, the snipers are annoying but they're just other bidders who use a tactic of getting their bid in at the last possible moment, on the theory that this will catch other bidders unawares, and they won't respond with bids, which would drive the price up. This probably worked in the old days when one might be the only sniper on a particular auction, but now when everybody's doing it it's just annoying. What I do is, when my iPhone eBay program gives me an item ending alert for something on my watch list that I want to bid on, which is 15 minutes before the auction ends, I bid the amount I'd be willing to pay for it, then ignore it until an email about whether or not I won.</p>

Here's a very recent thread with a link to an article my me about how to buy on eBay, with some other useful advice added by others.

 

http://www.photo.net/casual-conversations-forum/00ZKbv

 

As already said in this thread, you should use a sniping service.

<p>That's called sniping. It is the best way to e-bay, wait until 2 seconds left and then place your highest bid. I hated it at first, then I understood why.</p>

<p><br />I remember when I collected special old lightbulbs off ebay, but I wasn't the only one. When one came up for sale I would place my bid and the other guy would place his. Then, I would mull over it for some time and decide it was worth more so I would up my bid andbe highest. He would then mull, and up his until he was highest. Back and forth, back and forth we went convincing ourselves the item was worth more or we had to have it. Then, he started sniping. I would place my bid and he stopped placing his. I watched it and 2-3 seconds left bang he won the bid! That infuriated me, especially since he got it much cheaper and I didn't have time to respond. This happened a few times, and finally I understood THAT is the best way to e-bay. You don't give your opponents time to think about it, mull over it, and then decide it's worth more than they originally thought and up their bids so you now have to pay more if you want it.<br /><br />If you want to e-bay, the cheapest way is to wait until the last 2-3 seconds and bid as much as you want to pay for it and fully expect there are others waiting for the last 2-3 seconds. I can't tell you how many times I've seen something jump from $99 to $350+ in the last few seconds when 7-10 people snipe.</p>

<p>There is no shortage of F3's on ebay, just try again. If you have no patience for that, buy from KEH - their F3 body in bargain condition is $180 -$190.</p>

<p>You are probably new to auctions and don't have a full understanding of how they work. Many serious buyers use auction sniping software where they can enter a bid hours or days in advance and that bid isn't executed until the last second or two before the end of the auction. People who are bidding against that type of software can't possibly manually keep up with the bidding process. It doesn't guarantee you will win the auction, but it significantly improves the odds in your favor. Anyway...chalk it up to experience. There are lots of other opportunities to get the camera of your dreams. I usually do my research on completed auctions, KEH, etc to determine a fair price for the condition of an item, and sometimes need to enter 5-6 auctions to get what I want at a fair price (I do use sniping software). OTOH, if you have lots of money....just enter a high bid and you'll usually get what you want.</p>

<p>Most all of my photo gear has come from eBay and I've had no problems. I'm talking thousands and thousands of dollars worth of stuff. For most of my really old historical equipment such as 1860 Petzval, 1875 Petzval, and 1885 tailboard camera, eBay is about the only regular source I know of. If I really want something bad, I will put a bid of triple what I think it's worth. That always seems to circumvent the last second guys, but I have had to pay some big bucks twice. Otherwise, for common stuff like a Nikon F3, just simply be patient. Eventually you will catch one at a good price. As for the guy not seeming to know what lenses he had, that isn't all that uncommon. I don't like buying from those sorts of people if I can help it, unless the item is very rare and I got some basic questions answered. </p>

<p>Kent in SD</p>

<p>I'll admit that I'm a sniper, but I'm an honest one. I've heard of those services but don't use them. If I can't be at the computer when an auction ends, I don't bid. I've rarely bought anything from an auction lately since so much is available as "Buy It Now" with a low price & free shipping.</p>

<p>I only bid on "sleeper" items - those with 0 bids or only a couple in the last minutes of the auction. If I find what I want/need but it has 10 bids with 5 days to go, you can bet it's going to go higher than I'm willing to pay and I'd only be helping the seller by getting in the game. People don't seem to realize that they are pushing the price up by bidding days in advance.</p>

<p>Below is a copy of some of the completed auction bids for the F3 I think that's being discussed, for purposes of showing what went down. (There are some lower down (lesser amounts), but couldn't get them on a single page to scan)</p>

<p>"Nikon F3 35mm SLR Camera with 2 Lenses and Motor Drive"</p>

Item number:<img src="http://pics.ebaystatic.com/aw/pics/s.gif" alt=" " width="2" />260852417268<div></div>

<p>I never bid on an item till 8 seconds left, and take my chances. I have gotten some amazing stuff, very reasonable. </p>

<p>Sometimes sniping is the only way, and a reason why ebay provided the "one click" bid tool. There has been a surge in the popularity of using vintage lenses on 4/3rds, etc, and prices on otherwise cheap glass has hit the roof. Many times I will bid low to get onboard, then put my intended max price into the "one click" tool and fire away at the last few seconds. Many times the winning bid will be double what I consider it's worth. No loss for me. I just move on to the next copy and repeat. I can wait.</p>

<p>As said, calm down and learn how to bid on eBay. The auction ain't over until the last bid comes in.</p>

<p>As Pete says, if you want it cheaper you have to be patient and not bid the dang thing up until the last possible moment. Sometimes you win, but sometimes you don't. That's where the patience comes in. Find a new one and bid again.</p>

Well, there is a possibility for fraud in this type of case. I had one recently on a non-photo item. I had the high bid, no

reserve. Left it knowing that I could be out bid. But, was surprised the next day when I was not only out bid, but

outbid by almost twice what the item should sell for. And I'm not talking a few hundred dollars, but rather like $10,000

more than the item was worth. The bids came in less than a minute apart, and the bidders had not made a bid in

lthat category of items in over 30 days. So, I reported to eBay, will most likely never know if anything was done about

it.

 

The point is that, while not ripped off, the OP may have a fraud case against the seller if the seller employed friends

to run the price up to avoid selling at too low of a price. In this case, maybe not what happened. But, it does happen.

<p>If you bid at eBay you want this program, ITS FREE<br /> <a href="http://www.jbidwatcher.com/">http://www.jbidwatcher.com/</a><br />Click the link at top right corner that says DOWNLOAD NOW, First choose Tab MAC or WIndows<br>

<br /> Many times have have felt cheated being out bid by less than the incremental bid but thats how it is..<br /> Use this Sniping program as a wise man once said " If you can't beat'em, join'em"</p>

<p> </p>

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<p><em>The point is that, while not ripped off, the OP may have a fraud case against the seller if the seller employed friends to run the price up to avoid selling at too low of a price. In this case, maybe not what happened. But, it does happen.</em></p>

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<p>Yes, it does happen, but a <strong>lot</strong> less frequently than some would like to believe. In this case it clearly did not, and there is no "maybe" about it. Anyone with an eBay account and a clear understanding of how eBay auctions work can look at the publicly viewable bid data for this auction and see that there was no shill bidding in the final minute of the auction. No fraud, no ripoff, nobody got "shafted", no "buddies" shill bidding to hike up the price; just a completely normal auction with some experienced bidders where there was only one winner. The auction winner and the next two highest bidders were experienced bid snipers. It's as plain as the nose on your face if you know what to look for.</p>

<p>Most ebayers in the KNOW use these Sniper programs to keep the auction prices down..<br>

No matter how high the bid given enough time someone will bid more..<br>

With these auction programs bid to win not to just out bid the current bid..<br>

If you sign in do a search for what your looking for and near the bottom of the right side of an ebay page is an option to view COMPLETED AUTIONS this will show you the last 30 days of what the items in your search have sold for, helpful in guessing how much to bid..</p>