Scams On eBay

Shadetree

Shadetree

Well-known member
While we are talking about scams I thought of this jewel that happened a few years back. There was a chrome heart shaped windshield wiper motor on eBay that I really needed for my `35 Cabriolet. It looked perfect and was claimed to be like new. I ran the bid up to over $500 with one other person bidding against me. Just minutes before it ended I stopped and thought `I must be nuts!' No wiper motor is worth that kind of money. I stopped bidding but watched as the seconds counted down. It went to the other bidder. Within minutes I received an email saying I could have the wiper motor for my last bid.

Here are my thoughts:

1. The owner had a cronie running the bid up and had made one bid too many.

2. If I would have agreed to buy it, there was no assurance I would have ever got it and no way for eBay to guarantee me that I would get it.

3. No feedback possible.

4. It was a third party capitalizing on someone else’s item.

I'll never know, but chances were good I was being conned but didn't take the bait.

I have bought a lot of items for my cars on eBay and never once cheated. Most people are honest...
 
From my experience......If you pay for the item through pay-pal and did not get your part or it was damaged/etc.,they would make good on it...including shipping
 
OldFordGuy said:
From my experience......If you pay for the item through pay-pal and did not get your part or it was damaged/etc.,they would make good on it...including shipping
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Old Ford,
As far as eBay was concerned it was sold to someone else. This was a sale after the bidding was closed. I don't think they would have made good on it for this reason. Anyway, it was just too risky for me to throw $500 away. Thanks.
 
I've always found the best policy was to pick the price oyu think you would pay, put it in as the max bid then don't look again till it is over.
 
jim1932 said:
I've always found the best policy was to pick the price oyu think you would pay, put it in as the max bid then don't look again till it is over.
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That's the best plan,it's hard to stop bidding once those seconds start ticking down. But as far as the scam I thing he had someone or even possibly himself on another account bidding against you. Ive had the same thing happen and like you I didn't take the bait.
 
jim1932 said:
I've always found the best policy was to pick the price oyu think you would pay, put it in as the max bid then don't look again till it is over.
Click to expand...

Jim, that is a great policy if you can stick to your guns and I admire those that can do it. But some items don't appear every day on eBay, like the heart shaped wiper motor. I really wanted that wiper and settled for something less and for a WHOLE lot less money.
 
This can happen legit through a " second chance offer " and it is done by epay . I have ended up with quite a few of these deals & what you watch for to tell if it is legit is you get an email from epay saying you have a second chance offer & you also get the same offer in your " my epay " messages . Epay stresses that you make sure the offer shows up in both places . Probably a bit harder for scammers to hack into the my epay messages thing . This happens with deadbeat bidders & also sometimes when the seller has duplicate items . If done properly you have all the protections as it is still a epay deal . No shortage of scum on epay but if you walk carefully the minefield can be navigated . Paypal is indeed greedy BUT if someone screws you they are good at gettin your moolah back .
 
Proxy Bidding? Nonsense!

Second Chance is an open invitation to screw the bidder! I was bidding on a car that was donated to charity and was offered the "second chance" but bidding went surprisingly high and opted out. Then I bid on another car from the same source auction house, another "second chance" was offered. Enough evidence for me to doubt the honesty of the auction. Shill bidders can easily run up the bid to my maximum and then backup one bid to my max. Ebay gets theirs so there is zero incentive to cleanup their act. This makes the proxy bid a sham. Now I only bid on must have items. Good Luck: Fred_A
 
You have to look at the other bidder's history. Although their true ID name is hidden, you can click on them to see their recent bidding history and whether they bid on this particular seller's items before.

If you see that your competitor has most/many/all of his historical bids with the same seller, I'd say you are being played by a "shill".

If the shill accidentally outbids you, well then their bid gets retracted and you are in first place again.

Just like real-life auctions, right? The real pros play with multiple shills in the crowd.
 
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