Confused by a w114 car sale on Ebay - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

Shortsguy1 · #1 04-04-2014, 12:15 AM

I was wasting some time on Ebay just now, and there is a 1969 w114 for sale. The main screen for the ad says Current Bid $5000 and says that there have been two bids (see pic 1). If you check the bid history, both bids are by r***d and both are for $5000 and both occurred within a few seconds of each other (see pic 2). The same list of bids are shown regardless of whether you click on the "show automatic bids" button.

So question one is: are these two bids actually the same person, or did ebay happen to pick the same random pseudonym for two different people.

And question two is: assuming that is only one person with one bid, why did the current bid amount go up? The starting price was $4000 and if one person entered a bid of $5000, I thought the price wouldn't go up until someone else bid. If there is only one bidder, I guess I thought that the price wouldn't jump by $1000.

The main context to my question is that $5K for that car seems like a lot. The air filter is in the trunk. It has dents. The carbs need adjusting. The interior is sort of a mish mash of two colors. Etc. Etc. Etc.

TylerH860 · #2 04-04-2014, 11:13 AM

When you place a minimum bid, with a maximum bid that hits the seller's reserve, eBay automatically ups the bid to meet the seller's reserve.

More often than not shill bidding is going on. The seller has another account or a buddy bid up the car for him. This is against eBay's rules, but mostly ignored. Shill bidding is also par for the course at car auctions. An auctioneer with only one live bidder will pretend to have 2 so the car gets bid up to the reserve. Sometimes they will have no live bidders and completely BS it. Seen it at Mecum, Gooding, RM, and local dealer auctions.

Hatterasguy · #3 04-04-2014, 02:46 PM

Its a shill bidder.

Gunbroker is horrible in this area, I gave up buying stuff because I was tired of it.

Shortsguy1 · #4 04-04-2014, 10:10 PM

Thanks guys for the replies. I have never been to a real car auction, but I consider it frequently. So your thoughts there are very much appreciated.

unkl300d · #5 04-04-2014, 10:18 PM

Good insights ! Thanks.

POS · #6 04-04-2014, 10:19 PM

Too many skeptics. When you place the first bid, it gets registered as that first bid. In this case, $5000. However, the bidder can come back and up his bid in case someone else tries to enter the auction. If he does that, his bid doesn't go up to his maximum, it stays at the $5000 because he can't bid against himself, but it does get registered as another entry. So, he bid once. Then came back and bid again, but until someone else bids against him, it'll just show two bids at $5000.

This is normal. Probably not shills.

Skid Row Joe · #7 04-04-2014, 11:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by POS

Too many skeptics. When you place the first bid, it gets registered as that first bid. In this case, $5000. However, the bidder can come back and up his bid in case someone else tries to enter the auction. If he does that, his bid doesn't go up to his maximum, it stays at the $5000 because he can't bid against himself, but it does get registered as another entry. So, he bid once. Then came back and bid again, but until someone else bids against him, it'll just show two bids at $5000.

This is normal. Probably not shills.

^^^ This.

Shortsguy1 · #8 04-05-2014, 12:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by POS

Too many skeptics. When you place the first bid, it gets registered as that first bid. In this case, $5000. However, the bidder can come back and up his bid in case someone else tries to enter the auction. If he does that, his bid doesn't go up to his maximum, it stays at the $5000 because he can't bid against himself, but it does get registered as another entry. So, he bid once. Then came back and bid again, but until someone else bids against him, it'll just show two bids at $5000.

This is normal. Probably not shills.

Okay, bear with me here because apparently I am a little slow on this topic. The starting price was 4K. Someone bids 5K. And then 23 seconds later, that same person bids some amount more than 5K. But we don't know the value of that second bid because there is only one bidder involved.

If that occurred, why was I ever able to find out about the 5K? I guess I just don't understand how the price ever got above the starting price with only one bidder? Is it as Tyler said above that the 5K was probably the Reserve value? It just seems funny to me that during an auction, the price of an item could increase dramatically with only one bidder (Stop raising your paddle, idiot!).

Shortsguy1 · #9 04-05-2014, 12:21 AM

SKJ-
Here is another homophone for your tutorial service. In my last post, I originally wrote "bare with me", instead of the correct "bear with me." Clearly my first choice communicated a much different message.... bare: to get undressed. Oops.

POS · #10 04-05-2014, 02:20 PM

Yes to hitting the reserve. That's why it's at $5000.