An ebay mystery (ebay.co.uk)

Member Name: pixie1902

Product:	ebay.co.uk
Date:	07/07/01 (56 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: easy to use, plenty of items

Disadvantages: outbid at the last moment!

Since I joined ebay at the end of last year I have been well and truly hooked.

The auction site is very simple to navigate and there is plenty of helpful information if you do run into difficulty.

Just recently I also sold my first item through ebay so I now have experience of both buying and selling. Ebay probably has the largest range of items of all the auction sites - I collect Beatrix Potter things (anything at all!) and I am always finding interesting bits and pieces on ebay. Previously I used Yahoo! auctions but the range was quite limited and it was difficult to find unusual items.

Using the feedback forum is vital for the continued success of on-line auctions. I must admit that if anyone ever said to me a few years ago that one day i would be sending cheques through the post to individuals I had never met before in the hope that they would send me some goods through the post I would probably have laughed. There is a lot of trust involved in on-line auctions but the feedback ratings show you what experience other users have had witha buyer/seller recently to help you make your decision as to whether you can trust them or not.

Of course, even with an excellent feedback rating someone may let you down. Things can also get lost in the post and although it may not be the other person's fault, it's very much a case of your word against theirs. My tip in this case is to send things recorded delivery and keep the tracking number. I once sent money for an item which, 4 weeks later, still hadn't been received. As I had paid an extra 60 pence for recorded delivery I asked the seller for the tracking number. That way I could prove whether or not the item had actually been sent and lost or whether I was being taken for a dodgy ride. As it happened, the seller could not provide me with a tracking number despite 4 e-mails requesting it and so I threatened to file a fraud report with ebay. Well, guess what arrived
in the post the next day (postmarked the previous day)?

But something mysterious is happening on ebay and I am wondering whether anyone has any idea as to how this happens.

Just recently I bid on a Beatrix Potter game and for seven days I was the highest bidder. The auction was due to finish in the middle of the night a few days ago. When you win you are automatically sent an e-mail confirming your win from ebay and this also contains the other party's contact details. I had been particularly keen to win this item as I have fond memories of this game from my childhood and wanted it for my children.

The next morning when I checked mail before going to work I saw that literally a few minutes before the auction was due to end I was outbid by 50 pence. This seems particularly strange to me as the auction was due to end in the middle of the night. Now it may be that a night worker or insomniac was surfing the auctions late at night and saw the item was about to finish and quickly placed a winning bid. However, this has been happening to me quite a lot recently, particularly when auctions close in the middle of the night. It may also be bidders from other countries where it's not the middle of the night for them at that time but I specifically look at ebay.co.uk and I can't imagine why foreigners would want to look there for a board game that may be available to them locally on ebay.com.

A friend has even suggested to me that it may be the sellers themselves using a different ID to put in a bid so that they no longer have to sell the item - particularly when the price is not high enough for them. The answer to this problem is to set a reserve price, or minimum sell price. Naturally I am bitter that I have lost out on an item I was sincerely hoping to win. However, it seems strnage that in the middle of the night someone who has shown no previous interest in the item and not yet bid on it (you can look at the hist
ory of all bids - including unsuccessful ones) should place a higher bid and win the item minutes before it is due to close. Obviously there is nothing wrong in this. The whole point of an auction is that the items go to the highest bidder and it's just bad luck on the others.

Has this happened to any other ebay users?

Apart from this, ebay still remains my favourite auction site and thanks to ebay, our home is rapidly filling with beautiful Beatrix Potter memorabilia!

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