Teeth Nash: Auctions

[Western]

The rifle of my dreams is on an auction site. I bid for it last week with a fair bid, and some sot come by with 16 minutes down and bids an impossibly huge amount for the gun. I am left eating his dust.

The rifle comes back. The seller claims buyer backed out and paid expenses. I bid again, and again same power bidder comes and bids at the last minute, this time walking up and over my top price in $3 dollar increments, making 18 bids to beat me by three bucks.

I am back on the auction again, and again the same rifle taunts me, offered by the same guy, who claims to have no idea who the chump that keeps bidding me out at the last minute and then refusing the auction is. I feel like a kid who just discovered that the Christmas packages are holograms projected by a computer wielding velociraptor because I can afford the rifle at the prevailing price it normally goes for, but cannot afford to bid against power bidders with no intention of actually buying the gun.

[sighthound]

Contact the seller and have him block the scam bidder. jerry

[Western]

I finally skipped that auction - not worth the hassle. The good news is I found my rifle elsewhere.

[imfuncity]

A good one to be shut of, for sure. Read the other day that sellers have a similar program to the "eSnipe" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auction_sniping - a "shill program", that automatically kicks up the bid in small increments to keep the real buyer in until the seller gets "his price".

I not only do most of my purchases online but I do better online then F2F (face to face). But, I strickly work from the "got a feeling about this one", regardless of the price or how bad I want one like it - if it doesn't feel right I'm out of there.

[jack1653]

You are dead on with your thoughts, Mitch. I do the same as you do and seldom ever regret the decision. I guess most of our problems come from "jackitis" which sometimes seems to cloud our rationale. I, personally, have not fell victim to the "rigged" bidding but I often wonder on some auctions that I do not participate in what the bidders see in the item that I fail to see.

Regards,

jack1653

[Western]

Washington State just starting requiring sales tax on guns purchased over the internet from out of state, the only item purchased by mail / electronically so treated. The cost jacks the price by 8% and has turned otherwise reasonable auctions unreasonable for me lately.

On the other hand, I just got my pristine MAS 49/58 7.5mm from a NR seller that cos me about 30 buck over what I intended to pay, but was worth it because I bought from an honest dealer who revealed little issues up front.

Now if I can ever find the Brazilian 1908 Mauser (my grandfather carried one in WW1) in pristine condition my efforts at seeking world domination through the selected collection of rifles will be nearing completion.

[Western]

My students did a research project on rigged bidding and found more auctions that do not fit normal models, with weapons that reappear for sale a week after they are sold. It is actually possible to write a program that detects and flags shill bidders and dealers that accept shill bids.