Unusual Ebay Activity

[ian1964]

"Either way, the threat of a nibbler raising your bid or outbidding you is one of the best reasons to snipe."

 

I can't really see how that makes much of a difference if you put in you maximum amount. That's what I always do about 15 seconds before the end if I am really interested in the item. I then watch the "snipe" software go to work and if the bid goes above my maximum well, so be it. But then i could be wrong about the "snipe" software

[Goudy]

Yes, if everyone simply bids their maximum amount, then sniping is irrelevant. But some people get emotional and like to respond with a higher bid when they're outbid (which is also what bid nibblers are doing). Sniping at, say, 5 seconds denies those people the time they need to raise their bid.

[j-e-g]

I have purchased a lot of pens on e-bay.. and only had 2 arrive with errors. In both cases they gladly sent me the missing or correct item(s) at no extra cost. I have met a lot of really nice people that were willing to give me deals on pens I was buying for students to use in the classroom.

I still e-mail with some sellers regularly.. some daily and/or on my facebook..I guess I consider them real "pen-pals"

 

Off the top of my head I can remember 2 pens that just didn't cut the mustard and 2 others that combined made a great "franken pen". A few other mistakes regarding purchases were my own fault for not reading the full descripton.

 

Now, I am not buying expensive or highly sought after vintage pens, so maybe I am not a good target ?

 

I have purchased inks and pen supplies from the Netherlands, Poland, Germany, UK, Pakistan and China and if course the USA, I would have to say I have been pleased with 99% of my purchases, only having had to ask for a refund 2 times

Now, If only my pals would stop pillaging my supplies......

[jordanjay29]

But I wasn't allowed to give feedback at ALL as a result. Which means the *next* person who comes along and sees all that seller's listings (and good feedback ratings) could get rooked -- because I couldn't then go on and say "Don't buy from these people -- run away, and run away NOW!" and there is no way to track how many other disputes were opened by people like me who did NOT take the same cr*p from them lying down, any more than I did.

 

That's disturbing, Ruth. Good to know about this.

[tinkerteacher]

https://www.ezsniper.com/index.php3

 

http://auctionsniper.com

[thorkil]

Regarding the OP, I also was watching this individual. Because of the large number of bid retractions on lowball bids, I decided that this person is either a FLAKE., or is building a database of pen auction prices for some reason. Either way, ebay should see these patterns long before we do, and do something about it. 140 retractions in six months is reason enough to banish the person to Craig's List North Korea.

 

The other topic which has emerged above is 'bid nibbling': putting in a series of minimum bids to creep up on the high bid and exceed it by the minimum incremental amount. Could be malicious, but probably not (unless its a 'repeat offender'). Again, look at bid retractions. If the high bids are honored, no problem. If not, its off to Pyong Yang.....