World Beyblade Organization by Fighting Spirits Inc. Beyblade Discussion Bey Marketplace

eBay Topic

May. 13, 2013  1:56 AM
 
Wait, sorry for getting off topic, but, spork seller, are you going to Beyblade: Revolution? If you are, then I'd definitely buy some things!
May. 13, 2013  5:40 PM
 
I've been checking out the bids on sporkseller's Black Dragoon GT set:

http://offer.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi...1272637219

Those are all ACTUAL bids, not automatic bids. For some unfathomable reason, this i***e guy has been making tiny, incremental bids that are slowly jacking the price of the auction up. The current high bidder, u***i, made his bid of $500 on the 11th of May at 16:02. i***e then made a total of SIXTEEN bids within ONE MINUTE, starting at 16:17. Here they are (top being the latest bid):

Spoiler (Click to View)
i***e was also careful to stop bidding lest he outbid the current top bidder. He managed to do it at $255 and immediately stopped bidding, only to return the next day and make 16 bids to reach the other person's high bid. Through some more research, it turns out that i***e is Time from the WBO. i***e has 14 feedback, as does wbotime. Here is an item wbotime purchased and left feedback for:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Its-BeyBlade-for...500wt_1282

So, as we have established, i***e is wbotime and wbotime is Time. So, Time is the person needlessly jacking the bids up. I'm not gonna presume to understand your financial situation, Time, but I never knew you were able to/willing to spend $500 on a beyblade. That's one hell of a price and, despite the rarity, is way too high. The last 2 black Dragoon GT sets sold for $350 including shipping.

I'm not sure what's going on here but there are two conclusions and both are bad.

Conclusion A: you are purposely raising the price of the Black Dragoon GT so that the winner has to pay more for it than they would have if you hadn't meddled
Conclusion B: you're quite, shall we say, dull and clearly have no idea how eBay works. This is not Yahoo Japan Auctions. You can snipe on eBay. There are no tactics. You enter your max bid once near the end and hope for the best. There is absolutely no intelligent purpose of increasing the price to $500 4 days before the auction ends.

I have no idea what you're trying to do but it's very sleazy. Sporkseller, you said that you were in contact with both bidders (which would include Time) so I hope you know what you're doing.
May. 13, 2013  6:25 PM
 
Not sure sure how we got to the point where spinning tops are a big enough deal for what you just said lol.
May. 14, 2013  6:29 AM
 
Very, very strange. I was afraid of this. I've had auctions go exactly this way before. I'm not accusing anyone of anything, but i'm nervous about what's going to happen at the end since both appear to be posturing for something.

I'm gonna pull it down - it's just not worth the risk at this point of actually going through with the sale. I paid $75 for the set and for that I can afford to keep it. Judge me however you will, but I think this is the right thing to do versus asking (or reasonably expecting) either of them to pay that price.

So there's no misunderstanding, I'm not relisting this in a month nor am I selling it outside of eBay to an existing buyer. I'm pulling it becuase I've seen this game before and the seller always loses. I won't speculate publicly, but after reading 3-dog's breakdown I've got a very good idea what's going on. It's a shame - I was getting pretty excited but I shoulda known better.

Thanks for the info and your efforts to gather it. saved me a huge headache I think.
May. 14, 2013  6:43 AM
 
Uh uh, not so fast. There's more to answer for than just that, and not just for Time (though still a lot for Time), but for you too, and I'm afraid that yes, headaches may result. But first, an apology:

(May. 13, 2013  1:34 AM)sporkseller Wrote:
(May. 12, 2013  9:21 PM)th!nk Wrote: By the way Sporkseller, I hope if that 14 feedback bidder wins the black GT auction he keeps bumping like I've only seen sleazy sellers do to their own auctions (not an accusation, of course, just an observation haha, this guy is going nuts), he actually pays up.

No...that sounds nothing at all like an accusation!

I'm an honest guy, and I can admit when I am wrong, and as we can see from Zain's post - and a bit of mine below, you most certainly are not bumping your own auctions, as the person bumping that auction is Time, you know, that guy who has praised your business so highly, and who you went out of your way to make an auction for that one time. So, yes, I owe you an apology for any insinuation along those lines. I won't insinuate that you are bumping your own auctions without substantial evidence again.


Anyway: In that Black GT auction Zain linked, we can see by having ebay show auto-bids could see before it was cancelled after suspicion was drawn and you started playing the victim and now we will have to rely on memory of the many people who saw it, he was manually bidding the auction's increment, pushing up the placed auto-bid, until it reaches its maximum (as you'll note - and can still note from the cancelled bids, instead of going higher, the auto-bidder merely matches his bid – this is because it has reached the bidders maximum price, but being the oldest bid, takes precedence - an easy indication of where a price pusher should stop!).

Of course, maybe Time just doesn't quite get eBay, as Zain proposed. I'm sure some of you know that, to be blunt about it for the sake of honesty, I don't hold Time in particularly high esteem, and I must say I did consider that it might just be the case, and he's just really unlucky in every single one of these auctions where the exact same situation plays out over and over again like a broken record:
http://offer.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?V...wauto=true
http://offer.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?V...wauto=true
http://offer.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?V...wauto=true
http://offer.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?V...wauto=true

But, then I took a look at some auctions Time won, we'll take one of yours, just to keep more variables the same okay?
http://offer.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?V...wauto=true
So as we can see, while he does do a fair bit of manual bidding, he also has auto-bids, and he wins with one here.
Again here, though he increases his bid after a close call:
http://offer.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?V...wauto=true
And again through basically everything he's left feedback for, which you can look at here:
http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...ackAsBuyer
So, he does seem to at least know that auto-bids are a thing.

Oh, and by the way, just to confirm that i***e is wbotime: Here's an auction, won by i***e - http://www.ebay.com/itm/Beyblade-HMS-New...1219303209
here's the bidding history: http://offer.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?V...wauto=true
You can check sporkseller's feedback history yourself to see who won this (hint/spoiler: set it to show 200 and search for wbotime, it's the first one), but here's the text:
As usual, very good. wbotime ( 16) May-03-13 13:49
Beyblade HMS New / Used Starter Kit with Stadium (#221219303209) US $27.00 View Item
You can all verify yourselves from his eBay history/posts on-site and the fact wbotime is also Time's photobucket username that wbotime is Time, if you weren't convinced already - or by Zain's post, as the item he linked (the auction sporkseller made just for Time) is a bit of a giveaway.

But of course, you could just be an innocent victim of Time pushing up prices himself! I mean, he was quite vocal in supporting people paying more for tops (but then, you also towed that line, back before you changed your name and adopted the low-prices, for-buyers rhetoric that has gained you such a large following here!) Maybe Time is nefariously pushing up prices to his own ends? I mean sure you guys seem pretty close to me (see: that auction you made just for him), and as you've said, you're in communication with all low-feedback bidders on your high-price auctions, but hey, perhaps you just didn't notice him doing this?

But then there's this little auction, bunch of cancelled bids, so we can't see how it played out in real-time, but luckily ebay is kind enough to list each bidder's maximum bid and when said bid was placed!
http://offer.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?V...1222098149
And, oh, what's this? Time was ahead of another bidder who placed a bid for the same amount at a later date – and was not pushed above their maximum of $50, because his bid was placed earlier? And then, strangely, you cancelled the auction after 12 hours of no further bids, with what I'm told was apparently about a day remaining.

Of course, that's just one example and maybe you sold it to someone else in the mean time, or closed it to complete the transaction elsewhere or something like that

But then there's this:
http://offer.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?V...wauto=true
Where he was winning the auction, and once again his bid is cancelled (the bid that is equal and likely has a higher max than his was placed after the bid was cancelled, in case anyone is wondering), of course in this case the auction continues, so definitely no off-site payment etc going on here.

Oh and this one: http://offer.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?V...1205842485
Hm, again? Kinda weird man.

Oh and this one too!
http://offer.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?V...wauto=true
Once again, Time was winning, and then his bid was cancelled (that is, removed by you, the seller!), and the auction continues.

But, of course, you've stayed in contact with him, as you've said - and despite your doubts about the black GT auction, you still let a bidder whose leading bids you've cancelled multiple times - something any seller would remember, and the two of you have had plenty of other transactions. So, what's up with that?

Look, I don't want to be too forward here but to me, someone cancelling the leading bids of a person who has also been systematically bumping up prices in their auctions is, well, pretty clear evidence that collusion is occurring to exploit buyers for the seller's profit. I mean, I guess it could be a massive series of extremely convenient coincidences, but either way, I don't think I'll be placing any orders from you any time soon.
May. 14, 2013  8:55 AM
 
Wow so much evidence th!nk.


This seller is slowly increasing their prices Uncertain
http://www.ebay.com.au/sch/m.html?_odkw=...&_from=R40

Dranzer V: $10 > $13 > $11.90.
G-Blade Deluxe: $85 > $115
And every other Beyblade Set (Boosters etc.) there. They were a few bucks cheaper like a month or two ago
May. 14, 2013  12:00 PM
 
Damn th!nk, that was quite a read. Anyways, I know Time from tournaments and the like, so I'll ask him about this during our BeyDays tourney (if he doesn't explain before then).
May. 14, 2013  12:19 PM
 
Spoiler (Click to View)
Great thing to wake up to in the morning, my name being trashed on one of the only two sites I bother to frequent in the morning. I think the best way to do this is to address the flat out ridiculous insults from the one member on here with whom I do not get along by going through these claims in order. First and foremost I ha very intention of paying for the black dragoon gt as it has been on my get list since like 2005. Maybe it was think maybe 3-dog who questioned my financial capability, but let me tell you I am an older teen who has very few expenses and a well-paying job allowing me to buy pretty much what I want. Second, as too my relationship with "sporky" I have purchased multiple things from him and the listing created just for me was a result of my asking a certain collection of things I knew he had in stock to be listed together and the lack of pictres and name were to discourage others from purchasing. The reason it was done in this manner was because I did not have a PayPal at the time (which I obtained in order to start selling). As to the feedbacks I have been very happy with the many purchases I have made from sporkseller. In relation to the cancelled bids as you can see they are within a relatively short time period within one another and were the result of my brother (who will probably be joining here shortly as i mentioned to kai-v.) hacking my ebay account and bidding me up past my maximum bid on roughly ten auctions not all of which were sporkseller's.
As can be seen from my recent post in comparison to my previous post in the beyblade collection thread my collection has grown substantially in the past year because of my somewhat out of hand ebaying.in reference i my bid thing, but not beating a lot of the time the other bidders seem to think in the same way I do this setting a maximum bid similar to mine. I think I addressed everything if I missed something feel free to question further.
May. 14, 2013  12:30 PM
 
Yet that supposed "hacker" bidded similarly as you did on the Black GT - and you weren't the leading bidder on that, you had an identical bid to the person whose bid you were manually increasing, as soon as you got to their maximum (and not bidding a few dollars higher). Furthermore, the bids shown in the deleted auctions are not outlandish or unusual - usually very close to another bidder's bid - just like the other auctions I've pointed out.

As for similar dates - that's a blatant lie. The dates of the three links I posted pointing out your cancelled bids are: April 1, April 1, and... Oh What March 20th? Not quite close. And plenty of time to have an unruly brother issue sorted out.

And yes, you did miss something: The main point - that you keep inflating the prices of his auctions, making him more money, in small, consecutive bids, boosting other buyer's auto-bids, without actually winning such auctions yourself - something that, with your self-professed expendable income, would be a simple matter of throwing a couple more cents onto a bid in most of these cases. This is EXACTLY what people inflating the prices of auctions for their own or an associates profits do - and it's very, very obvious.

So no, Time, that doesn't cover it at all, and frankly, I think you're lying.

Oh, and in case you were thinking this was some campaign against you, read up, I was looking into it well before anyone was aware of your involvement - Zain (and Hazel, too) can attest that I was the one who figured out i***e was you, not just a sockpuppet account sporkseller had created himself. Basically, I was already looking into it with enough interest to find that before I found out you were involved at all. This time, I'm sorry, this isn't any personal prejudice against you - just the fact I care deeply for this community, and any shady dealings going on at the expense of this community is something I take a pretty harsh stance on (see posts I made about Jaygrazer if you want some proof of that haha).
May. 14, 2013  12:56 PM
 
(May. 13, 2013  6:25 PM)Ultra Wrote: Not sure sure how we got to the point where spinning tops are a big enough deal for what you just said lol.

It was probably the point where you private messaged me just a few months ago, verbally harassing me with tears of fury running down your face at how I could possibly dare to sell a Zeus at $100 with shipping. That bothered you enough that you were prepared to take a 30-day suspension for it, but a member on here jacking up an auction to $500 just so that people have to pay more doesn't bother you at all? You sure are selective with your outrage, although I guess history details how easy it is to buy your silence/trust once you're given a good deal on beyblades. lol

As for you, Time, it astounds me that the best defense you can come up with is 'mi acuont ws hackd'. 2 weeks is not a relatively short time period, as th!nk has pointed out. The entirety of the evidence's purpose flew over your head which is why your defense is so poor. No one is saying that sporkseller's creation of a listing for you was wrong or that you leaving him positive feedback was wrong, so I have no idea why you are defending those points. Those factors were only brought up because it proves that you and sporkseller are fairly close for a buyer and seller and that you are a known entity to sporkseller. That gives an incentive for you to raise his prices so that he can profit from them. Either you're guilty on your own or both of you are guilty for collusion.

Sporkseller said that he was in contact with both bidders of that GT set, but then he deleted it so evidently he has communicated with you and still doesn't trust you. I wonder why he doesn't trust you, even though you claim you can buy pretty much 'what you want'. Seems a bit odd for the financial viability of someone who is as supposedly well-off as you are to be questioned, isn't it?

So, either sporkseller is saving his own reputation by throwing you to the wolves or you are genuinely the only one guilty in this sordid affair. His deletion of the listing does cast a lot of aspersions on your character. You helped to (almost) rip someone off big time and now you've also helped to make sure that no other honest collectors will be able to add the Black Dragoon GT set to their collection.

Congratulations.
May. 14, 2013  12:58 PM
 
At the same time, th!nk, you have to admit that you want to win auctions for the lowest price possible, so when you know that a bidder has set a maximum bid, you do not automatically try to place fifty dollars more than what the price currently is : you go by small steps to see when exactly the max bid is reached. Sure, if you want to completely discourage the other bidder, you could place a huge bid much higher than their previous max bid, but not really at such a high price.
May. 14, 2013  1:03 PM
 
Honestly I just bid the most I'm willing to spend on an item (like practically everyone who uses ebay), plus a few random cents to avoid being beaten by an identical older bid (not many people do this for some reason), a few seconds before an auction ends.
Ebay's system doesn't actually allow you to place huge, discouraging bids as far as I know, it will auto-bid up to your maximum or the next increment past the current high bidders maximum, whichever comes first. So, what you described isn't really relevant. Ebay by default hides auto bids in the bidding history which is why, for example in zain's copy paste of the bid history list, it seems like time is raising his own bid - instead he's slowly responding to an auto-bid, edging it up bit by bit - and he stops just as that auto-bid reaches it's maximum.

Still, the chance Time somehow was unaware that the Auto-bidder is as functional as manual bidding is why I included the section on time's bidding practice on auctions he expects to wins - in those, he doesn't use manual bids anywhere near as much (though he still uses them quite a bit, yes). I wouldn't fling such serious accusations around without taking a possibility like this, something I'm very well aware of, into account.

If I were doing what Time was with the intent to win, I wouldn't stop at an even number - and if I was willing to pay $500 for something, you can bet I'd throw in a few extra cents instead of being beaten by an older, equal bid, time after time after time. 'Course, maybe I'm brighter than your average person, but I'm pretty sure the whole being-beaten-by-an-identical-but-older-bid thing is something even Time would notice and maybe think "hey why is it only equal to mine" - especially when he's seen it happen as many times as he must have given the number of auctions that it has happened to him in.

That is, he has just stopped manually bidding as the maximum of an earlier auto-bid is reached by his bids (something which is visible, and I'm sure sporkseller would know of this before anyone objects that Time wouldn't), on FOUR instances I have checked from this one (spork)seller. His excuse for this is people thinking alike...

*On checking, one of the four links I posted he is actually legitimately outbid on, but the same 'pipped to the post' situation happened in the black dragoon GT auction, so still in a total of 4 auctions from a specific seller he is known to be close with, he has been outbid by another bidder bidding the same maximum by an earlier auto-bid.

That is NOT something that would happen by coincidence and if it did and someone somehow proves it, I will burn the still-vacuum-wrapped statistics book that is sitting in my bookshelf (having been unopened during my second-last semester of Uni despite costing over $100). I will record this on camera, while wearing underpants on my head and dancing the macarena. It's nearly winter here so there shouldn't be any fire bans in effect any time soon. I will probably have to remove the plastic wrapping first, though, as burning that is apparently hazardous.

I really do not feel Time's actions here are at all defensible as anything other than deliberately inflating auction prices, and no sensible person would. I'm honestly much more interested to hear what the beneficiary of these actions - a person who has spouted a heavy rhetoric of "LOW PRICES FOR THE BUYERS" since changing his username after having generally sided with Time and others arguing that plastics should be expensive and also complaining about the WBO's treatment of him as a seller, has to say about this. Frankly, I'm expecting a lot more of his response than I was Time's - I mean dude's darned charismatic, just look at the previous page (heck, even I want to believe he's not involved despite how convenient this all is and how I really don't think Time could figure this stuff out himself, especially with no real benefit to gain from it).
May. 14, 2013  1:11 PM
 
(May. 14, 2013  12:58 PM)Kai-V Wrote: At the same time, th!nk, you have to admit that you want to win auctions for the lowest price possible, so when you know that a bidder has set a maximum bid, you do not automatically try to place fifty dollars more than what the price currently is : you go by small steps to see when exactly the max bid is reached. Sure, if you want to completely discourage the other bidder, you could place a huge bid much higher than their previous max bid, but not really at such a high price.

If you placed $50 ahead of the current max bid (say, $50), then you would win it for $51 provided that your overall maximum bid was the highest. There is no reason to determine someone else's max bid, especially not 4 days before the auction ends.
May. 14, 2013  1:41 PM
 
First off my prevalent use of manual bidding is because I believe auto-bidding takes some of the fun out of the auction. As to my refusal to spend a few more cents or dollars, when you have money you have to control yourself or soon you will be out of money. The moment I see an auction I calculate a maximum bid and place it at a point in time somewhere close to the end of the auction, any bidding I do before that is a bit of testing the water to see how much the other person wants it. With the dragoon gt I was shocked that someone else would be willing to spend the $500 that I was for it which thus made me realize this person also has a a fairly large amount of expendable income, demotivating me from bidding any further.
May. 14, 2013  1:44 PM
 
(May. 14, 2013  1:41 PM)Time Wrote: First off my prevalent use of manual bidding is because I believe auto-bidding takes some of the fun out of the auction. As to my refusal to spend a few more cents or dollars, when you have money you have to control yourself or soon you will be out of money. The moment I see an auction I calculate a maximum bid and place it at a point in time somewhere close to the end of the auction, any bidding I do before that is a bit of testing the water to see how much the other person wants it. With the dragoon gt I was shocked that someone else would be willing to spend the $500 that I was for it which thus made me realize this person also has a a fairly large amount of expendable income, demotivating me from bidding any further.

Four documented times, in auctions from a single seller, you have EQUALLED - and not exceeded, mind you, EQUALLED - a previously placed maximum bid - you bidded right up to their maximum, and not a cent more. You must be an unwitting clairvoyant.
May. 14, 2013  1:51 PM
 
(May. 14, 2013  1:44 PM)th!nk Wrote:
(May. 14, 2013  1:41 PM)Time Wrote: First off my prevalent use of manual bidding is because I believe auto-bidding takes some of the fun out of the auction. As to my refusal to spend a few more cents or dollars, when you have money you have to control yourself or soon you will be out of money. The moment I see an auction I calculate a maximum bid and place it at a point in time somewhere close to the end of the auction, any bidding I do before that is a bit of testing the water to see how much the other person wants it. With the dragoon gt I was shocked that someone else would be willing to spend the $500 that I was for it which thus made me realize this person also has a a fairly large amount of expendable income, demotivating me from bidding any further.

Four documented times, in auctions from a single seller, you have EQUALLED - and not exceeded, mind you, EQUALLED - a previously placed maximum bid - you bidded right up to their maximum, and not a cent more. You must be an unwitting clairvoyant.

Busted. I find it funny that you're willing to spend $500 on a beyblade but think not bidding $501 is exercising self-control.
May. 14, 2013  2:06 PM
 
I set limits and I don't break them, that by definition is self-control. The logic behind it is if I tell myself it's ok to to bid a dollar more ill tell me myself it's ok to bid $10 or $50 more. That's all I have to say on this issue construed by two people who have put an exorbitant amount of time into a random occurrence. Honestly, I've told the truth and at this point if you think and 3-dog do not believe me I don't really care because as long as the moderators on this site believe he truth that is all that matters.
May. 14, 2013  2:11 PM
 
(May. 14, 2013  2:06 PM)Time Wrote: I set limits and I don't break them, that by definition is self-control.

oh wow maybe you do just have the worst timing/luck in history, because I just finished writing this:

Oh hey get this - I just noticed, he actually managed to pull the exactly-equal-to-their-bid multiple times in one of those auctions (though he does break his sacred "ONLY THIS AMOUNT" thing after a couple of days by bidding one more dollar - that thing he refused to do in every single one of the auctions I mentioned (including at the end of this one): http://offer.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?V...wauto=true

Yes, he pushes another bidder's autobid to EXACTLY IT'S MAXIMUM and no further, and stops. Then they bid again. And he bids up to EXACTLY THEIR MAXIMUM AGAIN and NO FURTHER, and stops. Then he breaks his frugality-oath and bids a single extra dollar, proving he does understand that he should do that if he wants to win, and more importantly, that he knows the sign I described which shows a person is at their maximum bid. Of course, then another bidder bids, and then Time places another bid, again managing to somehow miraculously predict their exact maximum bid and bid the EXACT SAME AMOUNT and not put in a single extra dollar to win. Three "thinking alike"'s in one auction AND breaking your frugality oath i.e. the only explanation you have offered for your clairvoyance? Tut tut.

I'm still waiting for you to explain your clairvoyance btw. If you can't manage to explain your amazing ability to lose auctions after pushing the other bidder to the maximum amount they are willing to spend far more times than is actually at all possible without being completely intentional, you should probably just stop posting now, because as amusing as watching you flail about in an attempt to explain yourself is, I'm really much more interested in what sporkseller has to say in his defense. As for the amount of time spent on this, I dunno about Zain, but for me, taking a couple of hours out of my day to protect this community from exploitation by unscrupulous scumbags is really not that hard to do.
May. 14, 2013  9:40 PM
 
I'm confused by one thing- how does Time make sure he still loses then? I mean, let's say he pushes a dollar ahead in an auction by accident, thinking that is their top bid, with 30 minutes left, and the other person is busy, Time would win, which as your implying, he doesn't want to do.

Sorry about this post being most likely idiotic. I'm just a bit confused.
May. 15, 2013  9:25 PM
 
I explained it in my initial post - as it's the reason Time's clairvoyant-like ability to lose while push opposing bidders to their maximum and absolutely no further is such damning evidence, but no harm in going over it in full.

Basically, it's an unavoidable weakness in the way ebay's Auto-bidder works. Because bidders should not be able to win by placing an identical bid to the leading bid, when two identical bids are placed, the pre-existing bid takes precedence. Of course, with the auto-bidder, this only occurs when the Auto-Bid reaches its maximum, so when faced with an opposing bid equal to the maximum it has, it will instead place its maximum bid, but takes precedence over the opposing bid because it was placed earlier (the time placed is taken from when the bid was initially entered, not when the auto-bidder places it). So, when someone doing what Time does just bids the auction's increment, they can see quite easily when they need to stop - when the auto-bid merely matches their bid. As you can see from those auctions I've linked, this is where Time suddenly stops bidding.

An example: Auction increment is $1, no bids, price is at $0.00. Bidder 1 places a max bid of $50. The auto-bidder places a bid of $1 on their behalf. Bidder 2 does what time does and bids in increments of $1, and when they bid $50, instead of bidding $51, the auto-bidder merely matches their bid. This is a very obvious giveaway to someone bumping auction prices that they should stop because their next bid will exceed the victim's maximum.

And no, this isn't perfect - if the way it plays out is that they place a bid of $49, then they won't be able to tell whether the opponent's $50 bid is their maximum. In that case, they may place a $51 bid (assuming they don't just stop at a nice round number that is high enough for the seller, in case that is the opponent's maximum - which Time does a couple of times), and exceed the opponent. In this case they take the lead - and in this case, a seller who thinks no one is onto their little scheme might just delete the bids - like we see with sporkseller and Time (Time's "i wuz hackd look they happened at the same time" excuse being completely invalid as I showed (to a complete lack of response from our good friend Time)).

Of course, personally I doubt Time would figure this out himself, which is why I feel sporkseller has a lot to answer for here (him being the one to benefit from Time's behaviour).


The other thing worth going through is when the max Auto-Bid isn't divisible by the auction's increment - if someone places a bid equal to the nearest incremement below someone's maximum eg: Auction has an increment of $1, Bidder 1 has a maximum of 50.02, Bidder 2 does what Time does and eventually places a bid of $50. The Auto-Bidder for Bidder 1 will place a bid of 50.02, which is not an incremental bid. Not sure if it would do this when Bidder 2 places a bid of $49 so that it is still a possible bid under ebay's auction system or not, but either way, it's still a clear indication that the Auto-Bid is maxed out, because it either has placed a bid larger than it otherwise would ($50.02, if it happens at $49) or a bid no larger than the opposing bid, but being older, it takes precedence ($50 if it happens at $50). Either way, it's a give-away to anyone doing what Time has been doing.
May. 15, 2013  9:36 PM
 
Okay, that makes a lot more sense, thanks.


I still can't imagine Sporkseller having a part in this after all he has done, though, so it'll be interesting to hear his reply.
May. 15, 2013  10:04 PM
 
(May. 15, 2013  9:36 PM)ShinobuXD Wrote: Okay, that makes a lot more sense, thanks.


I still can't imagine Sporkseller having a part in this after all he has done, though, so it'll be interesting to hear his reply.

I see he still has you wrapped around his little finger like most... He hasn't done any more than, as biased as this is going to sound given my friendship with him, 3-dog has. What he claims to do (sell at the minimum price he can to make profit) is exactly what 3-dog, and other sellers (pretty sure Ultra does this too, for example, and Oki was kinda close to it on used beys, though I still think his shipping prices are on the high side...) do, he just marketed it really well and had his buddy Time make sure he still made those nice, juicy profits, on top of the fact he was still generally breaking even at least as much as a bunch of other sellers who don't get the fame and fanboy legions. As someone who, despite not having much cash at the moment, still buys beys (ask Benjohadi, for one), I have absolutely nothing to gain from calling out shady practices like this (because, and I'll be honest, while not really any better than a number of other sellers, sporkseller's prices were generally comparatively decent, just not as great as everyone makes out) - but I won't lie, watching how sporkseller has so many people hooked on his rhetoric is pretty sickening.


Oh, and if anyone was wondering how common this practice of having friends boost the prices of auctions is? It's definitely more common than most would think. In fact, I'll be honest, I've been asked to do it a couple of times, both in and out of this community - of course I declined, and in those cases, we weren't talking $500 Auctions from people claiming to sell cheap because they care for buyers. Nonetheless the user from this community who asked me to do so is now banned (though I will admit I didn't report it - they wanted a boost of about $10 "so they could make rent payment that month" or something, and I'm a gullible sap - same person scammed me about $100 down the line, which has only made my stance on this kind of thing harsher.)
May. 15, 2013  10:21 PM
 
One thing I will say is that while you could say his prices are no better than someone who cares about low prices such as 3-Dog he does manage to find quite rare stuff. You can moan at me for defending him all you want but that's part of the reason for his success and just because I state the truth doesn't mean I support shady practices of anyone.
May. 15, 2013  10:30 PM
 
(May. 15, 2013  10:21 PM)Ultra Wrote: One thing I will say is that while you could say his prices are no better than someone who cares about low prices such as 3-Dog he does manage to find quite rare stuff. You can moan at me for defending him all you want but that's part of the reason for his success and just because I state the truth doesn't mean I support shady practices of anyone.

So does 3-Dog sometimes, heck even you've had some pretty neat stuff in your time. Ain't nothing more than you can find by being patient and attentive though anyway, and ain't nothing more than any seller with decent capital (3-dog's capital aint all that much) could do, especially if they can make back a lot by having a friend bump their auction's prices. Definitely nowhere near enough to have people crying like their legs are going to be removed when they announce the end of their sales - Heck, having a steady profit stream like that makes it a lot easier to get neat stuff.

But yeah as I said, he is still a pretty solid seller if you ignore the whole "having a friend bump auction prices up to $500 in one case to get the most he can out of unknowing buyers" thing, and I wouldn't call someone like that out unless I was sure something shady was going on - neither in my interests nor that of the plastics community.
May. 15, 2013  10:39 PM
 
Patience is a virtue and one that i'd argue that some of the buyers here lack. Oki's horrendously priced stuff selling proves that in some aspect at least. When a NIB Wolborg MS pops up for a semi decent price it's usually been scooped up within a few days. Also when someone has the only one of what you want out of all the sellers here and on ebay people are more likely to go for it.

Yeah I don't know any sellers of recent times who have owned 2 galeon 2's, 2 Othrous' and 1 Appollon and then sold them all. All prize colours btw.
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