It's not shill bidding as such but..........

[Anordinarymum]

I saw a dress in my size and made a bid. Someone instantly bid higher. I bid again and they jumped in and bid higher.
Next day I made another bid and again they jumped in seconds after I made my bid.
I smelled a rat. I do buy on eBay but I'm not experienced at all.

So I left it and the next day I made another bid only to be followed by another bid straight away, so this person is either cheating or using some method of artificially pushing the price of their goods up.

By now the dress as it is no longer the bargain buy I was hoping for plus the postage is not exactly cheap either........
I bid again by one pound...........
..they outbid me..
..I did it again..
..and so did they..

So now we have a second hand albeit very nice dress going for a silly price, and I bid again.. and so did they.

I don't want the dress now so I desisted from bidding in case I won the damn ting.......
I see today they have won, so really nobody did.

Private bidder. automatic bidding system in place. I think it is shill bidding but with eBay's blessing and I'm unimpressed, plus I really wanted that dress :(

Didn't they just have a higher max bid so eBay automatically bids up to their max amount in increments as you increased your bid?

You can enter a maximum bid on ebay, so you'd be instantly be outbid if they've put in a higher amount than you.

From eBay: ebay allows bidders to place a high maximum bid, then uses just enough of that bid to keep them in the lead. This is called proxy bidding. You're being automatically outbid because another bidder has placed a maximum bid on the item.

This is perfectly normal and part of the auction process. Someone just outbid you

OneMoreLight says it much more clearly!

Yeah.. it's the private bidder listing protected thing that annoyed me. Plus this person was selling loads of other stuff and not one single bid on any of it - only the dress.

I had the feeling that if I bid on any of the other items there would be a private bid following mine.

I don't think you're understanding eBay. You add a 'max bid' of say £25- if anyone bids under this amount they will automatically be outbid by you

@Anordinarymum, if the listing starts at, say, 99p, and there's a bid on it already, you bidding £1.19 and that is immediately outbid, it is because the first bid was higher than yours.

If i list an item as a seller, I'd start it off at 99p to get a lot of interest.Someone might come along and bit £10 or something, and if nobody bids more than them they'll get it for 99p.

I recently bid on something just before the auction ended. It only had one bid of £6.99 but I bid something like £60+ on it. I 'won' the item for £15.19 because the first bid was for £14.99.

bid not bit

If you get a message from the seller offering you the dress for your last bid, then I’d be suspicious. But other than that, this is how eBay works.

eBay lets you put in the maximum amount you would pay for an item. It will then bid for you up to that amount.

So if I saw a dress I wanted on at £50p but I knew I was willing to pay £10, I would put in a max bid of £10. At the start, I'm winning and paying 50p. If someone puts in £1, eBay would increase my bid to £1.50 and so on until it reaches my maximum bid.

Sounds like that's what's happening here.

Yes thank you people. I get it now :)

I'm not happy though...... I liked that dress. I still smell a rat and will keep an eye on the seller just to see if the dress comes back on sale because I'm on da case :)

PPs are right about how eBay works. They would have immediately outbid you because their original maximum bid was higher. Sounds like someone else just liked the dress as much as you did.

I get it now. I still smell a rat

I really don’t think you do get it or you’d understand that this isn’t suspicious behaviour.

@Anordinarymum

No, I don't think you do get it. Do you normally get this odd and bizarre about situations?

LOL.. I do sound a bit obsessional don't I..ha ha :)

If this level of paranoia is normal for you OP, it must be exhausting so it's a good time to break the cycle. Buying a dress on eBay shouldn't be this stressful for anyone.

Chill out with the paranoia comments guys. It's only a dress. Having said that I notice the seller only has feedback from private listings

spooky music