bid retraction - does this happen often?

[paddingtonbear1]

I was bidding on a Karen Millen item, the auction ended tonight while I wasn't in. Someone else put in a higher bid, and would have won - except 10 mins later (half an hour before the end of the auction) - it was retracted. Comment was 'wrong amount'. Result that their bid was then the same amount as mine, and as mine was made earlier, mine stood and I won. Their retracted amount was 1.50 more. Does this sound suss? Or does it happen often?

I dont know...but some people do get mates to fake bid on their items to get higher prices. My mate wanted me to fake bid on his car tools as he had loads of watchers and no one bidding.
That might of been what they were doing and retracted because they wouldnt of 'really' sold as they were a higher bid than you. If thats makes sense?

sounds like shill bidding to me! the seller could have a seperate account, to bid against you to increase the selling price. Have a nose about the other bidders history. have they bought stuff from that seller before, live in same area etc?

missjennipenni that was my first thought, but I didn't know if I was being unfair. Nor sure how I can find more info though - am fairly new to ebay. The bid history shows they kept upping the bids by small amounts themselves, rather than what I did which was to put in a highest bid and let ebay bid up to that for me. their recent bidding activity is 40% for that seller recently, not sure if they actually won anything - how do I find this out?
If I think this is suss I guess I report it to ebay?

Id report it, yes. Then they will look into it, and do something (hopefully!) about it.

40% is a high amount for just one seller, sounds suspiouds to me

suspicious! lol

One way to find out if theyve brought anything is look fortheir names in either feedback thread- but may take a while depending on how much theyve brought/sold.
I would def report it does sound suss.

It is possible to search for bids made by a given ebayer. Do a search on bids made by the retracting bidder. If this person has bid on a lot of items by the seller, you have evidence to show to ebay.

Yes, this is suspicious.

thanks - I have reported it. I checked their completed listings and found another bidder which had 88% activity with that seller and 2 bid retractions!
Also found evidence of the same with another auction I won - the bidder there had 100% activity with the seller! Since when does 1 person need womens and mens clothes, a PSP, satellite receiver, cufflinks etc all in a few weeks?! Maybe they do and I am too suspicious. But I reported them anyway.

the bidders only say 'bidder1, bidder2' - would searching on these work?

prob not cause it means their details are kept private so no telling if its the same Bidder 1 or 2.

yeah I thought that might be the case - but I did search through the sellers completed listings, so I could report any more evidence! I will wait and see what ebay say...

Message withdrawn

shill bidding happens a lot, so always check out the other bidders history if you are suspicious. I tend to use a sniper at the last 5 seconds, so that there is no time for the seller to shill bid!

Another trick some sellers do is, shill bid like what has happened here, but instead of retracting the bid (which can look suspicious) is to offer you it as a 2nd chance offer. I tend to always refuse 2nd chance offers because of this