We're new to E-Bay, and although I don't like it so far, there have been a few parts we've bidded on that we needed but didn't get and a few parts that we've bidded on and were contacted by another bidder letting us know what they say is their Max Bid and if we're willing to go over that, go for it, otherwise save us both some $$'s and don't jack the price up on him/her.

My question is - As a bidder having never sold a thing online anywhere, how is it that another bidder is able to contact me to tell me what they say their Max Bid is? As a bidder, I don't see where there is an option to contact other bidders. How did this bidder get my email addy??????????

Thanks in advance for your reply.

 

Never communicate with any other bidders.

Don't let them know your intentions... IF they really want it, let them pay for it.

Ebay is great, check the sellers reputation, make sure you contact the seller immediately with your intentions. Stick to low dollar items until your reputation is up, some sellers may cancel your bids if you have less than 10 reputation points or so.

If you plan to sell, make sure you are only shipping to the United States... you will get burned on shipping to other countries...

 

agreed. those people aren't supposed to have access to your info. Don't contact them, play by the rules, and if you get burned, they're liable, because they broke the rules.

Ryan

 

Sounds fishy.....
Just use the automatic bid option, where you set your max bid and the computer bids for you up to your max, if if goes over your max you don't win. Easy

 

I've purchased several small items (my clown collection) to not only get my Rep points up, but also because they were pieces I didn't already have.

What brought up this question is that the 1st item I ever bidded on was a Early Bronco hard top that was within a few hours from us. I began by bidding in $25 incriments. We had a Max we were willing to go to, but I never noticed that option.

Until recently, I also never noticed that there is no way of contacting another bidder unless they are a seller with a current item. I only noticed because there's a bidder that seems to be after the same collection I have, but never goes as high as my Max. I wanted to contact him to find out if he's jacking up the price on purpose or if he really wants the items. When I could find no way to contact him/her, thats when it dawned on me that I was contacted by another bidder, on the first item I've ever bid on, before I ever got to the Max we were willing to buy the item for. Saved that buyer almost $400.00 (according to what he told me his Max Bid was). He told me his Max was $650, I was willing to go to $450, but stopped at $250. He got it for $252.50.

I've since gotten some good deals on E-Bay, but I'd like to know how this guy was able to contact me. I also wish I would have saved the emails, but I was new to the game.

 

Report the other bidders to Ebay.

You can click on an items "bid history" then another users name to bring up their "profile" then use the "contact member" form to contact another member. Just about the same as using email thru the system here.

When you contact someone you have the option of keeping your email secret. If you reply to someone that has contacted you I believe it reveals your email address to them although there may be a selection to not reveal it. I have never used that part of the system.

 

They can click on your eBay ID and e-mail you through eBay's mail system.

 

Never had another bidder contact me, at least not that I noticed. I know I've had some others jack up the price on me, but, then, that's part of an auction. I don't make any attempt to "save" another bidder some money, and I don't expect them to help me either.

There is one old scam that I would watch for--sometimes, probably more often than we notice, the seller will have a friend, or maybe even a different account for the same person, bidding, to run the price up. If you've noticed this other bidder consistently running up your items, you might contact eBay anyway.

 

To do the maximum bid is easy, just put your maximum bid in the bid box and it bids up to it for you. Otherwise there are programs that people use to do that with (although it's against ebay policy). As for contacting other bidders, the only real reason to have to do that is if you are having problems with the seller, and you want to see if other bidders of similar items are also having problems. This is secondary to feedback, but I did see it happen with two sellers I was looking to buy from. One got sick and had been in the hospital, the other was a few years before that in the huricanes in florida. My only neutral feedback is from 99 when my house was broke into and they stole every electronic thing in here, computer, answering machine, vcr, etc. Seller tried to contact me, but I had no computer, no answering machine, and I started working a bunch of overtime to replace stuff.

 

"Saved that buyer almost $400.00 (according to what he told me his Max Bid was). He told me his Max was $650, I was willing to go to $450, but stopped at $250. He got it for $252.50."

I'd be leery of what any bidder told you his/her max bid "will be", as they could inflate that to discourage you from bidding (exactly what appeared to happen in the case you cited). If the other bidder's REAL max bid was only $400, they both kept you from getting the item you wanted and short-circuited the whole bidding process. If I had been the seller, and found out about this, I would have been rather upset, to say the least!

 

I bid on a snare drum once that had a 10 dollar starting bid with no reserve. The drum was worth 200 dollars easy but I had a max bid of 125 set on it. After my max bid was reached, the guy bidding against me emailed me and asked how high I was going, because he had just bid 175 for it. I replied and told him that 125 was my max and the drum was his as far as I was concerned.
I bet the seller was greatfull for me getting the price for his drum up there. Heh.

 

The ONLY reason a bidder would contact another bidder and want to colaborate prices and bids is to get the item cheaper for themselves(they are not looking out for you), or as was stated earlier to "highjack" the open bidding process. If you are bidding on an item, bid what you are willing to pay. Don't let another influence your decision or discourage you from bidding against them.

 

Definitely report that user to Ebay. He should only be able to send you an email (get your address) if he is directly involved in a deal with you (he is either the buyer or seller of an item you are either bidding on or selling). If he is "just" another bidder on an item he should not be able to get your address. If he got your email address then there is something fishy about the whole thing.

 

So far the only items I've had from ebay are with the "buy it now" option, I don't really trust bidding, so I always look for the items that have "buy it know" and if it's an acceptable price I'll go for it.

=D

 

Thanks for all the info guys. Much appreciated.