An Ebay Question

[Neil V]

Is it possible for an Ebay seller to see a seller's maximum bid before the auctions is over?

[JDArt]

No.

I assume you mean "bidder's maximum bid."

[Neil V]

Yes, I meant bidder's maximum bid - doh!

That's good to hear, someone tried to snipe me yesterday and came really close to my bid so it made me wonder...

Here is what I got btw...

http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?...3D13%26fvi%3D1

Not a bad deal I don't think...

[Paul Shields]

The seller can't see the bidder's max bid - however it's not unknown for sellers to have other ebay IDs and to bid against their own product which will then show up the maximum bid of the legitimate bidder. I've had this done to me more than once - the seller used another ID to outbid me, which then revealed my maximum bid. The seller can then cancel the 'fake' bid once they've established what your max bid is.

[Neil V]

Interesting Paul, thanks.

[JDArt]

Originally Posted by Paul

The seller can't see the bidder's max bid - however it's not unknown for sellers to have other ebay IDs and to bid against their own product which will then show up the maximum bid of the legitimate bidder. I've had this done to me more than once - the seller used another ID to outbid me, which then revealed my maximum bid. The seller can then cancel the 'fake' bid once they've established what your max bid is.

This is called "shilling" and is strictly forbidden. That doesn't mean it never occurs, of course.

http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/...l-bidding.html

[Paul Shields]

Originally Posted by JDArt

This is called "shilling" and is strictly forbidden. That doesn't mean it never occurs, of course.
http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/...l-bidding.html

It's a variant of shilling. In this case the false bid is quickly withdrawn so as to expose the legitimate highest bid. From my experience ebay will normally turn a blind eye to this activity, and I suspect it's not reported more often than not...