Suspicious auto-bidding on product

[dgrochester55]

I regularly buy bulk lots of cards to search through and both collect and flip. There is one seller that I regularly buy lots from where i have spent between $30 and $70 depending on other bidders. They will offer a few boxes at a time, usually I get one or two and prices vary based on interest. The product is 2500-3000 cards from all sports in a medium size postal box with a lot of newer cards but nothing that would be really expensive (Auto's, relic, low print run). It appears to be the seller getting ridding of bulk after opening boxes and there are many similar ones on ebay

Those lots came back this week after being gone for awhile and each listing would have a high max bid within a couple of hours of listing. If you happen to get above the max bid, you are outbid within 30 seconds every single time.

Each box is now well above the high end of what they went in the for with days left at 90-100 dollars. I do not think the seller is schill bidding because I have bought a lot from them and they are always stand up people. Their other products including higher end ones are reasonably priced and not having the same thing happen. The same buyer is bidding on each box. The buyer profile is anonymous, but seems to be a newer one with not too many ratings.

I contacted ebay who had no interest is looking into it or helping. What have others done when they seem things like this happening? Is this shady or is this just higher demand and/or an overzealous buyer?

Edit-Based on the replies, it looks like legitimate bidding. Thanks for the help everyone.

[byronscott4ever]

Maybe try just watching and see if bidding patterns change

[JeffG1954]

Would have to know sellers eBay ID to do any real investigation.

[glen87]

I regularly buy bulk lots of cards to search through and both collect and flip. There is one seller that I regularly buy lots from where i have spent between $30 and $70 depending on other bidders. They will offer a few boxes at a time, usually I get one or two and prices vary based on interest. The product is 2500-3000 cards from all sports in a medium size postal box with a lot of newer cards but nothing that would be really expensive (Auto's, relic, low print run). It appears to be the seller getting ridding of bulk after opening boxes and there are many similar ones on ebay

Those lots came back this week after being gone for awhile and each listing would have a high max bid within a couple of hours of listing. If you happen to get above the max bid, you are outbid within 30 seconds every single time.

Each box is now well above the high end of what they went in the for with days left at 90-100 dollars. I do not think the seller is schill bidding because I have bought a lot from them and they are always stand up people. Their other products including higher end ones are reasonably priced and not having the same thing happen. The same buyer is bidding on each box. The buyer profile is anonymous, but seems to be a newer one with not too many ratings.

I contacted ebay who had no interest is looking into it or helping. What have others done when they seem things like this happening? Is this shady or is this just higher demand and/or an overzealous buyer?

link to some of these auctions?

there are some good people on here who are good at figuring stuff like this out.

[dgrochester55]

Here is a link to a couple of the auctions

https://www.ebay.com/itm/166149602241

https://www.ebay.com/itm/166142479084

[shrevecity]

Could be the seller has angered some buyer and he is going around on other id's or getting friends to bid items way up just to screw with seller. Vit happens from time to time. Remember shill bidders do not want to win they just want to drive prices up.

[sthoemke]

I think it is most likely that you are just getting outbid.

[shrevecity]

I think it is most likely that you are just getting outbid.

Could be that too. Op do you understand how proxy bidding works?

[dgrochester55]

Could be that too. Op do you understand how proxy bidding works?

Yeah, I looked more into that today and I have an idea of how it works on ebay. They tell them the price and ebay bids for them.

Based on the thread feedback so far, it sounds like this might just be a bidder who really wants the product. If so, then that is part of the process. Seemed a little random and out of place to me to want to pay that high for that many boxes, but probably more feasible than it being something fraudulent. I'll be curious to see what happens over the next few weeks.

I started collecting again about a year again so I am still new at a lot of it learning new things even now.

Thanks for the help and feedback everyone.

[rwperu34]

I only checked one of the auctions, but it looked to me like someone was bidding on their phone. Instead of putting in a max bid they just hit "bid now", so they bid it up one increment at a time.

I've bought a few lots like that in the past from other sellers (the plural is key here) and I've noticed a very wide range of how much they go for relative to their content.

[shrevecity]

:doh:I only checked one of the auctions, but it looked to me like someone was bidding on their phone. Instead of putting in a max bid they just hit "bid now", so they bid it up one increment at a time.

I've bought a few lots like that in the past from other sellers (the plural is key here) and I've noticed a very wide range of how much they go for relative to their content.

I think that would be op not knowing what proxy bidding is

[rwperu34]

:doh:

I think that would be op not knowing what proxy bidding is

I guess I didn't really know either :)