Is he is shilling on Ebay
 

Pretty sure the odds are good that this may be fraud. Buyer beware. 1 buyer, 60% bid history, and has bid on all the sellers cards:confused:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...#ht_500wt_1156

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So I was out bid. Looked at the auctions and found all this in a matter of 15 min. Then I get this reply. I sent this message and within minutes I get a nice explanation. Reply message was sent at 8:04pm. Maybe I am wrong but........... just sayin


From: pup6913
To: wattoent
Subject: Other: pup6913 sent a message about 1911 T205 Jim Delahanty EX+ #130477287874
Sent Date: Jan-24-11 19:50:24 PST

Dear wattoent,

So i was out bid by a guy that seems to have a bid on every card you have and has a bid history of 60% with you. Either he only buys from you 60% of the time or ?????? Well you can guess where I am going. I am retracting my bid and informing ebay of this issue to investigate. Way to many red flags for me. I was after the Matty for just over $1200 in that condition. Best of luck.

- pup6913


Dear pup6913,

The guy who outbid you drove 2 hours this afternoon to come and see the cards I had listed because he did not want to bid on ungraded cards without inspecting them first. He made me an offer on the spot for the lot and I told him I was not interested and wanted to let the auctions play out. He told me to expect bids on most of my collection and that is exactly what he did. I can see where you are going and understand how you would think that but you are off base.

- wattoent

You know bid history only goes back 30 days? It's not unusual for a particular bidder to have a high percentage of bids with a seller they are comfortable with, especially if they are selling similar type items.

Hmmm... The seller has been an ebayer for 10+ years and it looks like he mostly sells cards. Great feedback too. His story could be legit... but then again, I'm a bleeding heart liberal. :o

I believe Pup is the one who retracted the bid

Anybody can retract a bid and put any reason they want. The onus doesn't fall on the seller.

I've pulled my hair out plenty of times when bidders retract bids from out of the blue. Usually the reason they put is "Bid wrong amount", they don't rebid another amount and it ends up sabotaging my auction. :mad:

.

You are right. I did retract. I just feel that this is a coincident thats all. I would have ended the auctions if someone drove 2 hrs and made me a good offer for them. I asked to make an offer for all of them a few days after he first listed them and he said he would end them if we agreed on a price but then a guy drives 2 hrs ironically and he tells him to go home and bid????? Just been to many flags for me. But hey its just me.

Looking at the sellers Feed Back, I do not see any buyer with an "N" and a "6" in their name and a Feed Back rating of 129. So, I guess;

1) The buyer bids on this sellers items, wins and never leaves Feed Back.
2) They bid on items and never win them.
3) There is shilling going on.

David

PS.

I just noticed another thing. The buyer (n...6 with 129 Feed Back) had ONLY bid on this sellers items and THEN they have bid on a few other things listed by two other sellers and have done so, it looks like, within the last hour.

Toolhaus
 

I ran a toolhaus report and the guy's record seems squeaky clean. Maybe the customer who saw them in person offered to low $ for the group and the seller thought the current auctions would bring in more. It is an impressive group and I can imagine that if you lived in the area you might make the drive to see them in person and also have a chance to make an offer that other online folks would not have...

That site doesnt tell you anything more than Ebay does. I have had 2 negs in all the time on ebay and neither have pulled up. Got one from a seller that put a RP 56 mantle in a lot of 56 topps and when I repoted him I got a neg and another from a 1970's aurora HO track I sold. Guy got the track and wanted a refund. Got it back and had a bunch or crappy track with the tabs busted off. Reported that and got neg. But hey at least you dont have to pay for using it:D


Gets even better. Mr 129 has bid on every card. T205,206, and c cards, and a new bidder has arrived on the 205's and has an extrodinary amount of retractions.

[QUOTE=ctownboy;865825]Looking at the sellers Feed Back, I do not see any buyer with an "N" and a "6" in their name and a Feed Back rating of 129. So, I guess;

1) The buyer bids on this sellers items, wins and never leaves Feed Back.
2) They bid on items and never win them.
3) There is shilling going on.

[QUOTE]

A green number in the bid history indicates items won. (or winning I think)

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What i would want to know is why does the guy with 166 feedback have so many retractions????


30-Day Summary
Total bids: 825
Items bid on: 323
Bid activity (%) with this seller: 1% Help
Bid retractions: 61
Bid retractions (6 months): 153


61 retractions in 30 days??


Ive been on Ebay for almost 9 years and i have only 1 bid retraction ever:eek:

Yeah he must not want to keep the Miller. Must have forgot that one. I should shoot him an email and let him know he forgot one.:rolleyes:

This is a guy that scares me. I would block him if I could still see ID's.

I think this is inexcusable that Ebay lets it go on. There should be some kind of automatic alert if anybody has more then a couple retractions a month.

It's not only a sign that he might be shilling auctions, but also that he may be interfering with other sellers auctions.

another bidder, same auction, whats with all the retractions??

d***k( 1 )
Feedback: 100%Positive
Item description: Item Title: 1911 T205 Christy Mathewson EX++ STUNNER!!
Bids on this item: 2
30-Day Summary
Total bids: 101
Items bid on: 40
Bid activity (%) with this seller: 9%
Bid retractions: 35
Bid retractions (6 months): 54

It definitely bolsters the argument that bidder ID's should be made public.

I don't know why Ebay doesn't have any sort of policy against number of bid retractions allowed.

It doesn't look like either of these bidders is regularly bidding in this sellers auctions, so they are either using those ID's to shill their own auctions or they are interfering in other sellers auctions on a regular basis.

I don't uderstand how they are getting away with all those bid retractions. I remember a couple of years ago I bid on a large number of pre-war cards from a set only to notice that my master sheet didn't have the fact on it that I had acquired 3 of the cards so I retracted on those 3 immediately and got a hateful email from ebay about retracting bids and how I couldn't retract again any time soon, sort of a double secret probation. :(

Hi All!
 

So, I got an email this morning from someone who I have bought and sold cards to/from over the past 9 years who also happens to be a regular on this site. He told me that I really need to go check out a thread here because I may just find it of interest. I am the seller in question, wattoent, and thought I should come clear up a few things or to at least add my 2 cents.

First off, to the members here who have given me the benefit of the doubt due to my ebay track record over the last 10+ years I'd like to say thank you. This includes the originator of the thread, pup6913, for not leaving facts out of the description of events as to show me in an unfair negative light. I have always taken pride in the fact that I conduct my business in a highly ethical way and I can always go to sleep at night knowing my mother would be proud of the person she raised.

The original suspected shill bidder, "Mr 129" as he is being referred to, is not my shill. He is a collector who did drive to me to check out the cards I had listed. I live within 2 hours of roughly 10 million people and he was not the only potential buyer to come view the cards, nor the only offer I received outside of ebay. He was seeking a discount and I was seeking top dollar so we did not have a meeting of the minds. No harm no foul. I can see how his high percentage of bids on my cards would be questioned by someone but, as you can see by his bids on my auctions, the vast majority are well under what these cards sell for on ebay on a regular basis. Just like most of you, I am an experienced collector and if I were the type of seller to shill my own auctions why would I do so at a value so far under what I knew they would sell for? I was fully aware that I was listing a group of cards that would generate serious interest and have no shortage of serious buyers bidding. Shill bidders inflate the prices of their auctions to the top of their values not the middle. Shilling $5k worth of cards to $2500 just does not make sense.

As for the other two buyers mentioned in this thread that have a very high number of bid retractions, I also have some serious concerns about their unethical behavior. The one who had two retractions on my auctions as they were in the final minutes, D***K (1), I immediately blocked as soon as I realized I was being screwed with. The second one, E***I (166), did not retract any bids with me and I had no concerns about him until I read this thread.

What made me even more concerned after reading this thread and doing some research on these two unethical bidders is that they have an ebay history together and one of them has an ebay ID that is VERY similar to a poster on this very thread. E***I (166) aka ebay id "Danesei" and D***K (1) aka ebay id "kaidshimozukawa".

Thank you for listening to my explanation of the events and I look forward to being an active member of this site. If anyone has questions of me please ask and I will reply honestly and promptly.

Bryan

Thank you for revealing the habitual retractors. Also for the detailed response.

The plot thickens.

:D Sure did get quiet around here...........

If you listen carefully, you can hear the...

grasshoppers?

Bryan first off I want to say welcome to the board and for giving us the full details. You can see that the activity on those cards, especially the Matty, drove the price down from reaching well above the 1k mark. That Matty was a solid grade 5-6 and had it been slabbed would have reached well into the 2k+ area. Since you are the seller and you have the bid ID's for these morons that screwed your auctions would you feel that it is ethical to out these ID's for us on the board to ensure these guys don't get the chance to screw with any of us?

I wish you the best and do hope that you become and active member here. The wealth of knowledge on this board is second to none. Best of luck on your future auctions and I do hope that if the situation presents itself that we could do business. I do understand that me posting this I may have shut that door and I fully understand. Best wishes


Just realized that the bid ID's were in there. Who is MR 129??

Well, Google says it's a cricket, but entomology is not my strong subject!

Mr129 is legit and goes by "ramminit69" (lol) on ebay.

"Danesei" and "kaidshimozukawa" are the ebay IDs that have way to many retractions to be considered honest ebayers and also have left feedback for each other in 11/2010.

are people dumb enough to register the same id here as their account on ebay who habitually retract bids?

saying the card would've went over 1k w/o all the alleged shadiness is being optimistic. checking the completed auctions the last 2 sgc50s went for 695 and 750 bins and an uglier psa 4 no bid at 645(so who knows what the true value is). this card went over $800 RAW. it's a miscut card and raw, which most people shy away from anyways because of all the potential problems (authentic/altered/misgraded/grading fees). usually raw cards sell for about 1-1.5 grades down than a graded card. imo it went for its full value....if anyone thinks that card is a solid 6 they would not have a problem bidding 1k on it.

edit: i was interested in the e93 mathewson and would've gladly bidded if the price stayed low. was actually hoping people would take this thread seriously and stay away from the cards.

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One of those ebay id's is familiar.

Rawn

I am confused.......
 

I haven't used ebay in quite awhile now, but when I did use it, if I won the item- I'd pay for it and that would be it. I always thought the bid retraction was used for an honest mistake, like "oops, I just bid $20,000.00 instead of $2,000.00" type of thing.

I guess what I'm saying is - what is the purpose of so many bid retractions? Is it just to mess with legit bidders, bidding the item up and then just backing out because they only intended to play games in the first place? Did the bid retractor never really want the item?

Could someone please enlighten me on this- I sure would appreciate it (seriously)

Thanks- Clayton

Bidding, with the intention of retracting that bid, allows you to see what others have entered as their max bids. With so many people sniping these days, I don't see that as a very useful tool.

Clayton I guess you could use 2 accounts and bid it up then back out at the end dropping the $ and hoping that the inflation kept other bidders at bay ensuring your win at a lesser $

Shimokawaza... was that u messing with a seller?

Incidentally, lawn crickets in florida share a resemblence to boston grasshoppers.

LOL! Somebody finally came out and said something.

I haven't seen this much tip-toeing since Tiger Woods last press conference with his wife.

Thanks
 

Thanks for explaining that to me guys- I understand now :)

Sincerely, Clayton

+1, I thought it was just going to blow over...

Ua Mau ke Ea o ka ʻĀina i ka Pono.

David, are you talking with food in your mouth again? Did you mean to say "You make me want to ride a pony"?
:)

Hawaii motto, loosely means "The life of the land is perpetuated in righteousness."

Curiously I came up with the same thing with my Internet translator set on Gaelic to English. This Hawaiian phrase is our state motto and, in my usual obtuse way, it may be relevant to the matter at hand.

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Why did you wait until you got called out to say anything? Wtf?

What's with all the retractions?

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cool one more to the block/ignore list

+1 (Unless, of course, I'm on your block/ignore list. Then: nm.)

:eek:

Just when you thought you have seen it all