Hi Bid Auction House
 

Anyone have a positive or negative experience with Hi Bid? A friend was the under bidder on an expense vintage card. He was contacted that the winning bidder back out. It appears my friend is being offered the card for his highest bid. He isn’t sure what to make out of it. Thanks

You might want to PM Leon to have him move this to the main board to get more responses. I have never heard of them.

Do their terms of service allow the house to bid on items? If so, they might have been shill bid up and then the house bid an extra amount and your friend didn't bite. Or it could be honest and the auction house was told the buyer wouldn't pay. How many days between auction end and failure to pay? Did the auction house say that they banned the bidder? You could ask if they did.

Your friend could also counteroffer that they would only pay 1 increment above the 3rd highest bidder, since the highest bidder wasn't a true competitor.

That website looks like an auction house aggregator. Not sure why you would go through an aggregator when you can go direct to the AH. I guess your friend should decide if he wants to pay what he bid or pass.

Hibid is not an auction company they are an auction platform and marketing company. They provide auction houses the software to run online auctions. Some houses use multiple platforms to increase their reach. Companies like this, invaluable and auctionzip can offer a huge hand up in exposure for your auctions. Hibid was the platform I used when I first started online. In addition to myriad problems as an auction user, the software allows the auction companies to see max bids. It didn't take me long to switch away from them as I suspect there are rampant games being played and it sounds like your friend is caught up in one of them.

Scott, would you suggest his friend counters knowing there's shenanigans possible? Maybe at a price that would make the AH realize folks know what's up.

Thanks for the replies. He got an email the next day that the high bidder backed out. He was offered the card at one increment above the third highest bid. He hasn’t decided what he will do yet.

My guess is the high bidder was a shill, your buddy has the power now, Swarmee said it best, counter at 2/3 what his high bid was.

The next day? I'd tell them to forget it; you might be able to get it for 30% less in the next auction. As said before, if they can see your high bids, they can much more easily play illegal games.

Based on the replies, I told him to just walk away. It all sounds to convenient. I appreciate everyones input.

It's a dirty auction, you can walk away or use that information to your advantage, you want the cards? Make them an offer that is fair to you.

As others have said, HiBid is an auction platform. You get everything from mid size, very reputable auction houses to small back woods actions in the middle of nowhere. A lot of the AH on HiBid seem to be associated with real estate agents (e.g. the auctions are to sell the contents of houses during estate clearance). I'd suggest he considers the actual AH that he's dealing with. I've used HiBid and it can be really useful for finding good prices but some auction houses know nothing about cards. They're descriptions and packing can be iffy.

This
 

I had this happen with a well known auction house - I'm always a bit wary, but was content to get the lot for the bid I had placed and accepted the offer. Another time I knew I was shilled and refused to buy it (in hindsight wish I had - it was Mastro)

Thanks for the information. I appreciate your input.

AH's
 

Which AH's are trustworthy and have reasonable BP's? Thanks.

You should create a separate post in the Pre-War section to ask this question. It will get more visibility there and you'll get more thorough responses, rather than in the middle of a different thread.