Am I being scamed? (Dealer: Tonelli?)

[Legato_lover]

It might be because I'm a worry wart, but I'm having a little bit of uneasiness about this site I'm bidding on.

First, it is controlled by the person selling the photographs. (Named Joe Tonelli?) He has a thing on ebay called joescollectabiles or something. I've never personally purchased anything from him.a

Anyway, I put high bid amounts on three photos with the intentions of selling at least one to make up for buying the rest. It would seem that at 9:00 this morning, all the bids went just about right up the to the maximum at the same time--in less than 1 minute.

So, like, am I being cheated? Because the guy has the power to manipulate bids as he sees fit. I know the photos, ebay wise, are likely more way more than what I am bidding, but I hate hate hate being cheated. Do you have any insight into this? Either, the character of the seller, or if this is a good idea? I noticed no other "bids" were put in at eight in the German section--it was only on my three photographs.

I'm not trying to accuse anyone, but I am now really worried about bidding off of ebay.

[Georg]

I have gotten some good stuff off of E-Bay (and been hurt once or twice), and but you have to read and asks your question before you bid. Now how the seller did controlled the auction. It sound like you was under the money (if you were planning on re-selling one photo to pay for three). You must not have bided much on e-bay, the last minute of bidding is where you are made or where you are lost( I call that sand-baging-when the bider wait until the last moment to bid-it is just part of the game.) . It does not seem like the seller did anything wrong (unless he cancelled the auction or you think that he was putting in fake bids). IMO-If you would have put in a fair bid you may have won.In this case I do not think that you should have used the seller name.

[HJ-Collector]

ppl bid up on there own items (auction) on ebay useing freinds and familys accounts all the time ive seen it myself i however have had no dealings with this guy myself so i dont know him but watch out!

regards

[guscanoesp]

It sounds like shill bidding. Unfortunately if it is a private site auction, there is little you can do. On Ebay it is different, as you can report it and the culprits get punished.


Read this link. It shows what shill bidding is and how to detect it.


How to spot shill bidding...


Regards,



Gus

[history-buff1944]

I don't think its a case of shill bidding but more like "sniping." Sniping goes on all the time and it happens to me a lot and I also snipe many times myself-mainoly on those who sniped me in the past.

Anyway, shill bidding is against ebay regs and if a person is cought at it-they are banned for life. However, all one has to do to get back on ebay is start a new account using a new email address and such.

As I can't prove against the above-its only my humble opinion that you are a victim of being sniped--which is totally legal and accepted there. I don't like it myself but-when someone snipes me-I snipe them back on every occasion I can get. Also, if I have no real intention of buying a certain item but I do see their ebay name as the person bidding-I sometimes raise the bidding price by a few dollars at a time-as my way of getting some revenge :-D Call me evil-I don't mind-because they do the exact same thing to me-which is why I do it in the first place ;-)

One guy that really annoys me-I snipe him as much as I can afford to do so. Most of the time I win the item were fighting over-but the rest of the time-he does not get the item for whatever his minimum bid was. I only do that to one ebay bidder-so it's nobody who is here on this site.

[guscanoesp]

I don't think its a case of shill bidding but more like "sniping." Sniping goes on all the time and it happens to me a lot and I also snipe many times myself-mainoly on those who sniped me in the past.

Anyway, shill bidding is against ebay regs and if a person is cought at it-they are banned for life. However, all one has to do to get back on ebay is start a new account using a new email address and such.

As I can't prove against the above-its only my humble opinion that you are a victim of being sniped--which is totally legal and accepted there. I don't like it myself but-when someone snipes me-I snipe them back on every occasion I can get. Also, if I have no real intention of buying a certain item but I do see their ebay name as the person bidding-I sometimes raise the bidding price by a few dollars at a time-as my way of getting some revenge :-D Call me evil-I don't mind-because they do the exact same thing to me-which is why I do it in the first place ;-)

One guy that really annoys me-I snipe him as much as I can afford to do so. Most of the time I win the item were fighting over-but the rest of the time-he does not get the item for whatever his minimum bid was. I only do that to one ebay bidder-so it's nobody who is here on this site.

Sorry, but that is not sniping. If I understood his post, the auction of the photos is still up and running.

A sniper is someone who bids at the last few seconds of the auction. He does want to get the item. It just happens that he does not want others to discover his maximum bid, that is why he bids at the last few seconds. This way, the rest of the bidders do not have time to make a counter bid on the item.

I prefer to be sniped than to have a guy discover my maximum bid three days before the end of the auction by making multiple one dollar bids until they become the highest bidders again. That will only end up making the item artificially expensive.

After all, the sniper is only bidding for the maximum price he is willing to pay, so if my bid is higher, no matter if he bids at the last seconds, I will still be the winner of the auction. I have discovered that the best system to bid on Ebay and avoid these guys as well as bid wars is to be a sniper. There are nice tools to make sniping bids out there. Try it and you will see it is much more effective than the traditional bidding method.


Regards,


Gus the sniper



Gus

[Nige H]

As stated sniping more than likely, there are even SniperBots that will win you that item, as long as you put in a higher maximum bid than all the other guy's. The SniperBot, reacts to your bid straight away and keeps updating until the auction is complete, its only possible win, if you can get your manual bid in as in the last second of the auction, so that the bot is placing the next bid just as the auction has finished. Its a risky strategy to try but it does work about 50% of the time.

The other thing is some people will post a insane maximum bid price on an item and then just let the auction runs its coarse, so unless your going to match there bid than again you'll lose out.


Nige.

[FrankBooth]

The other thing is some people will post a insane maximum bid price on an item and then just let the auction runs its coarse, so unless your going to match there bid than again you'll lose out.


Nige.

This is what I did to get a set of HJ/RFS straps on ebay Germany, I was willing to pay a lot for them because I really wanted them.

[guscanoesp]

This is what I did to get a set of HJ/RFS straps on ebay Germany, I was willing to pay a lot for them because I really wanted them.

It means that you were willing to pay that insane price. But the problem is that if the price actually reaches that level, you have to stand by your bid. As a strategy, it is too risky for me. The principle of sniping is to first determine which is the maximum price you are prepared to pay for an item, and stick to that price.


Regards,


Gus

[Legato_lover]

Nevermind, everyone. I've learned enough to know the seller is totally legit and apparently a really swell guy. I wasn't trying to damage anyone's reputation--I just was curious what was going on.