Does this eBay bidding seem a little suspicious to you?

Question

I have a used, semi-functional, iPod video on eBay right now, and there have only been two bidders. One of the bidders, we'll call him bidder A, seems legit, lot's of good feedback. The other, we'll call her bidder B, only has 2 a total of two feedbacks (both positive though)

I looked up the bidding history between them and you'd think the normal bidding pattern between two bidders would be ABABAB, right? Instead it's something like this:

BBABBBBBBBBBBABABA

Why would bidder B bid 10 times in between? She kept raising the bid from $31 in increments of $2-$5 up to $60.

Is this something that normal buyers do?

Answer 1

No, it is fine. This is happening becase "bidder B" entered a bid and when "bidder A" entered a bid that was lower than "bidder B's" max the site posts as a new bid by "bidder B" so this would mean that "bidder A" tried to outbid the other bidder x number of times and the site kept reposting "bidder B's" next highest increment (whatever it was set at).

Answer 2

It's perfectly normal. eBay allows you to set a maximum bid, right? Say bidder A set a bid of $200 max, and bidder B came along and bid $50. Naturally the system would tell B that his bid is too low. Okay, so he tries again, this time bidding $55. Still too low, so he bids $60, then $65, and so on, until he beats bidder A's maximum bid.

Then bidder A comes along and decides he might want that item a bit more than he originally thought, so he bids a few times in a similar manner in order to beat B's maximum bid, and the pattern escalates as each tries to outbid the other.

And there ya go...

Answer 3

All i can think is that now on ebay you enter a maximum bid so that you dont have to be online all the time. if bidder A enters a maximum bid of £10, and then bidder B puts a maximum bid of £40 then B will be winning, but only with a bid of something like £12.
however, if bidder A bids again with a maximum bid of £14 then this will push B's bid up to £16, without registering A's £14 bid.
A will then bid something like £20 and Bs bid will automatically increase again. this will happen until A gets past £40 then they will be winning, until B puts a maximum bid higher, hence why there isnt the normal ABBABAB bidding war. hope this is right and you understand it.

Answer 4

If bidder "A" bid $60 to start, and you had the starting bid at $10, Bidder "A" 's bid would show as $10. If bidder "B" bid $11 then EBay would automatically show bid for bidder "A" again, up to the highest amount that bidder "A' had bid!

Bidder "B" most likely had bid, and was outbid by "A" 's higher bid, so they bid again (and again). This is not abnormal!

Answer 5

Bidder B probably isn't bidding 10 times in between but her proxy is doing the bidding for her. You can't up your own maximum bid anymore.

Answer 6

Could be that bidder A set a high maximum bid and B is trying to outbid.

Answer 7

it can be legit, a lot of bidders try to slowly increase their maximum bids rather than let ebay increase them automatically, most important thing i can say is don't post the item until the money arrives.

Answer 8

It is normal for a buyer to increase the amount of their maximum bid but it shouldn't increase unless someone bids higher then their maximum bid. I would contact ebay security and ask them if they think it is legit.

Answer 9

New buyers tend to do stuff like that. If you can still look up people's bidding history on eBay, I'd do that. If she's currently bidding on what looks like way too much stuff for you, I'd block her from bidding.

Answer 10

she was probably bored and wanted the other bidder to get overwhelmed when he tried to bid again... bidder A won anyway?