Third party bidders?

[sancho]

I recently auctioned a set of cranks and was shocked to see that the winning bidder's feedback was well into five figures. I Googled the winner, Shop Airlines America, Inc., and learned that they are a proxy who bids and ships for interested parties (mostly overseas, I guess). I came across lots of complaints from sellers (in my Google search, not the actual feedback), but despite the fact that the buyer took a few days to pay for the cranks he had won, the transaction went smoothly.

Now I'm starting to notice other auctions where the highest/winning bidder has a ridiculously high number of feedback responses.

Has anybody here dealt with one of these third party bidders before? How does it work?

 

[nathanman]

From what I can gather its for people who want an item and can't be online when the auction finishes, they tell the proxy bidder what their top price is and they bid last minute for the item. It's a bit pointless imho as I just bid the max I'm willing to pay and take my chances.

 

[technodup]

People get all annoyed about things like that and sniping and I don't know why. No matter what system you use it's the highest bid which wins, not the last.

Bid once, bid high, forget everyone else.

 

[sancho]

These guys don't just act as proxy bidders--they also forward the package, which is shipped to them first.

One of the issues I came across in my search for information on this third party bidder is that when the actual buyer complains about something getting lost or damaged during transit, it becomes the seller's problem even though the seller fulfilled his end of the bargain.

 

[bagpipes]

Sounds like a proxy would just delay the shipping. Why not just use a sniper site? It helps to keep the price lower instead of placing you high bid early on and the seller keeps bumping it up with a secondary account. Sniper sites take your bid up to a week in advance and post your max bid in the last 2 seconds.

I refuse to place a high bid early as I've had "people" with zero feedback, aka the sellers new account, bump up the price $1-$10 at a time up to 30-40 times in a row. Once you become "out bid" and the auction closes, the seller contacts you and says that the high bidder refused to pay and will now sell it to you at your last and highest price. It's ridiculous; so I just opted out of that approach.

It has already been said - the person willing to pay the most will always win even if you use a sniper site. I just find it keeps the field a little more honest since everyone is faceless on the net. (although in real life I'm quite a looker)

 

[Barneyballbags]

Bid once, bid high, forget everyone else.

That sums it up perfectly for me.

If I want something, I work out the absolute maximum that I'd be willing to pay (then add a couple of £ just in case ), and then stick that amount on as my maximum bid.

All I do then is wait for the email from eBay which either makes or breaks my day!