Hate to be this guy tomarrow

[theoneandonly]

Seems like someone, somewhere hacked the site and changed the bid amount. Makes me think that I would never buy anything from that site.

[forgop]

Originally Posted by theoneandonly

Seems like someone, somewhere hacked the site and changed the bid amount. Makes me think that I would never buy anything from that site.

You're not suggesting that the auction sites have users of their own that intentionally bid up items to inflate the bids or not allow them to sell for a certain amount, are you? After all, what means would we have to prove it?

[theoneandonly]

Originally Posted by forgop

You're not suggesting that the auction sites have users of their own that intentionally bid up items to inflate the bids or not allow them to sell for a certain amount, are you? After all, what means would we have to prove it?

That is a possibility too. All I am saying is that I will be one who tends to shy away from buying from such sites. I have by doubts about them. Its also why I do not buy from Ebay. If it seems to good to be true, then it probably isn't true.

[forgop]

Originally Posted by theoneandonly

That is a possibility too. All I am saying is that I will be one who tends to shy away from buying from such sites. I have by doubts about them. Its also why I do not buy from Ebay. If it seems to good to be true, then it probably isn't true.

That's exactly my point-with these sites, there's no way for us to prove we have a legitimate means of tracking who is a real bidder for an item or not. The sites hold all of the cards in that regard.

With ebay, it used to be different because you were able to see the full bidder name of who was bidding on any item. Now, you don't get that luxury. In he past, you could very well link cases of someone having an extra ID to drive up bids for multiple things. Now, it's hard to do that since you only see partial names and cannot investigate this on your own. You'd have to go through ebay and have them do a shill bidding investigation. I'm sure they'd do a thorough job of looking into alleged instances, but you still never know.

At the end of the day, you just have to tell yourself the maximum price you're willing to pay with your bid and walk away should you get outbid. Unfortunately, some people almost get overwhelmed with winning that they fail to see they could get it elsewhere for less money.