Did I Miss Something about This Sasieni?

[buroak]

I suspect the price of this Sasieni Hurlingham had more to do with inexperienced buyers than anything else, but I am still flabbergasted.

 

[dmcmtk]

No you didn't miss anything, about twice, or really more than twice, the usual price. Shape 52, the Hurlingham is quite common, one could easily find a "second" like an Old England for less than $50.

 

[buroak]

OK. That was what I thought. Colwright, like kapster13, is apparently a seller on a hot streak.

 

[dmcmtk]

PM sent.

 

[ssjones]

57 bids, 10 retracted. Someone is still boosting prices.
I've called Ebay twice. But as it's win for them and sellers, they haven't rushed to a solution.

 

[buroak]

I did not realize there were that many retractions on the listing. It looked to be a case of two neophytes locked in mortal combat. Interesting...

 

[dmcmtk]

I can't see that, but I'm on a desktop. Two guys slugged it out from $205, which would have been a "high normal" price.

 

[buroak]

I cannot see the retractions from my desktop, either.

 

[ssjones]

I'm not sure if the retractions had any real effect, but there's the shot.

 

[buroak]

That number of retracted bids can hardly be attributed to accident or coincidence.

 

[xrundog]

Somebody is up to something. Seems like it must be the sellers. I can't see how the bid retraction thing benefits bidders. I'm still getting pipes I want at reasonable prices. But I have a tendency to work the less popular markets. Is it only happening with the higher dollar collectable pipes? Is it happening with all the sellers in that market? Or just some?

 

[ssjones]

It's so random and effecting many different sellers, that I don't think it is a dishonest seller. I also can't quite see where it benefits anyone but Ebay and the random sellers. What we can't see from that screen shot is the retracted bids and what happened between the $202 and the jump to $430. I suspect the retracted bids have some purpose besides mischief. This is occurring on dozens of pipe auctions.