EBay Monty weirdness

alfaseeka · #1 (**permalink**) 05-30-2007, 03:30 AM

Wow! And wow again! Just been watching the end of the auction for the metallic orange Monty from Adelaide. At 15 mins to go the bidding was around $25900 and someone came in with a killer bid of $35K. It stayed around that until several mins b4 close and dropped back to $26900, then went back up to $35K just before close, and finally came back down to $28500 (under reserve) at close.

Any idea how this happens? It must freak the bidders no end. Makes the auction for the Giulia 101 look straightforward.

**italiansedanman** · #2 (**permalink**) 05-30-2007, 09:04 AM

Very rapid bid retractions by an asociate of the seller? That's my more sinister idea, or perhaps a quick change-of-mind...

**Zunige** · #3 (**permalink**) 05-30-2007, 09:40 AM

Bids towards the end of the auction that are retracted are a rather serious issue, since the "killer bid" serves to expose the maximum that the current bidder had entered. By retracting the "killer bid", and then re-entering one just below the exposed maximum, one actually gets the legitimate bidder to bid up to his/her max. It's obvious to me that this is what went on here. The only reason that this isn't going to hurt the highest bidder is because the reserve was not met.

This could very well be a car that is worth the reserve price, but I would not deal with a seller who resorts to these tactics, period. I would also report him to ebay.

In the U.S.A. at least, it seems like very good cars don't reach their reserve. However, they often sell afterwards for the reserve price, when the highest bidder and the seller communicate after the auction close, and upon an in person inspection. (I know of one U.S. Montreal that sold this year for $30k USD, after the reserve was not met. The seller never resorted to any of these shenanigans.)

Best regards,