Strange Ebay incident - opinions needed

So,

I was bidding on a item at the last minute. I didn't win, no big deal, but within 2 minutes of the auction ending the item was relisted.

WTH? How can that be?

Is there software to automatically list items after an auction ends if you're a vendor?

I thought the vendor has to sell the item to the winning bid no matter what if there's no reserve. So how can the item get relisted within a minute of the auction ending?

My opinion, it was the vendor bidding against me to drive up the price and he won the auction, so he immediately relisted it. That's not supposed to happen is it?

What are your opinions? Any way around this problem?

Maybe the winner backed out? I don't know, maybe you're right.

How could the winner back out in a minute? I'm going to watch the vendors feedback and see if he gets any for the item he supposedly sold.

No feedback, no sale. Then I'll pass this tidbit on to ebay and see what they make of it. I like to support honest ebay vendors and fry the crooks. They give everyone a bad name.

Are you 100% that it was the same item, and it isn't the case that he had two of them and used "list similar" (so as not to flood the market so to speak)

I'm 100% sure. There's a "view relisted item" button and it showed up immediately after the auction ended.

I'll try again on the item and pay more attention this time to the who the last-minute sniper is. I'm also keeping my eye on the vendors feedback and I guess I should look up the buyer as well and see if a connection is there.

edit: So far no feedback left by the vendor for the buyer. I know it's early but I usually try to pay for my items the next business day after I win them.

Edited by wallythacker 2006-03-09 7:13 PM

Very strange indeed. Can't explain it from my own experiences.

The seller probably had more than one of the item to sell so he relisted immediately. It's not unusual. There is a Jornada seller who regularly lists 720's with a BIN and 5 available. As soon as the last one sells he's got a new listing with 5 more. He must have gotten a big stash from a large company or something.


Sue

Yes, I'm pretty sure there's LOTS of eBay sellers who bid(or have other people bid) on their own item just to raise the price of the item. It just makes sense that crooked sellers will do these things to rip other people off. It shouldn't happen, but it does.

Believe it or not, that "Large Company" very well might be HP itself. Ever since the Jornadas were discontinued, HP seems to be doing strange things with all of the leftover units...

I'm pretty sure Toshiba America used an employee as their front man to sell overstock ppcs a couple years ago. It was pretty transparent. Weird though because you could also buy online from Toshiba America at the same time. I guess Toshiba got the money no matter who sold the item.

Time will tell as I try again this weekend...

Edited by wallythacker 2006-03-09 7:19 PM

If the reserve price wasn't met, you can automatically relist the item. You cannot withdraw any bids made during the last hour of the auction. We need some auction numbers, the original and the relisted one to verify...

Rich

That's what I thought. No fooling around during the last hour of the auction.

If I post the listing numbers are you sharks going to snatch it out from under my nose ?

Edited by wallythacker 2006-03-09 7:22 PM

wallythacker, yu've gone through the 1000 post barrier, congrats.

I wont be snatching anything from anyone

I saw an auction end prematurely a few days ago with only a few minutes to go. I got the impression the buyer killed the auction somehow because they weren't going to make as much $ as they anticipated. I was just setting up my sniper... refreshed and the auction had ended.

Hey, you're right. I smashed the sound barrier! But I did it on a Windows box, not a hpc. I'll make sure to use a hpc for the 2000 mark.

Thanks!