8mm Forum: Rigged auctions on ebay?

»	8mm Forum » General Yak » Rigged auctions on ebay?

UBBFriend: Email this page to someone!

Author

Topic: Rigged auctions on ebay?

Osi Osgood
Film God

Posts: 10204
From: Mountian Home, ID.
Registered: Jul 2005

posted May 12, 2008 05:34 PM

Hey, I have a question for you folks.

I was just bidding on an auction for three optical sound features, (eh, go figure?)!

I wait until the very last minute, noticing that it is at 41.00 dollars. I think I'll catch them off guard and put a bid of 106 dollars and to just make it a little original, I'll add fifty cents, making it 106.50.

Immediately, the auction is at EXACTLY 106.50!!

This is way too coincidental!! Though I won the auction, (and each feature is just 35.00 dollars, not too bad, they'd better have damn good color as the auction said!)

I'd be willing to bet a lot of money that this seller (Molehillcreamy) has some kind of bid fixing, (in order to bring the bid instantly up to whatever you have placed as your highest bid)!

Is this legal or illegal?

--------------------
"All these moments will be lost in time, just like ... tears, in the rain. "

| IP: Logged

Roy Neil
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 203
From: Menlo Park, CA
Registered: Sep 2007

posted May 12, 2008 05:46 PM

Sounds like the bidder before you had placed an amount just under your bid; when you sniped it proxied his bid to the max which was equivalent to your bid. Coincidence is my guess. Even if the seller had a way of divining your max bid ( friends at eBay ), he would then have to have a way of raising the PREVIOUS bid to your maximum - you cant change the auction amount without actually ' bidding '. So if he placed a bid after you did then you might be onto something, but unless someone bid after you it was just a coincidence.

| IP: Logged

Dan Lail
Film God

Posts: 2110
From: Loganville, Georgia, USA
Registered: Jun 2003

posted May 12, 2008 06:37 PM

Osi, I have done lots of eBay transactins with this seller. He is not a scammer. The bidder with the $41.00 top bid had a proxy of $105.00. When you placed your bid it was $1.50 over his proxy. Check out the bid history. I had a $30.00 proxy. [Smile]

| IP: Logged

Osi Osgood
Film God

Posts: 10204
From: Mountian Home, ID.
Registered: Jul 2005

posted May 12, 2008 09:14 PM

Good to hear Dan,

It looks like I just really lucked out on this one. I hope the prints have the great color that this fella promises.

--------------------
"All these moments will be lost in time, just like ... tears, in the rain. "

| IP: Logged

Steven Sigel
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 701
From: Massachusetts
Registered: Jun 2003

posted May 12, 2008 11:21 PM

Just as Dan said - here's what is going on here -- if you bid something that is less than 1 bid increment above the previous high bidders proxy bid, then it will go up to your max immediately...

In your case, the previous bidder had a high bid of $105, which he placed at 9:40 am PDT. Your bid of $106.50 (less than one increment above $105) was placed at 3:12 pm PDT (so almost 6 hours AFTER his bid)...

So unless you are accusing the other bidder of being a mind reader :-) , I think it's clear that this was just a coincidence.

| IP: Logged

Dan Lail
Film God

Posts: 2110
From: Loganville, Georgia, USA
Registered: Jun 2003

posted May 12, 2008 11:36 PM

Steve, I think Osi was the mind reader. He knew exactly how much to place his proxy in order to win. [Big Grin]

Osi, I need help with some lottery numbers. [Big Grin]

| IP: Logged

Winbert Hutahaean
Film God

Posts: 5468
From: Nouméa, New Caledonia
Registered: Jun 2003

posted May 13, 2008 01:31 AM

Osi...

Apart from your Ebay question, I also sent a question to this seller. He is not a scammer as Dan told us. But he is not an expert in 8mm but more to 16mm.

The question that I asked is about the diameter of the core. He describe the 3 are full feature but he also told me that it is 12 inch diameter. I dont think they are compleat version.

He told me that our conversation will be posted on his auction so other will see what are listed. But to the end, I didn't see was posted, unless the one you see on it now.

Keep us posted to what you are going to receive. If they are compleat then you are the lucky one!

cheers

--------------------
Winbert

| IP: Logged

Osi Osgood
Film God

Posts: 10204
From: Mountian Home, ID.
Registered: Jul 2005

posted May 13, 2008 09:28 AM

I've received these films on these cores before, and so far, I've never ran into a film not being a complete, but I have ran into a few people that have ran into incomplete films.

My hope is that these are prints that have never been run, so they will have very good condition, obviously.

These opticals, on cores, can look very deceiving. There is usually more film on a core than it looks. I've cored these full features before, and they come to just about this size and remember, these optical features were always a little edited. The "Force Ten From navarone" was about 1 hour and 45 minutes on optical sound, for instance.

--------------------
"All these moments will be lost in time, just like ... tears, in the rain. "

| IP: Logged

All times are Central

Printer-friendly view of this topic

UBB.classic^TM 6.3.1.2