Posted by David Sherman on Thursday, January 11, 2007 at 15:52:54 :
I was looking for a certain thing on ebay yesterday and found it offered for a good price, but the listing said "email me before bidding". I haven't heard from him yet, but noticed the item had been pulled. Here's what's strange. First I found a seller that listed multiple quantities of desireable things, all starting at $100, all saying "email me before bidding". All the stuff I put on my watch list got pulled. Then I searched some more and found some of the same items in another very long list of things offered by a different seller all starting at $60, and all with the "email me before bidding" notice. I put some of those things on my watch list, and he pulled all of them too. He seems to be doing one-day listings, and pulling most of the stuff before the auction closes.
Now I found another seller (same one?) with multiple quantities of desireable things all starting at $15, and with the same "email me before bidding" notice. I put the link to that seller (piggybackaura) below. He has 593 things listed and only 43 feedbacks, so I think it's a new user ID.
First I thought maybe he's pulling everything that doesn't get high enough bids, but listing it at a cheap starting price to reduce ebay listing fees without having to pay a reserve price fee. But that doesn't make sense because lots of people try to snipe at the last minute, and if he's paying listing fees on thousands of items listed at $100 or $60 or even $15, and then pulls 99% of them, that adds up to a lot of money.
I'm tempted to bid on a few of the $15 things just to see how the game is played, but I'm afraid he'll turn out to be one of those psychos who rants at me in negative feedback if I don't pay a $1000 shipping charge or something.
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