Something's fishy here

[LargeTuba]

https://www.ebay.com/itm/363332377266

55 bids right after listed
$620 total dollars

[the elephant]

The first bid looks legit. One time only, probably going to jump in again in the final ten seconds. One person with only 35 feedback points has bid like seven or eight times. Probably some stupid kid or inexperienced buyer. ALL of the remaining bids are from one account with ZERO feedback points. This means they have never sold or bought anything. It is a fake account used by the seller to slowly drive up the price, likely a bot programmed to bid on some sort of a schedule. So yes, I would not trust this seller, regardless of his 100% Feedback score. I just don't trust sellers I cannot meet selling things I cannot touch. But that is just me. And the info I post here regarding the bidding patterns is right off the eBay bidding page.

Unless this can be had for under $750 I would pass. It will likely require a lot of work. The horn is beat to heck and back and has only three valves.

[hrender]

20Js come up for sale fairly often (e.g. this), often at very reasonable prices. I'd pass on this unless you're looking for a repair project.

[BopEuph]

ALL of the remaining bids are from one account with ZERO feedback points. This means they have never sold or bought anything. It is a fake account used by the seller to slowly drive up the price, likely a bot programmed to bid on some sort of a schedule.

I don't doubt it's a bot, but you usually see one person's bid increasing like that when a newcomer's highest bid is still not higher than the current highest bidder.

For instance:

c***7(35feedback score: 35) $100.00 24 Mar 2021 at 3:28:06am PDT
3***l(0feedback score: 0) $100.00 24 Mar 2021 at 3:42:55am PDT
3***l(0feedback score: 0) $74.00 24 Mar 2021 at 3:42:45am PDT
3***l(0feedback score: 0) $62.00 24 Mar 2021 at 3:42:39am PDT
3***l(0feedback score: 0) $60.00 24 Mar 2021 at 3:42:28am PDT
3***l(0feedback score: 0) $55.00 24 Mar 2021 at 3:42:10am PDT

"c***7" is likely the kid you're talking about. He probably kept putting in random bids to put in the smallest he could get away with, but "3***l" had the highest bid with $100. Then when he finally outbid the bot, the bot (or a fake account by the seller) comes back and raises the price again, because he definitely has the kid hook, line, and sinker.

Either way, I still snipe auctions on eBay. People think it's sleazy and poor behavior, but I'm totally going to do what I can to get the lowest price on eBay. You find something you're interested in, wait until the last 30 seconds of the auction (or more or less, depending on your internet speed and typing skills), and enter your highest bid with seconds to spare. If you win, you get something at a good price. If you lose, it's only lost to someone willing to pay more than you were. People who enter bidding wars like this drive up the price a ton more than it should, and the people entered in the bidding war end up usually paying more than it was worth in the first place, but they're emotionally involved at this point, so winning the bid is more important.

All that being said, and I've heard positive things from this seller from other people on this forum. Though, honest as they are, most everything they're selling is a heap, looking like they find this stuff in public school district auctions.

[Three Valves]

I’d like to know the back story on that one...

“Left outside during a hailstorm in Amarillo”

[the elephant]

… I still snipe auctions on eBay.

Me, too. It is the only way I can afford stuff if it is an actual auction. Mostly I do the BIN thing now.

People think it's sleazy and poor behavior, but I'm totally going to do what I can to get the lowest price on eBay.

Do people think waiting to bid at the last second is sleazy? Why? That makes no sense to me. It seems to be the only way to win an auction without inflating the price to something stupid-high…

[BopEuph]

Do people think waiting to bid at the last second is sleazy? Why? That makes no sense to me. It seems to be the only way to win an auction without inflating the price to something stupid-high…

Waaaaaay back when I started using eBay, I googled how to properly snipe, and most articles said something like "many people consider it controversial, as buyers are upset they couldn't get another chance to raise their bid (which to me proves they were willing to pay higher), and sellers hate that it keeps costs down (which really means that they should have raised the starting bid to something they were more comfortable getting...or had a reserve)."

Then there's someone on eBay selling a 20k, started the bidding low, but has his BIN price for 3100. It's currently up to about $2400, and the reserve is STILL not met...meaning the seller likely put his reserve at or near the BIN price. It probably won't sell at all, if that's the case.

[LargeTuba]

On a good note, I got a conn 20j TODAY from this guy and it ended up being a good deal. Nice a pretty satin finish and a good player.

[greenbean]

I seriously doubt this guy is using a shill. Looks more like amateur bidding to me...

[BopEuph]

Yeah, I was thinking that, too. But both of these users never bought anything from eBay, according to their stats, and one has only bid on this article, while the other (the one marked as a "shill") has only bid with this seller.

Admittedly, that's not enough for me to be wary. But it's still strange.

Either way, this horn is probably to sell for more than it should. If I knew someone interested in this instrument, I'd tell them to move on and be patient.

[bloke]

short-action intrigue...

[donn]

It makes no sense to put in a serious bid early. Buyers often don't seem to have their own idea of how much something is worth to them, and when they see someone else put down more ... I don't know, maybe it gives them the idea it's worth more. (The term "win" is not always apt for ebay auctions.)

The seller's complaint, as I recall it, is "that's how auctions are supposed to work - you get a chance to bid against your competition, and if some fellers get a little over-excited, well, sometimes that does happen." But online auctions are also like "silent" auctions (you can over-bid, and pay only enough to win), and they run for days. If anyone wants an online auction that runs live, with people bidding actual values over the course of say 15 minutes, that could be real fun, but it wouldn't be anything like ebay, and I doubt the sellers would come out ahead.

I've wondered what those people are thinking, the ones who enter multiple bids 10 seconds apart. It's hard to believe that's really someone's idea of how to buy something on ebay, but people get some odd ideas. There are a lot of 20Js in the world, for anyone to get super excited about a trash can like this. Shilling maybe, but I've never really seen how it added up. I mean, obviously it raises the price artificially, but what's the point of the tiny increments? Does a flurry of stupid bids push an item up in the "Best Match" sort order? I've often wondered who that order is "best" for.