Deadbeat e-bay scam jerk

I listed my son's Thumpstar mini-bike on e-bay to help him get some emergency living expense $$, and was pretty encouraged when I saw the bidding climb up to the reserve.

Then, when the auction ended, I got to looking at the "successful bidder"-

- "0" rating

- of the 8 bids, 7 were his, and just kept stacking up one after the other

- apparently a scammer just running up the bid to find out the reserve.

To top it off, I cannot post a negative feedback for 7 days, even through the e-bay auction was structured with an e-bay selection of "24 hours" for deposit. The negative feedback feature should be activated after that time period, or the whole thing is useless.

I'll bet I would not be a good example for clean living if I had that turkey standing in front of me right now...

Paul, I am just dipping my toe into the e-bay waters, so I'm interested to see how this works. I have noted from riding shotgun on friend's accounts that if an item has a high bid of $20 and I opt to put in a maximum bid for say $100, the bidding system will automatically put my bid at $1 above the last bid, so I will be listed as highest at $21, if anyone else comes in and bids say $25, I will automatically be listed as highest bidder at $26, all the way up to my maximum of $100. Under this system I would be listed as highest bidder for as many times as other bidders had put in any bid lower than mine, they would not be listed as bidders because their bids had been automatically trumped. The E-bay program allows me to buy the item at the lowest possible value below my maximum and I could be listed as highest bidder 8 times in a row for example. The way I understand it is that the chap who bid on your minibike is deemed to be the winner of the auction and I suppose he is not deemed to have reneged on the deal unless and until he fails to reply after he has been informed that he is the winner of the auction. How does this work, do you or E-bay inform him that he is the winner? Since everyone starts with 0 feedback I wouldn't necessarily be too worried, has this guy gone quiet on this occasion? I can't see any advantage to finding out your reserve and then not buying.
There seems to be a fair few 'sharp practitioners' on E-bay and many times things are misdescribed, another 'good' scam is making money on the postage and packaging by overcharging on this item. I generally only buy stuff for small amounts of money that I can afford to lose, since I live in HK I generally get a US based friend to buy on my behalf, but by the time I get to view the stuff many months have normally elapsed so I don't really have an opportunity for recourse if I've been cheated.

I've done all the advisories and sent the appropriate invoices, etc. - ZERO response.

Apparently, e-bay no longer allows sellers to issue negative feedback on buyers OR NON-PAYERS!!!!

Advantages to finding out a reserve are that you can list a competitive item for a slightly lower "buy it now" price, or you can wait for the re-listing and bid below that amount, hoping for the second chance, to name a few.

There is a lot of thrash in this world. :roll: