question Why a bidder on Flippa bids against himself?

[barefooted]

I was looking at bids history on some Flippa auctions and there area bidders who make 2 or 3 bids without having another one overbidding them.
My question is - what is the point of that behaviour?

 

[Rob84]

Hmm... Reserve price?

 

[DKN]

Yup... It might be for a Reserve price.

 

[barefooted]

No, it was met long ago. Here is an example of a random auction $70 current bid. It is easy to find many with same kind of bidding:
Bidding History

• Bidder 1 ( new )
  $70
  22 hours ago
  
  Highest Bid
• Bidder 1 ( new )
  $65
  23 hours ago
  
  
  
• Bidder 2 ( new )
  $65
  23 hours ago
  
  
  
• Bidder 2 ( new )
  $60
  23 hours ago
  
  
  
• Bidder 1 ( new )
  $55
  23 hours ago
  
  

 

[guilty]

The bidder is new. I'm not completely sure but it might be some kind of shill bidding to drive the price up or to get the domain to the Most Active section.

 

[DANEYAL]

Yes I suppose you have observed shill bidding kind of thing.

 

[DMitchell]

Surely there should be some validation in the software to prevent people from bidding against themselves once the reserve price is met? Could be the application showing the bids in the incorrect order, if 2 bids are placed in the same second or something - if you swap the 2 $65 bids around it looks better.

 

[barefooted]

Interesting bidding history:

• Bidder 1 ( banned )
  $350
  1 month ago
  
  Highest Bid
• Bidder 1 ( banned )
  $310
  1 month ago
  
  
  
• Bidder 1 ( banned )
  $305
  1 month ago
  
  
  
• Bidder 1 ( banned )
  $300
  1 month ago

 

[DMitchell]

Interesting bidding history:

• Bidder 1 ( banned )
  $350
  1 month ago
  
  Highest Bid
• Bidder 1 ( banned )
  $310
  1 month ago
  
  
  
• Bidder 1 ( banned )
  $305
  1 month ago
  
  
  
• Bidder 1 ( banned )
  $300
  1 month ago

I wish my bidders would do that, and then actually pay afterwards, not get banned.

 

[D Haynes]

I saw an auction for a website and the same bidder went straight from a $20,000 bid to an $80,000 bid although I don't remember if the reserve had been met. Still a big jump though if he were trying to find it.

 

[DomainBELL]

I saw an auction for a website and the same bidder went straight from a $20,000 bid to an $80,000 bid although I don't remember if the reserve had been met. Still a big jump though if he were trying to find it.

did they end up winning and paying ??

 

[D Haynes]

did they end up winning and paying ??

I don't remember as it wasn't my listing but I remember there being a lot of discussion in the listings comments section about how it all looked rather shifty so to speak. I've seen a lot of talk on namepros about flippa and shill bidding etc but personally I've never had any problems with selling on flippa and would much rather use them than say sedo which is pretty horrendous for phantom bidders/buyers. It's all a matter of personal taste and gut instinct. If you ever feel that your getting ripped off or conned/cheated in some way by a site then just don't use them anymore.

 

[domain.place]

it might be for reserve price... Flippa system dont place more bids after reserve met ... Once reserve met , it will be into proxybids

 

[domain.place]

check the following threads about how the bidding system works on flippa

https://support.flippa.com/hc/en-us/articles/202469934-What-is-proxy-bidding-
https://support.flippa.com/hc/en-us/articles/202470024-How-Do-Bids-and-Offers-Work-

 

[aditya agrawal]

I was looking at bids history on some Flippa auctions and there area bidders who make 2 or 3 bids without having another one overbidding them.
My question is - what is the point of that behaviour?

After going through the conversation I can say it is shill bidding for sure. [Comment Edited here ] Wait for the auction to end. Seller would relist saying that buyer failed to pay.


@DMitchell You can Remove him from your accepted bidders list on the right and he wont be able to bid further.

 

[DMitchell]

@DMitchell You can Remove him from your accepted bidders list on the right and he wont be able to bid further.

Thanks Aditya. It wouldn't take a developer more than a few minutes to code some validation to not allow you to bid against yourself once the reserve price is met, that would prevent the above situation from occurring, assuming those bids were above the reserve. I'm sure the Flippa team must have considered this, there's probably a reason I'm not thinking of as to why they haven't implemented it.

He'd ask the reserve price via PM and directly bid that.

Isn't it against the Flippa terms of service to reveal the reserve price?

 

[John Baron]

doesn't flippa have proxy bidding? in that case its not possible for someone to bid higher then his previous bid after reserve met

 

[DMitchell]

doesn't flippa have proxy bidding? in that case its not possible for someone to bid higher then his previous bid after reserve met

Yes that's true, so in the instances above the reserve price couldn't have been met.

 

[aditya agrawal]

@John Baron @DMitchell .
If it was after the reserve. I think I have figured out what just happened here.
There are two ways to do it.

1) There were many bidders on the auction. But the seller only approved the bids from 1 bidder and rejected the others.

2) The bidder kept on bidding but none of his bids were approved. Suddenly seller accepted all the bids at one go.

@John Baron Proxy bidding is only after reserve is met. Eg If my reserve is $300 with bids @ 250 and you bid $1000 as the first bid. The bid would be $1000 reserve met and not $ 300 reserve met.


It is surely an interesting case.

 

[bltechno]

when a bidder is serious, He'd ask the reserve price via PM and directly bid that

FYI, this is absolutely against Flippa T&C & a serious bidder would know this.

This is what Flippa Site Rules will tell you "The reserve price may not be made public by any means."

I just hope your expert comment don't create confusion & lead one to problem!

Isn't it against the Flippa terms of service to reveal the reserve price?

Yes, this is absolutely against Flippa TOS & you should refrain from doing so.