Running up prices on gunbroker

[crestoncowboy]

Obviously things are silly right now. But I just saw some black aces buckshot sell for over double what numerous websites have it for and in stock. I was wondering (and have wondered in the past as well) what things are in place to stop folks from running up their own things on gunbroker. Ive bought on there once or twice but not sold. I don't care about gouging vs free market or any of that. Just about their safeguards

ETA....if any

 

[SamT1]

I’m not sure if they monitor IP addresses or anything, but many auction sites do.

I’m all for someone running the price up on their items. As long as they have to pay the percentage if they win it. I grew up at farm auctions where everyone bids up their item until either they buy it back or it gets to where they are willing to let it go.
If a buyer is willing to keep bidding why would it matter if he is bidding against the seller?
What really pisses me off is auction staff bidding on items or pulling ghost bids when they know something is going cheap and the owner doesn’t

 

[SunnySlopes]

The answer to your question is, "whatever the market will bear." People are trying to maximize their profit, many unreasonably so. But that's how capitalism works, viz. it weeds out inefficient operators. And people who try to sell a product at grossly inflated prices are definitely inefficient. Until someone buys it.

 

[film495]

I'm sure it happens, but they can just set a reserve price, so - it seems kind of pointless IMHO to take the time to do so

 

[crestoncowboy]

I’m not sure if they monitor IP addresses or anything, but many auction sites do.

I thought of that. But vpns IP masking and spoofing or getting buddies to bid would make that pretty tough.

I grew up at farm auctions where everyone bids up their item until either they buy it back or it gets to where they are willing to let it go.

Me too actually. Many times. Usually a buddy was running up the prices though. Then didn't have to pay if they won. Only the buyers premium.

The answer to your question is, "whatever the market will bear."

No. That's not the question at all. I don't care about the price. I dont care about someone making money if anyone wants to pay 150 dollars a brick for golden bullets. That's not my question at all. My question is what does gunbroker do to keep someone from bidding things up if they are about to sell too cheap. If anything.

Say I have a new in box 6 inch python. And nobody has bid it up to the 2500 I think it should bring. So I bid it up myself and win it to keep from selling it. Or a brick of golden bullets or whatever.

What is the premium I have to pay. I'm sure it's a percentage. And what is done to prevent people from it if anything. Ive never heard and never sold on there. What keeps me from just having a buddy bid it up and only paying the sellers fee? Etc

The shells I noticed sold for almost double what many sites have them for. I only noticed because I ordered some a few months back. I checked and at least 3 sites have them In stock right now. Plus the buyer would have had to pay the shipping which was 50 bucks. Ive seen a few auctions do some odd stuff over the years. Ive seen bidding wars both in person and online. I understand all that.

 

[bikerdoc]

Stopped bidding because of their friends bidding up an item,
And the last minute snipers that swoop in at the last minute to win with a bid $5 above mine.

 

[crestoncowboy]

I'm sure it happens, but they can just set a reserve price, so - it seems kind of pointless IMHO to take the time to do so

I agree on the reserve. And I wouldn't think of posting anything with no reserve. Lol. My luck there would be a national internet outage and someone would win my theoretical python for the .01 cent. Lol.

But if it's a NR auction and someone is about to win. Any reason they wouldn't just run it on up?

 

[crestoncowboy]

And the last minute snipers that swoop in at the last minute to win with a bid $5 above mine.

They do have proxy bidding though. And the 15 minute rule. If not gunbroker would be a lot more interesting. Lol. For buyers at least

 

[George P]

And I won't be bothered with a starting price of .01 and a reserve price of $2,000

 

[crestoncowboy]

And I won't be bothered with a starting price of .01 and a reserve price of $2,000

Me either. I'm far more likely to just find one buy it now assuming it's not something rare if there is a reserve.

I've bought a few by auction. I was just curious.


I've also seen people in person let the auctioneer start at his price, and come all the way down to like 100 bucks on a 5000 dollar item. Entire room of people and they refuse to start the bid. One auctioneer we go to actually saves us a seat and looks to us to start the bid. I start low. Real low. But at least somewhat realistic too. Ive accidentally won a few that way too. Lol

 

[WestKentucky]

The thing that bothers me with electronic auction is the second chance offer that a lot of places have. It’s unfair to the buyer when it gets abused. A lot of people don’t understand it and it’s ugly.

Seller has item listed starting at a penny.
Seller has a second account and bids on his own item for 750 bucks when item should sell for 600. Buyer bids it up to 650 because it’s something he really wants and is willing to pay the extra to get it. Seller wins auction with their second account and can either not pay and get a free delisting since item didn’t actually sell, or they can offer it to the other bidder at their max bid since the winning bidder flaked, nevermind that the next bidder back was at 500 bucks and he should have won the auction at $501. It’s dirty, and happens a lot on other sites, I can’t believe that it doesn’t happen on GB as well.

 

[crestoncowboy]

Also what does it cost to have a reserve? A percentage or what

 

[Monac]

I would assume GunBroker does not let sellers bid on their own auctions because, with all due respect to SamT1, if you can set the starting price or set a reserve price, or both, there is no good reason to do so.

But there is no way to stop shilling by third parties colluding with the seller. Of course, there is always the risk of having the shill win, and then having to pay the auction site.

Unless they have an algorithm to search for people who bid often, mainly on the auctions of just one seller, but very seldom win. I bet EBay has such a tool for use when complaints come in. GunBroker isn't nearly as big, though.

 

[crestoncowboy]

I remember trying to snipe auctions on ebay when it first started. My dial up made it so that the people already had their item before I got my bid in.

Much like using p2p sites like morpheus to watch a new movie that was on at the theater. By the time I got it downloaded it was on CBS anyway.

Anyone younger than 35 or 40 has no idea what I'm talking about though.

 

[crestoncowboy]

Unless they have an algorithm to search for people who bid often, mainly on the auctions of just one seller, but very seldom win. I bet EBay has such a tool for use when complaints come in. GunBroker isn't nearly as big, though.

That was my question. Just IF they did anything and what. I use a store or a person if its at all possible. If gunbroker stopped existing it wouldn't really hurt my feelings. But it sure made finding rare or old stuff easier.

 

[Monac]

That was my question. Just IF they did anything and what. I use a store or a person if its at all possible. If gunbroker stopped existing it wouldn't really hurt my feelings. But it sure made finding rare or old stuff easier.

Sorry, all I've got is talk. I don't actually know anything about it. Why not ask GunBroker if they have some detection or investigation system? Or maybe someone here could suggest someone else who might know.

 

[WestKentucky]

I remember trying to snipe auctions on ebay when it first started. My dial up made it so that the people already had their item before I got my bid in.

Much like using p2p sites like morpheus to watch a new movie that was on at the theater. By the time I got it downloaded it was on CBS anyway.

Anyone younger than 35 or 40 has no idea what I'm talking about though.

That brings up memories of very strange noises and discussions of why I was on the computer at 3am. My parents never believed that I was legitimately on in the night because the connection was faster when less people were using internet.

 

[GBExpat]

Gunbroker.

As a Buyer, I really like the 15-Minute Rule.

I will not even look at a reserve auction any more. Long ago I soured on those because very few Sellers would tell me (in response to a polite interrogatory) how much the Reserve was.

If I see something that I like I will usually come back to it on the final day and see if a bid is worth making. If so, I decide how much I would be willing to pay, place the bid and walk away, never looking at it again until it is over.

I never, ever, monitor & chase an item.


As a Seller, I really like the 15-Minute Rule.

When listing something, I take a straight-forward approach. The opening price is my minimum acceptable price and I list it for 7 days Sunday evening to Sunday evening.

 

[crestoncowboy]

Sorry, all I've got is talk.

Me too. I figure someone on here will know. Someone who sells maybe.

Asking gunbroker would likely get you the exaggerated bragging answer. If they even answered. Lol

As a Seller, I really like the 15-Minute Rule.

No doubt. I guarantee that. There is no reason for a seller to not love it

 

[BreechFace]

I remember trying to snipe auctions on ebay when it first started. My dial up made it so that the people already had their item before I got my bid in.

Much like using p2p sites like morpheus to watch a new movie that was on at the theater. By the time I got it downloaded it was on CBS anyway.

Anyone younger than 35 or 40 has no idea what I'm talking about though.

That was when eBay was a lot of fun and a great resource for getting things cheap. Now, not so much. I remember finger hovering over the mouse button ready to click as I was refreshing the page, waiting until it got down to 10-12 seconds. Then quickly hitting refresh seeing I'm still in the lead at 2 seconds, left then refresh again and some one sniped me.

By the way you have to go anyone younger than 35 I would say, has no idea what we are talking about.

 

[DDDWho]

I’ve only bought one item on Gunbroker, a Rossi .22 revolver that had a “buy it now” option that I thought was very reasonable. The 15 minute rule stops me from bidding on anything on Gunbroker. I’m a scalper and I don’t see any reason to bid on an auction site until the last few seconds.

 

[ApacheCoTodd]

Obviously things are silly right now. But I just saw some black aces buckshot sell for over double what numerous websites have it for and in stock. I was wondering (and have wondered in the past as well) what things are in place to stop folks from running up their own things on gunbroker. Ive bought on there once or twice but not sold. I don't care about gouging vs free market or any of that. Just about their safeguards

ETA....if any

There's really nothing a hosting auctioneer can do about schill bidding nor do they generally care to. The only concern is on the side of the seller as self-schilling (even second-party) requires that the seller pay all listing costs plus buyer's and seller's premiums.

You can see how the hosting entity wouldn't care unless proving it would irreparably harm their reputation.

It has become a common thing for brick&mortar auction entities to in-house schill them selves to buy a thing that might otherwise sell below market value. Once your ethics are so sadly skewed as that - outside schilling wherein you make even more money is seldom considered a *problem*.

Todd.

 

[crestoncowboy]

It has become a common thing for brick&mortar auction entities to in-house schill them selves to buy a thing that might otherwise sell below market value. Once your ethics are so sadly skewed as that - outside schilling wherein you make even more money is seldom considered a *problem*.

That's kind of what I thought

 

[SunnySlopes]

I don't care about the price.

Nonsense. But, since you're compelled to answer every post on the thread.........

 

[Navy87Guy]

So this is fishy...

I’ve been watching an auction for a couple of days. Absolutely no movement. So tonight I decided to bid. The increment was $5, so that’s what I bid. As soon as I submitted it, I received a notice I was “unsuccessful”. The new current bid jumped $10. Hmmm.

So I upped my bid another $5...and the exact same thing happened! Third time...IDENTICAL! I refreshed the auction seconds before each bid, so it wasn’t’t old info. Now it could be a coincidence, but if that’s the case then I should go out and buy some lottery tickets!

I’m declaring shenanigans!!