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ebay Second Chance Notice

Dapper Dandy

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Against my better judgment, I recently placed a bid on a pair of shoes on ebay several hours prior to expiration of the auction (blame the playoffs). Sure enough, somebody outbid me and won the shoes. Now I have received a Second Chance Notice from ebay saying that I can have the item for my maximum bid. The previous winner of the item had around a dozen purchases in feedback, over a 4-year period.

Are these Second Chance Notices scams, or otherwise evidence of shill bidding? Or is this a fairly regular thing for ebay sellers to do?
 

NoVaguy

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Originally Posted by Dapper Dandy
Against my better judgment, I recently placed a bid on a pair of shoes on ebay several hours prior to expiration of the auction (blame the playoffs). Sure enough, somebody outbid me and won the shoes. Now I have received a Second Chance Notice from ebay saying that I can have the item for my maximum bid. The previous winner of the item had around a dozen purchases in feedback, over a 4-year period.

Are these Second Chance Notices scams, or otherwise evidence of shill bidding? Or is this a fairly regular thing for ebay sellers to do?


yeah, it happens. just make sure it's through ebay and it shows up through your account, not through email.
 

Get Smart

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every time I've received a 2nd notice, it's been under sketchy situations....getting the 2nd notice just a day or two after auction ends for example...the high bidder appearing sketchy (made the profile day auction ended). It's easy enough to have 2 accounts, I have a functional 2nd account myself that is never used, but I made it to help my best friend who's own account was locked by ebay temporarily and he relies on ebay for his business.
 

lawyerdad

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Yeah, I've gotten 2nd chance offers that seemed legit, and others that seemed dicey.
As long as the seller seems reasonably reliable, I wouldn't make yourself crazy trying to "figure out" the 2nd chance thing. Either you want the shoes at that price, or you don't. If you think it's a good deal, go for it. If you think you may have bid too high, or if you're uncomfortable with the seller, let it go.

Another approach: check the bidding history and see if your bid is way above the bids in line behind you, and/or if there were bidders other than the newly-created winning bidder. In other words, worry not so much about whether the high bidder was some kind of a shill (since his bid is now irrelevant), but whether shill bidders were used to drive your bid up to your maximum level. If, for example, there's a big gap between your bid and the next-highest legit bid, I don't think there's anything wrong with emailing the bidder and offering to buy the shoes for something between your bid and the next-highest legitimate bid. {Sorry, that was rather stream-of-consciousness, but hopefully the general idea is clear.}
 

zjpj83

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I've won things from second chance offers and steered clear of others that seemed sketchy. Like, I've done them from legit sellers like Grapevinehill
 

mack11211

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I've made second chance offers to buyers but only after exhausting all options for getting the winning bidder to pay. This usually takes at least a week, except in some cases where the winning bidder suddenly ceases to be an ebay member.
 

Dapper Dandy

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Interesting. In this case, I recevied the Second Chance Offer about 20 minutes after the auction ended. That led me to suspect something weird was going on. I was the next-highest bidder, but the bid below mine was significantly below.
 

sho'nuff

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ive wondered about the second chance as well.

because one time I had a pair of shoes up for sale that had a reasonable high bid by someone that was set at 0.99 because he was the first bidder.

after the second day, some zero feedback person placed a larger bid and thus revealed the first bidders original high bid.

at the end of the auction (no one took anymore interest because of a high bid by a zero feedback person) the winner backed out saying he made a mistake.

what can i do? a day later i asked the original bidder if he wanted the shoes for second chance.
of course he denied.

it really looked like i shill bid and did it to make him pay fullest price ,although the shoes would have naturally reached around his bid near the end anyways with normal bidding wars.


just goes to show you have to give benefit of doubt at all times because these 'suspicious' cases do happen that are totally coincidental and legit.

of course there are the ones that show a history of it and then it is really suspicious!
 

minimal

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As a seller AND a buyer, I've seen so many 2nd-chance scams that I now include a notice at the top of all my auctions saying that I *never* make second chance offers and that potential bidders should contact ebay security if they get such an offer from me.
 

zjpj83

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Originally Posted by Dapper Dandy
Interesting. In this case, I recevied the Second Chance Offer about 20 minutes after the auction ended. That led me to suspect something weird was going on. I was the next-highest bidder, but the bid below mine was significantly below.
Were the bidders on the auction hidden?

If so, this is very common. Lots of sellers of watches, for instance, bid against their own items and then will offer them in 2nd chance offers to whoever was the highest other than them.
 

Get Smart

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Originally Posted by diorshoe
at the end of the auction (no one took anymore interest because of a high bid by a zero feedback person) the winner backed out saying he made a mistake.

what can i do? a day later i asked the original bidder if he wanted the shoes for second chance.
of course he denied.



unfortunately your situation made you seem sketchy, but I'd say the original bidder made the right call, in general, in refusing your offer. For every legit case like yours there's probably 1000 others that arent. As a seller I don't believe in offering a 2nd chance. If something falls thru I'll relist it...perhaps inform the next highest bidder that the item is again available due to nonpayment.

btw, did you offer it for the original bidder's first price, or the proxy price. In my book, a second chance to him should have been at the price before the deadbeat ever bid.
 

gj555

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I purchased great shoes from Grapevinehill on a second chance offer.

Edit: I am editing post because I originally posted inaccurate info.
 

sho'nuff

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Originally Posted by Get Smart
unfortunately your situation made you seem sketchy, but I'd say the original bidder made the right call, in general, in refusing your offer. For every legit case like yours there's probably 1000 others that arent. As a seller I don't believe in offering a 2nd chance. If something falls thru I'll relist it...perhaps inform the next highest bidder that the item is again available due to nonpayment.

btw, did you offer it for the original bidder's first price, or the proxy price. In my book, a second chance to him should have been at the price before the deadbeat ever bid.


that is the thing, the shoes i were selling back then were santonis and bruno magli platinums and they were being sold around 160-230 each time.
i asked him for his large bid (180 or so i dont remember) i was not going to ask him for second chance payment for 99 cents of course.

but after that incident, not only is it unfair to the original bidder, the whole thing is filled with miscommunication possibilities and feelings hurt.

i learnt my lesson and from that point on i just monitored my auctions closely and any low scoring bidders i would attempt to contact and if he doesnt respond timely i would retract his bid.

that newbie bidder was just a bit confused when i talked to him. he was not trying to be deadbeat or is deadbeat (although i dont know!) but he seemed sincererly sorry and did not know the ebay system at that time.
smile.gif
 

Dapper Dandy

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After careful deliberation, I've decided to pass up the opportunity to purchase the shoes through a BIN for the exact amount of my high bid through the Second Chance Offer. Although I was willing to pay that amount originally, I had also placed the bid with the hope that it would go for less. Had the item been placed as a BIN for that price, I don't think I would have bit. I attached some value to the chance of scoring the shoes for less, which chance has now been eliminated. I am hoping the shoes will be relisted at which point I will bid again, hopefully with no sketchy bidding beating me out.
 

jmatt

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Originally Posted by Get Smart
btw, did you offer it for the original bidder's first price, or the proxy price. In my book, a second chance to him should have been at the price before the deadbeat ever bid.
Agreed - the 2nd chance offer should be the amount that would have been bid in the absence of the now-departed high-bidder. If you wouldn't have been willing to sell at that price, then it should have been a reserve auction, or you shouldn't extend a 2nd chance offer.
 

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