Ebay scam? "2nd Chance Offer"???

CheapboatKev

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Oct 4, 2008
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The past couple of days I have been picking up some conventional reels on ebay.
I was bidding today on a 4/0 Penn with a Newell kit (Its a California thing..lol)
Anyway,
I was in a meeting and got beat by a dollar.
There was some fast bidding between myself and another bidder.
My max bid was 85.00..It went for 86.00 to another bidder.
About an hour I get an email from Ebay that I have a 2nd chance and it's my lucky day, and I can do a "buy it now" for guess how much?
$85.00

I dont ebay much, but to me it seems as if the seller has friends bumping up the bid as high as possible, and if they get stuck with the "winning bid", then the seller sends the "2nd chance offer".

Or am I overthinking this????
 

tx1961whaler

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Joined
May 31, 2008
Messages
5,197
Re: Ebay scam? "2nd Chance Offer"???

You are not overthinking this.
There is nothing keeping a person from having his buddy bid it up.
I have been contacted for a "second chance" before and told them to just relist it. They did, and the SAME GUY was bidding against me again (the one the lister said fell through). I quit bidding and reported him, but I really doubt anything happened.
 

foodfisher

Captain
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Re: Ebay scam? "2nd Chance Offer"???

Overthinking greed and it's tentacles? how CYA-ish.
 

MH Hawker

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Jul 13, 2011
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Re: Ebay scam? "2nd Chance Offer"???

No your not at all, I ran into the same thing last year, In the old auction days it was called shilling, their was a plant in the audance running up bids.
 

MTboatguy

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Re: Ebay scam? "2nd Chance Offer"???

But yet, I have bought things on second chance offers and have been pleased. Go figure.
 

BonairII

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Re: Ebay scam? "2nd Chance Offer"???

But yet, I have bought things on second chance offers and have been pleased. Go figure.

2nd chance offers are a crapshoot IMO. Def possible that shill bidding is going on, but also possible that a buyer flaked out and now the seller is trying to sell the item to the 2nd place bidder.

I've offered a few "2nd chances" when buyers flaked, but never got responses. I ended up relisting the items.

If your happy with the price, go ahead and buy the item. Probably far better to pay a few extra bucks for an item than to start the search all over again.
 

roscoe

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Messages
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Re: Ebay scam? "2nd Chance Offer"???

The thing that flagged me was that you heard from the seller in an hour.
 

CheapboatKev

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Messages
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Re: Ebay scam? "2nd Chance Offer"???

2nd chance offers are a crapshoot IMO. Def possible that shill bidding is going on, but also possible that a buyer flaked out and now the seller is trying to sell the item to the 2nd place bidder.

I've offered a few "2nd chances" when buyers flaked, but never got responses. I ended up relisting the items.

If your happy with the price, go ahead and buy the item. Probably far better to pay a few extra bucks for an item than to start the search all over again.

The searching again is half the fun..The price is very reasonable for a tricked out Senator..But when I lost I moved on and picked up a really nice Shimano TLD for 50 bucks...In the last few days I have "won" about 300.00 in paypal payments..lol
 

Ibl0wstuffup

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Mar 10, 2011
Messages
85
Re: Ebay scam? "2nd Chance Offer"???

He probably had more than one . It's probably faster to sell it second chance than to run another auction. I buy electronics by second chance offers all the time. If the price is competitive who cares why he sold it by second chance.
 

fishrdan

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Re: Ebay scam? "2nd Chance Offer"???

The thing that flagged me was that you heard from the seller in an hour.

Exactly!

How does someone win, flake on the seller, seller figures out the buyer won't pay, then sends a second chance offer,,, all in 1 hour. Seems suspicious to me as almost all of the live auctions I've bid on, the buyer has 24 hours (or longer) to make payment.

How pretty was the 3/0 with the Newell kit? (I hate buying used reels as I've been burned a couple times... :rolleyes:)
 

kenmyfam

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Aug 10, 2006
Messages
14,392
Re: Ebay scam? "2nd Chance Offer"???

Some may be scams and some may not be. Re-listing will cost the seller and they may have multiple items available. If you were willing to pay $1 less before you lost the auction then you are still being asked for a price you were willing to pay. Some of these are a scam and some are not. You have the option of saying no if you are suspicious or decide you overbid the item in the first place.
 

WIMUSKY

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Messages
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Re: Ebay scam? "2nd Chance Offer"???

But yet, I have bought things on second chance offers and have been pleased. Go figure.

If your happy with the price, go ahead and buy the item. Probably far better to pay a few extra bucks for an item than to start the search all over again.

If you were willing to pay $1 less before you lost the auction then you are still being asked for a price you were willing to pay.

Ditto......... Although, realizing you already moved on.....
 

Fireman431

Rear Admiral
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Sep 17, 2007
Messages
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Re: Ebay scam? "2nd Chance Offer"???

I think the biggest issue would be that he had more than 1 (I have 6...call me!!). I bought a Honda Goldwing at a second chance offer. It took him 4 days to call me, but I stole the bike, even tho I had to drive 500 miles to get it.
 

marcoalza

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Aug 22, 2010
Messages
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Re: Ebay scam? "2nd Chance Offer"???

The thing that flagged me was that you heard from the seller in an hour.

That's what's wrong with this particular '2nd Chance'

I sold hundreds of items before I left London to come here, got really good at it, and the '2nd chance offer' was useful a couple of times if the original purchaser never came up with the cash.

I smell a rat!
 

rivermouse

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Jun 16, 2011
Messages
661
Re: Ebay scam? "2nd Chance Offer"???

I smell scam. You never know if someone was just running the price up and were thinking you would pay the price. Best to just start the whole thing over to be sure it is real.
 

mnypitboat

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Re: Ebay scam? "2nd Chance Offer"???

Well, what is the seller's background. Do they have a good seller rating? I bought a Saab for my wife, 12500 for a $24000 car at a Nissan dealer an hour from me. Second chance offers, if ligit, are a great way to score a good deal. Take some precautions, but if its a good deal, I would still go for it.
 

tallcanadian

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Sep 7, 2006
Messages
3,250
Re: Ebay scam? "2nd Chance Offer"???

I buy from ebay all the time. I've had this option twice. I can't say that it's a scam but I think it may be a bit shady. I don't even respond to these. It sells for what my max bid was, how convenient. There are bad apples everywhere. It would be nice if ebay just flags these people but then what is to stop them from going on as someone else.
 
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