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It defintely looks suspicious, but I wouldn’t worry about it. Ebay does have it’s own fraud unit that investigates suspicious activity and they have ways to tell if somebody is operating multiple accounts to drive up bidding.
Plus, I don’t think anybody is going to pay that high of a price to buy a lot of Windstones that’s not in mint condition. So, if they created multiple ebay accounts to drive the price up, they’ll be the high bidder and owe ebay a big commission.
I am confused! Not about the questionable listing, because it does raise an eyebrow….i am comfused with some of these comments. you all started out with zero as a feedback score. Your reasoning implies it would have been acceptable for a seller to turn you away when you were new to ebay. How would anyone get ahead if they all thought like this?
eBay has been hit with numerous accounts for fraudulent purposes only. I’ve actually had several successful transactions with Users who are new, have 0 Feedback, or less than 10 Feedback, however I do require they contact me first before bidding/purchasing. I do not find that an unreasonable request.
On a general note:
This listing raises flags for many reasons. 1, the Seller’s ID is comparable to accounts that are used for scams.
2, the Bidder who raised the price to over $1.6k, only to remain outbid by another Bidder with 40 Feedback because they kept countering, is questionable with over 7 days left of the auction. I mean, c’mon.. seriously??
3, to date, this is the MOST active Windstone auction aside from Windstone’s own auctions. Normally, listings don’t get hit so much. At least not in the first week. 4, nothing about this listing adds up or makes sense, the Seller’s replies are vague, evasive and defensive. eBay is not THAT hard to understand.↞↞≪∙ FOREVER SEEKING •↟•
• ► By Patricia Smith ◄ •
☙ "SKY BRONZE" Emperor Dragon
✾ "RAINBOW ASAGI" Moon Oriental Dragon
✾ "RAINBOW TIGER" Sun Oriental Dragon• ► By Melody ◄ •
☙ "Test Paint #5" GB '15 PUMA
☙ #170 FANTASY GB '22 Young Qi'Lin
☙ #224 KOI GB '22 Young Qi'LinI wonder if the car and beers in the photo are included in the package? LOL
Hahaha. No, those are probably an extra $1,000. Really who would even consider bidding on anything with a photo like that and one of the items, the mother pegasus, is either filthy or really scuffed up. Most of the items probably have issues if you really got a look at them, none of them are rare, and I’d be absolutely shocked if they didn’t smell like smoke.
If you look at bidders on the “Fire Berry” Riser and the “Checkered Copper” Emp (that’s as far back as I went) you will see the e***l(40) bidder involved in those auctions with a similar bidding pattern.
It seems to me that the bidding probably is two bidders new to Windstones, and likely not on the Forum, who are competing on the auction. The lister may also be honest but ignorant, or not … No real way to tell, but never underestimate ignorance as a factor in ebay auctions!
If you look at bidders on the “Fire Berry” Riser and the “Checkered Copper” Emp (that’s as far back as I went) you will see the e***l(40) bidder involved in those auctions with a similar bidding pattern.
It seems to me that the bidding probably is two bidders new to Windstones, and likely not on the Forum, who are competing on the auction. The lister may also be honest but ignorant, or not … No real way to tell, but never underestimate ignorance as a factor in ebay auctions!
I had noticed it was the same bidder from those other auctions. Someone with lots of money apparently!
The zero feedback bidder is suspicious because this is the only thing they have been bidding on and it looks like they bid a million times for the purpose of driving up the bid. So to me that is what makes me think it’s a fake account. If they were a legitimate bidder, most would start by bidding on maybe one piece or a few pieces from different bidders. The other bidder with the feedback has bids on a bunch of auctions but the zero feedback one hasn’t bid on anything else so to me it appears their account was created to just bid on this auction. The reason people here get concerned is because we have seen auctions like this end badly for legitimate bidders who either ended up paying too much for something in bad condition or had multiple items like this shipped and all arrive broken.
Looking for rainbow or pink & teal grab bags!
I think part of what’s suspicious, to those of us who are, about the zero-feedback thing is the broader context of their bids. Yes, we all started out as newbies with zero feedback! But when I was a brand-new baby Ebayer with zero feedback, I wasn’t bidding into the thousands of dollars on multiple items at once (someone upthread noted that they’re also bidding on an item sold by Melody); I eased into it, building up feedback one transaction at a time. Having no experience isn’t suspicious in itself, but an account with no feedback appearing out of nowhere to bid multiple thousands of dollars on at least two simultaneous auctions is, uh. Unusual, to say the least.
Plus, I was a collector (of Windstones, and of other expensive collectibles) long before I was an Ebayer, so things like poor photos and visibly-damaged items would be a big deal to me and I’d be pushing hard for better descriptions and pics before I bid $50, never mind $1K. So that makes the whole thing odder, and less like what I’d expect from somebody who was new to Ebay but had joined because their fave collectibles were on there. Collectibles tend to lose a LOT of their value when they have even minor damage, and if this person is a legitimate collector who’s just new to Ebay, I’d think they would know that and wouldn’t be bidding so intently on that lot; there’s only one pic and it’s not very high quality, but it’s still obvious enough that at least one piece is significantly stained or damaged, which would make me wary of the rest being so poorly depicted and undescribed!
As someone else mentioned, too, the shipping quote raises huge red flags; if the buyer were a Windstone collector, they’d know that the quoted price couldn’t possibly ship all those heavy pieces to them! I’d expect to see some sign that the buyer had been questioning the seller before bidding so high and persistently.
The timing is weird, too — with so much time left on the auction, why is this person bidding so hard, and coming back so often to re-bid? Maybe they’re inexperienced, but to my mind that would generally result in more hesitation to bid high; I know I wouldn’t have bid $1.5K on anything with more than six days left when I was a newbie! (Probably wouldn’t do that now, either!)
TL;DR summary: it’s not really that they have zero feedback, it’s that their bidding seems illogical and/or improbable for a new-to-Ebay Windstone fan OR a new-to-Ebay-and-Windstone fan in various ways!
(Fun fact: I’ve been on Ebay for so long that my earliest transactions were paid for by check or money order! I have, and have left, feedback about my checks clearing/my payment being received.) 🙂
Interested in buying or trading for: GB Pebble Sitting Red Fox in dark grey, Lap Dragon Test Paints (Water Sprite, Glacial Pearl, Opulence, Pastel Rainbow, and many others - see my Classifieds ad), Blue Morpho OW, GB Pebble Loaf dragons in blue/aqua/teal, and Griffin Test Paints (Black Rainbow or Frosted Jade).
(Fun fact: I’ve been on Ebay for so long that my earliest transactions were paid for by check or money order! I have, and have left, feedback about my checks clearing/my payment being received.) 🙂
Me too. 🙂 It was a different world before PayPal!
I wonder if the car and beers in the photo are included in the package? LOL
Hahaha. No, those are probably an extra $1,000. Really who would even consider bidding on anything with a photo like that and one of the items, the mother pegasus, is either filthy or really scuffed up. Most of the items probably have issues if you really got a look at them, none of them are rare, and I’d be absolutely shocked if they didn’t smell like smoke.
Agree. Right, one couldn’t even ship one item for that shipping cost. And, I can spot flaws on nearly every one of the pieces, so it looks like none would be mint & fetching such a high price. I think the bidder with the 40 purchases complete is legit, but why is she bidding so high on damaged pieces? Definitely seems something wrong here. The other bidder with zero purchases appears might be a fraudulent account trying to drive up the bids. But, Ebay has some pretty sophisticated software to examine bids & try to detect fraud.
It’ll be interesting to see if this auction goes to end or if Ebay cancels it.
EBAY must have intervened or something… the multi WS lot auction is now knocked down to $50 and only one bid. 5 days approx left.
IN SEARCH OF MY NEXT GRAILS:
Black Peacock & Butternut Adult Poads
Kickstarter 'Rainbow Tiger' Bantam Dragon*~*~*~* Ela_Hara: The DragonKeeper *~*~*~*
*** Come visit me on deviantArt at http://ela-hara.deviantart.comEBAY must have intervened or something… the multi WS lot auction is now knocked down to $50 and only one bid. 5 days approx left.
if you check the bid history, it looks like Ebay cancelled the other bidders’ bids….
4 things I'm looking for:
1. Mother Meerkat
2. production color Sitting Young Oriental dragons to be made in more colors besides VF, Brimstone would be awesome!
3. Female Griffin – Siamese with White
4. September Raffle Prize 2022 AHD Male GriffinMaybe ebay also thought there were fake accounts driving up the bids. I didn’t know they could cancel bids. Weird that the auction wasn’t just cancelled all together though or that they didn’t tell the seller to change the description so people would know exactly what they were getting for that price.
Looking for rainbow or pink & teal grab bags!
weird again, the $1700 bidder from before that was cancelled is back on it again….
4 things I'm looking for:
1. Mother Meerkat
2. production color Sitting Young Oriental dragons to be made in more colors besides VF, Brimstone would be awesome!
3. Female Griffin – Siamese with White
4. September Raffle Prize 2022 AHD Male Griffin
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