Hmmmmmmmmmmm Is it the same seller that is selling the rings. I wonder if it is a fake bidder (I forget the name of them) who is a friend of the seller and just bidding on purpose to raise the price of the auction. Some sellers would rather do this and eat the cost of selling in the hope of getting bidders to bid more.

If so they can be reported to ebay.

I found one last month, she had 5 soy wax auctions going, (she had a feedback of 1) anyways, I bid on one and it instantly got bid on again, so I looked up the bidder, she had won the 5 previous soy wax auctions! I'm knowing something isn't right, I contact the seller and asked her if she had some friend bidding on her items for her? Of course she said I insulted her and she said that person must make alot of candles! however, for kicks, I bid on a different auction of hers, bam! same person bid on it also. The seller and buyer where from the same state and had registered about the same time! (Go figure)I turned her in and within a few hours ebay closed her down and I received an email from ebay saying she was no longer a registered ebayer and not to continue outside of ebay with this transaction, or something to that effect. I tried to email her also and even her email address was unavailable.

Oh I was ticked, she insulted my intelligence!

I would check the seller/buyers closer if I was you. Good luck

I remember the term now. It is called Schill bidding ? spelling. I have also caught this happening on ebay and ebay does investigate and kick anyone off doing it.

Good for you, Cheryl! What's the seller/buyers closer? Is that what appears in their feedback?

Heather, that's what I suspected, too, and that's why I went to her feedback. But her feedback is from numerous different sellers. I'm thinking she's either very rich and very bored, or she's selling the stuff somewhere else.

I have a collectible that I buy on Ebay. There is one seller who is just nuts, and will outbid everyone. The prices she is willing to pay are way, way out of line, and it does push the items out of the reach of most of us.

She can't be reselling because at the prices she pays, she couldn't possibly recoup her investment. I think she is just very well off and very obsessive about getting what she wants when she wants it. She also buys more than one of the same item - we're talking about $300 teapots here!

All you can do is sit back and wait for them to get bored with it. When they take themselves out of the market the prices will fall back down.

Susan, check to see if this bidder bids on only this seller's auctions.
Copy the bidder's ID. Go to Site Map; on the next screen on the right hand side of the page go to Find a member.
Then on the next screen in yellow on the left side, click on As A Bidder. Then paste the bidder's ID in the box and click to show completed auctions as well as those in which she was not the highest bidder.

If you see a pattern connecting the seller and bidder in which she bids only on this seller's listings report the seller.

GRRRR...that drives me NUTS!! I watched a collie picture go from 15.00 to 177.00 in the last hour of bidding...I felt like some cheating was going on only because of the fast rise in bidding!

Isn't it amazing how many SCUMBAGS are out there!!

Nope, I checked. No sneaky pattern is showing up. Others are winning and the seller has even sold for less than $10 to other bidders. This bidder has been buying from lots of different sellers, not exclusively from this one.
I think she may be a collector that is selling from a store front in her hometown.

Mona, I'll remember that procedure in case I need it at another time. Yeah, I saw that one that went for under $10. I had full intentions of bidding on it, but forgot! I was sure I'd remember.......I have no idea why I thought that. :-)

Alisande, you may already do this.. but try doing searches with the words mispelled. A search for Drusy (instead of Druzy) brings up quite a bit, although none were like what you were looking for.

I've got some good deals because of a seller's bad spelling.

Here is a link that might be useful: Search for Drusy

Good idea, LydiaÂthanks! I've noticed that there are some remarkably poor spellers on eBay..... :-)

I am sure that that kind of bidding does go on but I sell Barbie doll dresses on ebay and many many people wait until the last few minutes to bid....also here is another thing that does happen and it isn't always a schill bid...lets say I want that ring and I am willing to pay 55 dollars for it...the bid right now is 25...so ebay has an automatic bidding program where I can go ahead and bid my 55 dollars and it doesn't apply untill some one comes along and bids...the next bid is 26 so my 25 is safe until you come along and bid 26, then another dollar comes out of my 55 and I have a winning bid listed at 27...and that can continue until my 55 is used up...in other words no one can outbid me and until my 55 is completely gone...so it seems like someone immediately bid after you did but in essence..the bid was already there....I love people who get carried away with the bidding part...it makes ebay fun...before Christmas, I got $66 for a little Barbie dress and jacket...

Alisande,

Another little thing about Ebay to consider. If you put your bid in early, it gives other bidders a chance to up yours. The longer your bid is in, the more opportunity there is to have someone outbid you. If you look at bidding history you can see some inexperienced bidders actually end up bidding several times over the course of the auction to keep their bid winning. All this means is that they end up bidding against themselves.

That is what makes "sniping" so popular. If you put your highest bid in at the last few seconds it doesn't give anyone else a chance to outbid you. Either you win it, or you don't.

There's a great service that does this for you automatically so you don't have to be sitting at the computer refreshing every few seconds waiting to put a last second bid in. It's called esnipe (link below)

Also, you may just have to concede that these items will never go for as little as you hope. You may just have to revise your expectations as to what these rings are truly worth. Have you researched them using the completed auction search to get an idea of what they average on sale?

I also have to agree with Mona that many retailers are buying on Ebay to resell in their private retail stores. They can find things on Ebay they aren't likely to find wholesale at some mass merchant.

By the way, the rings are beautiful. I can understand your passion about them.

Here is a link that might be useful: esnipe!

Thanks for the link, Tally. I should check out esnipe. I usually try to bid in the last seconds, but it can be nerve-wracking!

I'm waiting on several of those rings, but I just bought myself a couple of unmounted stones to make into pendants. I can see this is going to be an expensive New Year's Eve by myself! LOL

Here's one of the stones.

AACK! I realized as I read my response that the second sentance wasn't quite worded as meant. Eeek!

Well, you got my drift, even if I confunded the wording.

Esnipe is a great tool. Especially if your auction ends in the dead of night and you can't stay awake, or if you're going to be away from the computer. Just remember to place your absolute highest bid with them, because once it's placed at the 6 or 4 second mark, there's no time to change your mind.

Those stones are just to die for. Please, oh please don't get me started....