Sunken narrowboat

[Captain Pegg]

Yes it really IS odd now.

 

The leading bidder now has dozens and dozens of new bids listed all just a few seconds apart place late last night, and all at exactly the same value of £4,100.

 

They look to me like automated bids. Perhaps outbidding another high bidder who subsequently had his bids cancelled as vexatious. The the dozens of bids from bidder I***- got adjusted downwards, again automatically.

 

Or is there another explanation for 100+ identical consecutive bids from one bidder?

 

Fell asleep on the keyboard?

[MtB]

Fell asleep on the keyboard?

 

 

That doesn't work! You have to put in higher bids when bidding manually...

 

Good idea though...

[X Alan W]

Thanks for all of your replies. I think you are all right in thinking it's best avoided

If the present owner will pay you to get it raised & then give you the boat it might possibly be worth wile but if you have to pay to raise it & then buy it I would think your money would be best spent elsewhere on a dry to begin with project

[Athy]

 

 

Or is there another explanation for 100+ identical consecutive bids from one bidder?

Stupidity?

[Sir Percy]

For the sort of money you're talking about, you might try looking for an ex-workboat. Maybe a bit smaller than you were thinking of, but a good starter.

[Paul C]

There's nothing unusual about the bidding but its the way its presented when the system puts in automated bids when a bidder enters an amount more than the current bid increment. The seller can expand to show all the bids if needs be (but others can't).

[David Mack]

They look to me like automated bids. Perhaps outbidding another high bidder who subsequently had his bids cancelled as vexatious. Then perhaps the dozens of bids from bidder I***- got adjusted downwards, again automatically.

Bidder k***h placed a bid of £65,000 at 00:06:39 this morning and retracted it at 00:08:43. So it looks as if I***- was placing successive bids and k***h wanted to see how high he had gone.

[Lizzy]

There's nothing unusual about the bidding but its the way its presented when the system puts in automated bids when a bidder enters an amount more than the current bid increment. The seller can expand to show all the bids if needs be (but others can't).

 

Normally the maximum bids are not shown though. Say you have two bidders:

1) A puts in £1000 as highest bid.

2) Auction goes to £500 as the starting price (as it was on this item).

3) B puts in £700 as highest bid.

4) Auction goes to £701 because A's bid is still higher.

5) B puts in a new bid for £1500.

6) Auction goes to £1001, because that's the minimum increment to top A's bid.

What should be shown publicly on the page is only 2), 3), 4) and 6). The maximum bids are not shown if they are not reached.

At least that's how it used to be.

 

Definitely something odd going on here. I don't know how it's possible to put in so many identical bids, must be through software I think. In any case I reported this listing yesterday for shill bidding. Don't know if they'll get round to reviewing it before it ends or whether there is enough evidence to take it down.

[Athy]

I didn't think that an eBay bid, once placed, could be retracted, at least not automatically rather than by personal contact with the seller. How is it done?

[Bee]

I really hope I wasn't sleepwalking last night and I really, really hope I haven't gone on the computer and bought what is essentially, and probably permanently, part of the riverbed

[Flyboy]

I didn't think that an eBay bid, once placed, could be retracted, at least not automatically rather than by personal contact with the seller. How is it done?

No problem retracting a bid directly from Ebay before the end time. You can't retract a bid after you've won something.

[Paul C]

As I understand it you need to contact the seller, and only they can retract the bid. In theory they could say "no" but any sensible seller would retract it ASAP, since a non-paying bidder is basically useless and not really much you can do about it. A bidder cannot retract their own bid, if they did eventually win it and didn't pay up they could get a non-payment strike though so its not to be encouraged etc.

[RichM]

No problem retracting a bid directly from Ebay before the end time. You can't retract a bid after you've won something.

 

Unless it has changed recently; I think it's against ebay's rules to retract a bid unless it's under certain circumstances, I don't remember what they all are but I know is one "accidentally entered incorrect amount". This doesn't stop people from misusing the feature though.

[magnetman]

No problem retracting a bid directly from Ebay before the end time. You can't retract a bid after you've won something.

<disclaimer - the following may be incorrect>

 

Technically there is no legal contract on an eBay auction anyway until the deal is done so either the 'buyer' or the 'seller' can refuse to complete the deal after the end of bidding.

 

Obviously someone could take legal advice if they got a Fabergé egg for £28 or something but if you are selling a wreck for £x,xxx then I don't think that really applies so much.

 

Is it in fact a joke listing - or have people taken it as such?

[RLWP]

Now at £5900 with an hour to go. It has just exceeded its recover costs

 

Richard

[Lizzy]

 

Unless it has changed recently; I think it's against ebay's rules to retract a bid unless it's under certain circumstances, I don't remember what they all are but I know is one "accidentally entered incorrect amount". This doesn't stop people from misusing the feature though.

 

eBay keeps track of retracted bids and also unpaid items if you won an auction. If you do it too often, you get banned.

[Flyboy]

As I said, it's no problem retracting a bid. http://www.ebay.co.uk/gds/How-When-Why-To-Retract-a-Bid-Dont-Ask-the-Seller-/10000000001673381/g.html

[RLWP]

£5,900. Getting on for £11,000 with recover costs

 

Richard

[MtB]

£5,900. Getting on for £11,000 with recover costs

 

Richard

 

 

It appears from the listing 'posting to the UK' was one of the delivery options.

 

All the buyer has to do now is transfer the £5.9k using Paypal and wait for the postman to arrive on Tuesday!

[Partizanmeister]

Is there anyone local who can give us an update as to whether this boat actually gets recovered / refloated in the next few days and weeks?

Just curious

[MtB]

Is there anyone local who can give us an update as to whether this boat actually gets recovered / refloated in the next few days and weeks?

Just curious

 

 

I think the chances of this happening are remote.

 

When it comes to handing over £5.9k for a bit of roof sticking out of the water I suspect the auction winner might just possibly have second thoughts and renage on the deal.

[Lady Muck]

 

 

I think the chances of this happening are remote.

 

When it comes to handing over £5.9k for a bit of roof sticking out of the water I suspect the auction winner might just possibly have second thoughts and renage on the deal.

Very remote, this boat was a scrapper six to eight years ago when my friend rented it. Even back then, I don't think it had been out or blacked for ten years. I would only bother with it if you own a crane and have a need for a large, oblong rusty colander.

[RLWP]

Very remote, this boat was a scrapper six to eight years ago when my friend rented it. Even back then, I don't think it had been out or blacked for ten years. I would only bother with it if you own a crane and have a need for a large, oblong rusty colander.

 

No access for a crane, it's a divers and flotation bags job

 

Richard

[I Spartacus]

No access for a crane, it's a divers and flotation bags job

 

Richard

It is still going to be a problem using lifting bags due to it's location next to the wall and the rocky river bottom.

Unless they can get a jack-up floating crane which would be the best way. The other method they could use is the L frame or telegraph

pole method off the wall.

[jake_crew]

Assuming this on the river in Bath, I tried to find it (or rather the surroundings) on Google Satellite.

 

But no joy.