Ebay Shenanigans

You want to know something that's strange about the Blog People? So many of them are from Wisconsin and are Brewers fans. I wonder why that is.

So, I'm on ebay trying to stock up on Brewers cards so I have something to trade with people and use in packages other than 1986-1989 Topps. Seems like a good idea to me, even if I'm still months away from actually getting a package out to someone.

I come across this auction for 475 brewers cards including inserts and stuff. I'm hoping it has a bunch of goofy stuff. It seems promising. It would definitely take care of most of my Brewer needs.

$10 is a little high for the shipping, but not ridiculously so. If I can get the thing for $12-$15 it works out to around 3 cents a card. Very reasonable. So far there is one bid and it's at $0.99.

Like usual, I keep my eye on it and bide my time. With a few hours left, there is another bid and it now stands at $1.05. (I thought you had to increase the bid by more than $0.06 at a time but I guess I was wrong.)

I have $3.50 in the bid box and I'm hitting refresh, waiting for it to get down around 30 seconds left (Yes, I'm one of those people). All of a sudden another bid comes in and it's $23.09! Are you kidding me? What the hell just happened?

The only thing I can figure is that the seller didn't want to sell it for that little and used different accounts to increase the bid at the last second. He made the second max bid around $22.80 and the third max bid at the last second to make the price jump over the $23 dollar mark. I know that this doesn't even make much sense but it's the only way I can explain it.

Unless, the second bidder bid over $20 even though the auction was only at $0.99. and the third bidder somehow knew he had to bid well over $20 even though the auction was only at $1.05. Why would someone wait until the last second and bid $25 on an auction that only stands a little over $1? Especially when the lot is CLEARLY not worth over $30. It doesn't make any sense.

So, I'm calling shenanigans, unless someone else can explain this a different way. I wouldn't be surprised if the same auction appears again.

Does this stuff happen often? Because it's a first for me.