doublegunshop.com - home Forums Thread Like Summary - Questionable bidders.

Watching an auction on Gunbroker. Seems there is a bidder repeatedly bidding on a gun, running up the price of a gun. One single feedback over six month old. Been a member since 2008, with zero other purchases. Whenever I see a long standing person, with just a single feedback, for 15 years, I wonder how solid of a bidder are they? Or are they just running up things to suddenly lose interest as the auction nears the end? God knows I’ve bought more than one gun over the last 15 years off Gunbroker. Just ask my wife.

29 out of 35 bids so far by him. And never the top bid.

I watch Guns International more than Gunbroker.

Some dealers on Gunbroker handle a lot of interesting guns like Lock, Stock & Barrel. Good photos, reasonable descriptions and a pleasure to deal with. Gunbroker can have a decent unusual gun from time to time which flies under the radar. But I see several auctions of items with dueling longtime members with zero purchases as troubling or possible troubling. Gunbroker does zero to help if you have any problems or get scammed. Been there and have got that tee shirt. Pro lister all the way. And they had a problem with shill bidders in the past for those of us who have been around forever. eBay did as well.

29 out of 35 bids sounds like a kid trying to see if he can get the lead or an obsessed nut job. So far from the end there is no way his lead will prevail. Auctions with high bid numbers get more interest. Some of us just bid our maximum amount and wait to see if it wins or review it at the end and maybe increase our bid. But a shill bidder will run up the pot, if he wins he never pays, and the seller will relist the item knowing what the market should pay. If the shill bidder times it right he comes up just short and plays for free another day.

To not get caught in a bidding war I wait until the end of the auction to bid. Place my maximum bid and see if it is enough. Sometime I get re-raised and have to consider another bid but most often just call it a day and move on.

Here are the Top Three Most Stupid Things a gun owner could do:

1) Support and vote for anti-Gun Democrats.

2) Look down the barrel of a loaded gun.

3) Bid early and often in any firearms auction.


Numbers 2 and 3 may be interchangeable... number 1 is always the dumbest of all.