Banned from bidding to often ????

[leeroybrowwn]

I was attempting to buy several hand held game systems and found many posted and they seem to go for around 20 to 40 usually..... So I see a bunch that start @.99 and I set max bids @ 8.00 on all of them I see for several days. I did not seem to win any but now I have been banned from bidding..... Who is the jerk here me or the seller?  Please someone give it to me straight... 

[lifeintheknife]

The seller. I can't imagine why they'd be bothered by your bids. It only drives up the price, which is good for them.

[reallynicestamps]

It's a self-protection thing, usually used in categories where there is a lot of thrill bidding or fraud.

Games and gaming is one of those categories.

Sellers can set up a restriction on how many lots a single bidder can bid on to prevent a mischief maker from tieing up his products with multiple "purchases" and then for one reason or another never paying.

It is annoying and tends to happen most to new bidders. Honest new bidders often do exactly what you did, see a great deal and bid like crazy on it, only to lose interest, or suddenly realize they will have very high shipping, or that they misread the listing. Then they don't pay, and may not even realize that an eBay bid is a real contract to pay, and the seller is stuck with an incomplete transaction, a lot of fees (sellers pay eBay for every sale made on the site), and a delay before he can re-offer his product to paying customers.

You may be able to contact the seller and explain that you are new but you think his products are just what you want and have been looking for but that his "automatic" (this is a face-saver, there is an automatic stop-bid program available, but he may have manually blocked you) stop-bid prevents you from making more bids.

Hmm.

You can ask him to remove the block. You can ask him to set up a private auction for you for the games you want. You can ask him if he ships to Canada (another reason some sellers will block a bidder) and what combined shipping on games X, Y , Z and Q would be. Ask if he uses the Global Shipping Program.

Which may just annoy him more, or if he is bright, may notify him that you are a responsible interested and potentially repeat customer.

Good luck!

Another thought-- if you happen to be a gamer girl, sign your real name. Geek girls have a better rep for trustworthiness than geek guys. Don't fake this. Geek girls get enough hassle as it is.