Caught Red Handed: Ebay Price Change After Auction Closed

An ebay auction sale price may change after closing. I sold an item for $45. The ebay invoice printed by the buyer displayed the price as $43, which he paid with a check. When checked later, the price was $45. When first checked, SixBit displayed the price as $45, but now the price displays as $43. Meanwhile, ebay now displays the price as $45.

I believe that the cause was a temporary suspension of the second highest bidder. The bids were

High bidder $45

Second bidder $44.49

Third bidder $42

Fourth bidder $38.87.

The bid order was $38.87, $42, $45, $44.49.

Apparently, ebay relies on a calculated value as the final auction price instead of capturing the final auction result.

If this is the case, it could expose ebay sellers to major fraud. A buyer who has the capability of creating multiple shill buyer accounts could post a relatively low bid and post high bids from two fake accounts. Instead of canceling bids at the last minute, terminating the shill accounts would make the spurious bids disappear potentially leaving the seller in the lurch. If this is correct, possibilities are endless.

This is a very scary scenario for me, have you talked to ebay about it?

Ken,

I called ebay about the issue today. I also posted on the eCommerce EKG to find out if anyone else had seen the problem. I also have both versions of the invoice. Some persuasion was required to update SixBit after the sale price returned to the original higher amount. I don't think it was a one-off occurrence, but it may not commonly occur. That ebay can update sales prices for unpaid items is a design error combined with a bush league coding error.

Clark