Kaisilver, Security Blog

Buyers often rush to bid on online auctions assuming that, they will get some great bargains. However quite a few sellers have learnt some smart tricks. The auction is started by the seller with a very low starting price (minimum price) or, with no minimum price (no reserve auction) at all. This often means lower listing fees for the seller but, there is more to this. The seller then appoints ‘bidders’ to bid for his items and gradually push the price up. Genuine bidders will therefore be encouraged to place increasingly higher bids if they expect to win the auction. Online auction websites have some sort of checks to control such frauds but, sellers learn fast and quicky change their tricks.

This is just one type of fraud that is perpetuated on online auction websites. The bidders who suffer the most are those who bid for jewelry and gemstones. Sellers have no interest in educating buyers regarding the features and limitations of various gemstones and jewels, the instant thrill of online auctions makes this old fashioned! Low quality reject jewels and gems are hunted down by hundreds of online auction sellers. These are then dumped on online auction websites, sellers keep fingers crossed and hope for some innocent bidder to get tangled in their tricky web. You might be fine making an auction purchase for a casual jewel, but for jewels of value and jewels with meaning (wedding rings, birthstone rings, mothers rings etc) choose a custom jeweler to get the job done. A good purchase needs to be preceeded with a lot of cross communication between you and your jeweler. The 7 or 10 day period of online auctions might give you an instant thrill, might even get you something cheap, but this will always come at the expense of quality and longterm durability.