" Pending" offer on ebay item

[a.rutley]

I was going to put a bid in for a HDD Recorder on ebay. There was a show of 1 bid on the advert, When I clicked on the bid all it showed was the name (partly hidden by astericks) and that the offer status was "pending" and had no offer price on show. Is this some kind of ploy by the seller to kick start the bidding. When the bidding time expired it then showed the pending offer, What's all this about ??
Sorry if there is an obvious answer , don't want to waste anyones time but I am relatively new to internet buying.

[Ethel]

I've not come across this before. Can we have the listing number?

Was the seller pre-approving bidders, so the bids would only be accepted once the seller had contacted the bidder?

[trish432]

I`ve seen this before, I think it`s when there is no bidding, but a buy it now price or offers. You can make an offer lower than the buy it now price. Sometimes it says offer accepted, other times it says offer refused or pending. It doesn`t show the name of the "bidder" or the amount of their offer. It`s usually when the seller has quite a few of the item for sale.

[a.rutley]

Thanks to Ethel and Trish432. The item number (which has now expired) is 260264809718. The bids are now exposed followed by expired. Still baffled so maybe I will just avoid any future items for sale that has pending in the bids. Still seems like a way of jacking up the bids to me.
Trish appears to be on track with regards to the item being a buy it now article. Have only seen pending on dealers items.
Cheers, Andy R.

[Ethel]

Yes, I have just looked at the listing. It was a Buy It Now for �94.99 as you can see, 'or best offer' which were the two offers now visible. The 'make an offer' tab has disappeared because the listing has finished.

Here is another listing in the same format:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/TOSHIBA-15-LCD-TV-15V330 DB-FREEVIEW-PORTABLE-TELEVISION_W0QQitemZ38004 8540586QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item380048540586&_t rksid=p3911.m14.l1318

If you were to 'make an offer' it would show as pending until the seller accepts or rejects it.

[a.rutley]

Thanks for your help and trouble Ethel. Would I right or wrong then, in assuming that when offers from buyers are shown as pending, it means that the seller is withholding the actual amount to influence higher bidding, or am I reading too much into this?

[Ethel]

You're reading too much in to it. Somebody come put an offer in, but the seller may not access his ebay account for several hours - maybe a day or two - to accept or reject the offer, so it shows as pending.

You are talking about shill bidding, where the seller uses another id (or a friend) to bid on the items purely to increase the end price.
No advantage in Buy It Nows or best offers.

[a.rutley]

I must just have an over suspicious mind Ethel. Anyway thanks again to you and Trish for responding to my query.I am signing the question off as answered.
PS. Still seems strange that this pending only seems to occur on dealers sites and not private auctions.
Oops sorry!!!
Andy R.