The auctions continue on E-Bay for build slots.
The current one, finishing soon, is for AUGUST delivery (not exactly the first car off the boat!!).

Curiously, I notice that the same guy has now had at least 3 separate auctions that I've seen, and each time the price gets up to around $15,000.
Looking at the bid history on the current one, I also notice that 9 of the bids have come in groups of 3, where 3 bids are all placed within 3-6 minutes of one another, each group on a separate day.

I don't know all that much about E-Bay auctions.
Is it possible that the same guy is obtaining build slots from different dealers, then auctioning them off?
Or is it more likely that the deals are falling through and he's re-auctioning the same slot?

Is it possible to inflate your own auction price by bidding multiple times in succession (perhaps using separate e-mail addresses)?

What would prevent a slightly shady MB dealer from working with an outside buyer to make a little quick cash by intentionally reserving E55 build slots with the intent of auctioning them off on E-Bay? $15K per slot is not small change!

Anyone know anything about these slot auctions?

 

I'm not sure about these particilar auctions but e-bay has a feature that puts in an automatic bid for you.

FROM EBAY "eBay does most of the work for you! Just enter the maximum amount you want to spend. Then, only when there are other bidders on the item, eBay will bid on your behalf, up to your maximum bid. If another bidder outbids you before the listing ends we'll send you an email to let you know!

If indicate that your maximum bid is $1000 when the minimum raise is $100, ebay will only raise the price $100 for you until another bidder comes along. The new bidder can rais ethe bid by $100 and ebay will bid another $100 for you until your $1000 is used up. It will appear to be 2 bidders each quickly rasing the price by $100.

Hope this helps. FWIW, I would not spend $.10 over MSRP for anything in this market.

 

Thanks for the tutorial. You're probably right about the auto-bidding.

I agree with you about paying over MSRP.
That's one reason I keep checking these auctions.
I remain totally amazed that there are so many people willing to pay over MSRP in the current market/economy.
It's just not necessary.
But, $15K is small change to some people (but those people should be buying Vanquishes and Bentleys, I'd think).

 

Then bid what you want -- no use in raising the bid in advance of the close.