Automatic and Proxy Bidding is NOT TRANSPARENT

[johneltin]

I have tried to bid on an item without success and the result at the end of the auction tends to make me believe that eBay could be encouraging fraud by it's 'proxy' bidding system. 

Look here to see the results of the sale with 7 bidder, 10 bids and no way to see who was bidding - it could be friends or employees from within the seller's business/warehouse:

http://offer.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewBids&item=161521808017&showauto=true

 Any advice appreciated because I think this is unfair after 9 years as a power seller.

Could be that I'm missing something here, if so, then apologies to eBay.

[i-love-my-sheep]

I might see something that interests me, say a car stereo. Bidding starts at 99c. I think I'd be happy to pay $100 for it, so I put a bid on for $100. You come along and place a bid for $10 and you are immediately outbid by me and the auction now might show the high price of $10.50. You place another bid for $20 and you are immediately outbid by me. You keep placing bids in $10 increments and when you get to $90, you give up. Auction ends and I win for $90.50.

On the bidding history page, each time you place a bid, my proxy bid pops up because I have automatically outbid you because I placed a much higher initial bid than you did. There is nothing fraudulent about that at all.

If you check a seller other items, both active and ended and you see a pattern of the same bidder bidding on everything, then yes, there might be some fraudulent activity going on.

[lyndal1838]

Ten years as a power seller and you don't understand Private auctions?

Yes, Private auctions can be hiding shill bidding but the current ebay system of hidden bidders is not much better.

Just bid you absolute maximum as clsoe to the end of the auction as possible...if you win that's great.  If you don't then someone elso was prepared to pay more than you.

[johneltin]

I understand the automatic bidding - placing a bid and then a maximum amount, but why are ALL of the bidders on this item 'private' ? There were seven of them (all marked 'private') and in my thousands of sales on eBay I have yet to see ONE 'private' bid on any of the items I've sold.

[lyndal1838 · Accepted solution]

If you don't set the auction up as a private auction then of course the bidding history will not show Private bidders.

My comment was that you don't understand Private auctions, not that you don't understand automatic bidding.

However, your comment also makes me think that you are a bit hazy about that as well.  You do not have to place a bid then another maximum bid.   You only need to place one maximum bid and then ebay automatically bid for you up to that amount.

[johneltin · Accepted solution]

OK - thanks. I rarely buy on eBay and, as I said, I've never seen it before in all my years of selling.  

Thanks to all.  J

[i-love-my-sheep]

If you want your own listings to be private, meaning the bidders are invisible to other buyers and also so your listings don't show up in anyone's feedback, you need to tick the box shown below when creating your listing.

[padi*0409]

Be aware that many buyers are very dubious of "private listings", unless they are high-priced or sensitive items, as they can mask shill bidding.

So if you go down that track you may well find a drop in your bids/bidders.