SHILL BIDDING!!

[kustomizer99]

I'm currently bidding on an item that I know for a fact is being bid up by an associate of the seller. I can tell by the rating of the shill bidder who the person is. I know for a fact that these two people have a close business/personal relationship.

I've tried reporting this kind of thing to eBay before, but they say it's too hard to prove. Anyone had any luck in exposing shill bidding scams in the past?

[harley_babes_hoard]

I don't know how you can be certain of shill bidding.But heres my tip.  Place one bid with your highest price with only a few seconds to go before the auction finishes. if there is no interest until nearly the end there is less likelyhood of shill bidding.

[*sparklz*]

They can only act if the shill bids are coming from the same IP address.

Without that there is no proof.

[zelly888]

The problem is that the shill bidders are using different IP addresses as they aren't silly enough not too.

[imastawka]

Don't lose sleep over it.   Just put in one bid. the amount you're happy to pay.

If you win -  great.  If it's shill bidding they'll have to pay eBay fees and on top

of that re-list it so you can have another go at it

[thejokerwins]

Try and be the 2nd highest. Or see there history for what the item went for and bid that. At the end of the day, the seller's going to try and get his 'reserve' price or what they want for it.

Never want something so much.

[imastawka]

Their 'reserve' price should be the price that the auction starts at. Anything over that is a bonus

to the seller.  Starting the auction at 'reserve' means if they only get one bid they should be happy.

Previous selling prices don't really mean much overall.  Just depends who's looking at buying this week

[davewil1964]

Four plus years and over 6000 transactions.

I would ask why you are bidding on an item if you 'know' it is being shilled. Surely you know how to circumvent shillers by now.

[kustomizer99]

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@davewil1964 wrote:

Four plus years and over 6000 transactions.

I would ask why you are bidding on an item if you 'know' it is being shilled. Surely you know how to circumvent shillers by now.

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I obviously didn't know (or care) that it was being shill-bid until AFTER I placed my bid.

[retailtherapist_8]

kustom I completely "get" how you feel. It has happened to me several times, mainly with intl sellers. My philosophy has become ...at a certain price I am no longer interested so at that point I am happy to let the unscrupulous Seller buy back their own item.

Experienced ebayers knowww ( ya can feel it in ya waters hahha) when the Seller is  bidding against them, different IP or not .

Doesnt make it right, never will but I no longer get too bent out of shape I just wait til I can buy the same item from a decent Seller.