Shill Bidding

[crypt_keeper000]

I am bidding on this item at the moment (292825479835) and I have a nasty feeling someone is shill bidding, it might just be my imagination because over 10+ other bids I was bidding on (from China) the guy was blatantly doing just that, but I caught him out and reported him to Ebay.

So maybe I'm just imagining things with this one but I do find it strange that a person with absolutely "0" feedback is suddenly bidding on an expensive item, yet he has not one bid on anything else anywhere.

I am winning at the moment but if I see this guy again bidding on this item I am in two minds whether I should contact the seller and warn him if he is shill bidding he will be reported but also I really do not want to let this item go but I don't want to be overcharged for something I could have gotten cheaper.

Any advice is appreciated.

[lyndal1838]

It would be very foolish to "have a word" with the seller about the 0 feedback bidder if you want to buy anything else from him.

He will almost certainly put you on his blocked bidders list if he is offended by your accusations.

I don't think it is shill bidding but to satisfy yourself why don't you report it to bay.....if they find it is shill bidding the auction will be stopped.

To be honest, your bidding method is an invitation for sellers to shill bid.....you leave yourself open to being ripped off by unscrupulous sellers.

[imastawka]

And going by the amount of bid increments, we can see that the OP is willing to bid,

at least, up to $620 - so far - not hard to work out.

Bid increments

$0.01 - $0.99  $0.05

$1.00 - $4.99  $0.25

$5.00 - $24.99  $0.50

$25.00 - $99.99  $1.00

$100.00 - $249.99  $2.50

$250.00 - $499.99  $5.00

$500.00 - $999.99  $10.00

$1,000.00 - $2,499.99  $25.00

$2,500.00 - $4,999.99  $50.00

$5,000.00 and up  $100.00

[lyndal1838]

I am not sure about that Stawks.

There was a discussion about the increments some time ago and I seem to remember that once you are the highest bidder you can increase that bid by less than the accepted amount.

In other words those bids could be for a few cents rather than $10.

Whatever they are, all those bids scream shill me.

[imastawka]

OK.   But I've never done  something so dumb  bidding like that, so I wouldn't know

[brerrabbit585]

You don't have to bid like the OP to test it. All you need is to have one bid at the top and then do a second one for a few cents more and see if it works.

To the OP, I have plenty of buyers who've joined ebay the same day they buy, then they don't buy anything else for a long time. Things get discussed in other forums and someone says such and such is listed on ebay at the moment so people join up to have a bid on it. I've seen ads for ebay items on facebook and I've also seen people refer others to ebay when they're looking for a particular item.

If I was going to shill bid my own items I wouldn't use a brand new ID with zero feedback, I'd use one with several feedback, or I'd get a friend to do it for me. No, I don't need to shill bid because it's a long time since I've run an auction.

[imastawka]

Nope.     I was right.   $10 increments.

The OP was bid up to $560 with nibble bids.

Now she's put another 10 bids in - totalling another $100, if I'm right.    

[go-tazz]

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@crypt_keeper000 wrote:

It might seem strange to you but that is how I bid, I have done it this way for 14 years in here and I have gotten heaps of bargins from doing it like that.

Which means you've been lucky as that's the worst way to bid as you can create a bidding war which goes

way over the top.

Everyone is different, you might like to auto bid or wait to the last minute to grab it, and I have tried that way to but that doesn't work for me.

Obviously you didn't set your maximum bid or if you had then it went for more than you were willing to pay.

I have already won one item off this person a little while ago and I got that cheap to by doing the same type of bidding and when I pick it up today I will be having a civil conversation with the seller about the "0" feedback person, and if he gets offended by it and retracts my bids then so be it.

So if he has someone shill bidding it's because you've created the situation for them,(they know how you bid

as you've done it before so if they want to make you pay your maximum amount then they'll just keep doing

it).

It's one of the main reasons you don't nibble bid,(it can set you up for a shiller if you've bid on their items

before).

The sensible way to bid is to bid in the last minute or less,(it's been proven over and over that by nibble

bidding you raise the price of the items significantly).

I might want the item but it's not kill me if I don't get it, there are plenty more items on Ebay to buy.....and I just saw some now :D.

Someone before said maybe he just joined so he could bid on this item...yeh, maybe he did that, and maybe I've won Gold in the last 3 Olympics. 😛

That bidder still hasn't bid on anything else on Ebay, not a paper clip, nothing.

But we will see what happens....3 days to go.....maybe he'll buy that paper clip and prove me wrong, who knows.

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They haven't bid in the last 5 days and pulled out after it went over $500,(but now you have someone else

nibble bidding to see if they get to your top bid).

[brerrabbit585]

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@imastawka wrote:

Nope.     I was right.   $10 increments.

The OP was bid up to $560 with nibble bids.

Now she's put another 10 bids in - totalling another $100, if I'm right.    

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Ah, but just because the bids are going up by $10 doesn't mean you can't put in further smaller bids if you're the highest bidder.  If you have a look you'll see that the OP is bidding in $20 and $50 increments (their current bid is $50 higher than their previous bid).  If that's the case for all their bids above the current price, the sky's the limit!  By posting here they've left themself wide open to being run up.

[imastawka]

By posting here they've left themself wide open to being run up.

                         

Too true.  (Bad Brer for suggesting it)   

But talk about not letting an auction go!

The same item is available for $534 and free post.

Current underbidder has only ever bid on jewellery.   

Might be a bit of evil surfacing there.

[padi*0409]

Interesting bidding pattern for the last 3 minutes Stawks..........................