Possible shill bidder?

[cyo27]

Hi guys,

I'm very new to bidding so please excuse me if I'm way off the mark or not understanding things properly. I just want to get your opinion on whether or not I may be going head to head with a shill bidder. Below is the current bidding history for the item:

 

I normally don't bid at all until the last minute, but I was recently burned when a seller ended the auction early on an item I really wanted. So this time I thought I'd put my max bid in and see what happens.

I was the one who pushed the bid price up to $60, and I'm currently the highest bidder. It's the 5***2 fellow I'm not sure about. They seem to keep coming back every few hours to put a new bid in, and I just find it a bit odd that they keep trying despite getting beaten by my max bid every time. I checked out their profile and they've only bid on 2 other items this month, from different sellers and no retractions. Am I simply overthinking this or could this person be a shill bidder? Thank you in advance for your assistance. 

 

[padi*0409]

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@4channel wrote:

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We don't know that for sure padi*0409. It is early days yet. I see papermoon.lady's post has been accepted as a solution and that's fine. She has offered an intelligent analysis of the situation no doubt! But possibilities other than her intelligent analysis may exist.

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Rubbish 4chan, the bidder was a newbie who was nibble-bidding, had bid on other sellers items and had no retractions - or didn't you read the OP's post and look at the screenshot they provided ???   I'm guessing you didn't read the OP's final post either..............

[katistrophik]

Just no idea  😄

SMH as I SIGH

sly  switched on - my stomach hurts from laughing

[4channel]

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@padi*0409 wrote:

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@4channel wrote:

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We don't know that for sure padi*0409. It is early days yet. I see papermoon.lady's post has been accepted as a solution and that's fine. She has offered an intelligent analysis of the situation no doubt! But possibilities other than her intelligent analysis may exist.

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Rubbish 4chan, the bidder was a newbie who was nibble-bidding, had bid on other sellers items and had no retractions - or didn't you read the OP's post and look at the screenshot they provided ???   I'm guessing you didn't read the OP's final post either..............

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It's highly possible that papermoon.lady was right. She's an astute poster. But it's also good to know about what goes on with sock-puppets in bidding. 

And I have seen sockpuppet bidders (shills) doing exactly what that displayed bidder was doing. Anyway, this thread  or any other isn't always just about what you say it should be. And the example by skyrider12-au could be helpful to the OP or anyone else that reads this. He's a very astute guy too.

Some years back I reported multiple scam auction to eBay.  There were at least 8 possibly more IDs involved in a lot scam involving multiple auctions.  I've noticed a few things regarding sockpuppet ID.

[k1ooo-slr-sales]

please stop, you're killing me

[padi*0409]

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@4channel wrote:

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And I have seen sockpuppet bidders (shills) doing exactly what that displayed bidder was doing.

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Perhaps you are unaware of the difference between "nibble-bidders" and "shill-bidders" 4chan.

One of them will RETRACT bids when they pass the other bidders high bid.

[repentatleisure1952]

Your very switched on/intelligent poster stated in that thread "I really don't know how shill bidding works".

[4channel]

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@padi*0409 wrote:

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Perhaps you are unaware of the difference between "nibble-bidders" and "shill-bidders" 4chan.

One of them will RETRACT bids when they pass the other bidders high bid.

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Some crooked sellers who are just starting out on the bump-up game look like nibble bidders as well.. They  bump it up a bit and then quit after a while. No need to retract.  They've already been instructed on how high to go (estimate). In a similar situation years ago, I won an item that had the price bumped up bit by bit. I thought it was a nibble bidder but later discovered that the bidder was an associate of the seller working in a shill capacity. Other sellers who cannot or choose not to incorporate an associate into their game create sock-puppet IDs to do the bumping.

So Circle-padi*0409, I know the difference.

[4channel]

The bumping up for newbie crooks in the game is a bit of a risk but there's more chance of a shill or sock-puppet bumping it up just enough to raise the price than becoming the leading bidder.

[papermoon.lady]

A few years ago I witnessed some shill bidding and it was so evident I don't know how the seller could get away with it for so long (looking at past auctions). This shill bidder only placed bids on the seller's items (many, I must add), pushing up all prices, until an auction went wrong and the shill bidder won (this was the auction I was interested in, but luckily I noticed the pattern and didn't bid anyway). Soon after the shill bidder won, the item was listed again. The person who lost the auction, or maybe somebody else, must have noticed too, and suddenly all the bidders became private.

[katistrophik]

Well at least the OP had the good sense to know whose advice to take, thank goodness.

How would they have felt had they reported that poor innocent buyer for doing nothing more than most nibblers do LOL