SHILL BIDDING

[skyrider12-au]

How difficult is it to prove shill bidding? I have been bidding on items, all listed in the same category, and all listed by the same seller. The opening prices are all rediculously low and the first bid is nearly always made by the same id - nothing wrong with that I suppose - Three or for bids are made, very early in the auction and again, all by the same ids. A few mins before closing time I will make my bid and straight away I am outbid, more than likely by a sniping tool, and all too often by an id that has a very high % of dealing with the seller. I have compared all the bidding ids and found that they all have high %ages with this seller - one has 100% with a total of winning transactions in excess of 100, another has 65% for 40 something transactions. A few days after the closure of the auction an identical listing is made of the same item by the same seller ........?  Am I paranoid about sniping tools or is this possibly shill bidding? Would EB investigate this sort of information - or simply do Zip?

[chameleon54 · Accepted solution]

It looks a lot like shill bidding to me although we mere mortals are not in a position to prove or disprove it. You could phone ebay customer service and report your suspicians. Ebay will act if they can prove a connection between the accounts concerned, but experienced shill bidders, know the rules and how to avoid detection. In these cases ebay will not act. I have given up reporting shill bidding as it is rare to see any action from ebay.

[skyrider12-au]

That's what I expected to hear, from other posts here on the discussion board relating to all sorts of topics, I have formed the opinion that EB are reluctant to do anything more than receive money. I have also formed the opinion that I should talk to the people here on the board and hold my own court as to how I should procede with suspect sellers. Thanks for your interest. 

[cezm]

Looking at 14 of the other listings with bids, there seem to be quite a number of different bidders buying from a number of different sellers of knives. I could only see a couple of bidders that had bid on more than one of the current auctions.

If these knives are collectibles I think it would be reasonable for a buyer to bid on a number of them ... but I could well be missing something!

[lyndal1838]

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@skyrider12-au wrote:

Kopenhagen - thanks for your input. I agree with all you say however, if a seller hasn't reached his (undisclosed) reserve and doesn't want to quit his item then shill bidding, to an amount he is willing to sell at, would achieve an outcome the seller would be happy with.

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You have no idea how shill bidding works.....it is not the idea for the seller to win the item but to just increase the bid.    It is not done at the end of the auction but during the course of the bidding.

The shiller slowly increases the bidding rather than placing a large bid and hoping others will try to catch up.

If the shiller actually wins the item then they have failed in what they have set out to do.

In the last 6 weeks or so I have had most of my bids with one Australian seller....I could very easily be accused of shill bidding.  The only difference between me and a shiller is that I am bidding to win, never retract a bid and pay for everything.

[skyrider12-au]

O.K I really don''t know how shill bidding works but I would expect that anybody who is prone to do such a thing would be bidding at the end to achive the outcome expected (ie, either get to a price that is acceptable OR retain the item,rather than sell it well below what is expected. Is that a reasonable assumption or have I got that wrong also?

[lyndal1838]

Yes, you have it wrong.

It is not the idea for the shiller to win the item as the seller has to pay the fees.   It would get a bit expensive for the seller is they keep winning their own items.

[s.h.o.n.n.a]

Many eBay buyers are unaware of 'automatic bidding' (which is great if you are a buyer after some bargains and no one else knows how to bid properly!! 🙂 I am a seller (as well as a buyer) and have just created a user guide on this topic;

http://www.ebay.com.au/gds/How-to-Bid-Automatically-/10000000204665525/g.html

[k1ooo-slr-sales]

wildflower, just sent you a PM

[skyrider12-au]

Thanks sir - love it when flowers talk to me.

[skyrider12-au]

Sorry sir'I went looking for the pm - of course I didn't find it so returned to your post and read it properly this time - Oh well .... perhaps a flower might talk to me some other time.