Seller jacking up bid by phantom bids under another name

[kerry22grace]

Can this happen? is there a way that eBay can prevent this? I have just won an item that required me to keep bidding (i wanted the item and it was a good price) - but what I notice is that every time I put a bid in it was topped, this went on for days until a certain total was reached then all went quite? if in the last 5 minutes I expected a late bid but not response. I suspect that the bidding was coming from a source that had no intention of buying - just wanted to push the price hihg - Kerry

[apache929]

there is most definately dummy bidding going on ,if you track a particular seller you will notice the ones who do ,clearly by the amount of bidders with only 1 or 0 transactions,

[*kazumi*]

I have found an increase in "private listing bidders".

Most items are  bid on by these "private people" right up to just under my maximium bid. This has happened on a number of items that I have bid on lately. Call me suspicious, but!

Coincidence, the seller cannot see what is your highest bid.

[traxed]

Kazumi, Thanks for your thoughts. Just went through my records and found 18 sellers who only have 100% "private listed" bids on their items. Some items have had 20 plus bids - all from "private listed bidders" Now I only bid on a seller's item that shows the standard eBay abreviated member's name.

[rumplebear1951]

I have found an increase in "private listing bidders".

Most items are  bid on by these "private people" right up to just under my maximium bid. This has happened on a number of items that I have bid on lately. Call me suspicious, but!

You do realise that YOU show as "private bidder" to all others who look at these auctions...don't you?

It is no different than any other auction...NO-ONE can see anyone elses ID...not even the seller, until the auction ends.

[thesoulyearns]

Kazumi, Thanks for your thoughts. Just went through my records and found 18 sellers who only have 100% "private listed" bids on their items. Some items have had 20 plus bids - all from "private listed bidders" Now I only bid on a seller's item that shows the standard eBay abreviated member's name.

traxed, there are auctions called Private Auctions where nothing at all about the buyer (including their feedback number) is shown when looking at the bidding history. It just says something like... "Private auction - user names withheld" for each bidder and nothing else.

Just letting you know incase you stumble on one of these auctions. The difference between a private auction and a private user bidding on a regular (unprivate) auction is that the "s***d" type of username will still show up, except their feedback will be "(private)" instead of a number.

[silversterio2]

"It is no different than any other auction...NO-ONE can see anyone elses ID...not even the seller, until the auction ends"

Sellers can always see all the real User IDs bidding on their auctions whether their listings are regular or private listings.

[kylarisuch]

My thought is that Ebay should limit the amount of bids you can make in a 24 hour period(1 bid per day),so that way there isn't one person doing multiple bids after each other and should eliminate any suspicions of dummy bidding.

[mrslumberjack6667]

That's actually a pretty poor idea, if that were the case there'd be multitudes of people bidding on the last day, being outbid and then being able to do nothing about it. the idea of being able to make multiple bids is so that if someone decides they want to bid higher because they are losing, they can.

[lyndal1838]

My thought is that Ebay should limit the amount of bids you can make in a 24 hour period(1 bid per day),so that way there isn't one person doing multiple bids after each other and should eliminate any suspicions of dummy bidding.

You have to be joking.  Sometimes I bid on one item in a day, sometimes none, but I have been known to bid on multiple items from the same seller on the same day.

If I could only place one bid a day I would just leave ebay entirely.

[mrslumberjack6667]

I think he/she means one bid per item, not that it makes the idea any better mind you. One bid per item would still be too restrictive and defeat the purpose of an Auction format.