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

[lyndal1838]

If it is one bid per item then it would not worry me at all.  For the most part that is all I ever do.  I place my highest bid in the last few seconds of the auction...if I win that is great, if I lose then I look for the next auction for that item.

My bids are placed so close to the end of the auction that I do no have time to change my mind and increase the amount...even I cannot rebid in 3-5 seconds.

[davewil1964]

There are still a lot of nibble bidders around, Lyndal. Wouldn't be fair on them or the seller.

[kylarisuch]

I meant one bid per item per day.If my highest bid for a item that I know is only worth around $50 (with some research) and I put $45 for my max bid,then someone might bid over mine with there one bid per day,then it won't be the same person bidding over and over in the same day to achieve that.If he/she bids more then what it is worth,then good luck to them I say.They are willing to pay more then what it is worth,and to me need that item no matter what the end price is,then there will be less suspicions on multiple bidders.That is my thought on this issue.

[lyndal1838]

Dave, I am not in any way agreeing with the suggestion of limiting the number of bids per day...in fact I have already disagreed with it.

My statement above was purely personal.   If it was one bid per day per item it would not worry me as that is all I ever do...I place my highest bid in the last few seconds of the auction and with 3-5 seconds to go it is impossible to rebid it I have bid too low.

If there are nibble bids on an item it is often possible to work out the pattern and make sure my bid will well and truly go above the highest bid.

[sprinklespowerpuff]

Hi all, re shill bidding and the like could someone look up this active listing for me to see if all these bids by a 0 feedbacker may be shill bids. I was planning to bid on this item. Listing is A sterling silver elizabeth II Jubilee two ounce ingot pendant sheffield 1976. There's 80% bid activity from the 0 bidder with this seller. Seller is in UK. MANY THANKS.

[a_beautiful_room]

nothing suspicious about it at all. Just a typical newbie bidder pattern.

[sprinklespowerpuff]

Thanks for that. I appreciate it. What a stupid way to bid though - sure had me wondering.

[a_beautiful_room]

That's ok. You can see 80% of the bids are toward that one item, but they have bid on 3 items from 3 different sellers. If it was a shill bidder one would expect to see bids on only that one sellers items - as a general rule. Obviously you can never be completely sure. But it doesn't look like it to me.

[sprinklespowerpuff]

I get it, thanks. A lot of newbies just make it hard for themselves with this sort of bidding. Good of you to check out the listing and reassure me. I wish you every success. Cheers

[a_beautiful_room]

well we all have to learn 🙂

I always just hope that people DO eventually learn by reading the forums, that's how I'm such a know-it-all :^O