TO USE THE WATCH LIST OR NOT

[riverbendtrdg]

I have noticed that many items I place in my watch list, result in an immediate 5 or six and sometimes more bids suddenly materialising on the item.

If I keep track of the item and don't use my watch list this doesn't happen, at least not as fast as they do when watched, but as soon as the item is listed in my watch list then bingo up go the the bids out of thin air.

Does eBay ever vet these Sellers? Because I was under the opinion schill bidding wasn't acceptable, and yet it seems to be an ongoing problem with some Sellers.

[digital*ghost]

I haven't noticed this as an issue for any of the items I watch. I have to say it's not the brightest idea to place bids on an item just because it has a watcher, so I'm pretty surprised anyone would do it. (Not saying someone wouldn't, just that a watcher isn't necessarily going to be a bidder, so that method of shilling - if that's what's happening - is a bit silly).

The bidding pattern, percentage and so forth are slightly clearer indicators of shilling than anything else, but even then seemingly suspect patterns can be completely legitimate, so really, the best thing to do is either bid your max as close to the end of an auction as possible to help avoid your own bid being shilled, or not bid at all.

You can repost suspected shilling, but it's a difficult thing to prove conclusively and most of the time very little action is taken.

[riverbendtrdg]

These are overseas Sellers, mainly in jewellery, and a few in spare parts from the UK, have only found one in Australia in the years I have been purchasing, and steered clear once I understood the pattern.

It is quite sad really, as I am happy to pay a fair price for the items I purchase and have made many great purchases on eBay, but the one's that do this seem to get away with it all the time.

[thesoulyearns]

Unless the item is clearly pretty valuable, shilling seems more risky than profitable. You potentially lose FVFs and if you shill-win your own auction, you potentially have to relist... which may look suspicious to regular buyers. It's not worth the bother.

As said, people watching an item doesn't necessarily mean they're potential bidders. Sometimes sellers will watch it to see a price for something they might also want to sell.

[papermoon.lady]

It has never happened to me, but it could indeed be shill bidding. Only sellers know somebody has added an item to their watch list.

[bigbrickshop]

If the items you're watching are attracting early bids, have you checked how many other watchers there are? Not all watchers will bid but if an item has a lot of watchers it may mean it will sell at a higher price.

[bigbrickshop]

Sorry, forgot to add the link to watchcount. Select the eBay site and enter the item title or keywords to see how many watchers there are.

http://www.watchcount.com/

[getting_of_wisdom]

These are overseas Sellers, mainly in jewellery, and a few in spare parts from the UK, have only found one in Australia in the years I have been purchasing, and steered clear once I understood the pattern.

You could watch to see if it is simply a matter of people in those countries waking up/getting home from work, logging in and checking new listings.

[aj111003]

Sorry, forgot to add the link to watchcount. Select the eBay site and enter the item title or keywords to see how many watchers there are.

http://www.watchcount.com/

Thanks sportsandplay for sharing that link!  Interesting!

[phorum_junkie*]

I never put anything I am interested in buying on my watch list, I keep it for suspect listings 'outed' here.

Anything I am interested in bidding on I just add to my snipe program and can increse/decrease/remove bids right up to the end.