false bidding check options.

[pages4u]

Hello, could anyone inform me how a buyer could check if bidding on an item is being "shilled".

I would like to purchase an item and been watching it daily, but after, it was relisted a bidder placed a bid 6 times, with no

increase in the current bid price.

Is it safe to say that they are mearly increasing their maximum bid, as no one else has placed a bid.

I hope someone could reply if briefly to help me understand better, thank you.

[pennyforum14]

If a buyer increases their maximum bid, but there are currently no other bidders on the item, the current high bid will not change.  It does not necessarily mean there is anything shady going on. The buyer may simply have done some research after bidding to see what similar items tend to sell for and has decided to increase their maximum bid to prevent them being outbid at the last minute.  This is especially common when the buyer is not able to be online at the end of the auction.

[pages4u]

Thank you pf14 i appreciate your time.

[chameleon54]

Shill bidding usually occurs once a genuine bidder has already placed a bid. I wont describe how it is done as I dont want to write a "how to shill bid" manual here, but will suggest some things to look for.

. If you click on the bids, the bidding history will come up. You can then click on the coded id that you suspect of shill bidding and their bidding history will show. If they have a large number of bids with the one seller and a very high % ( or even 100% ) of their bids with that seller you could look into it further. If the ID is bidding on similar types of items it may be genuine bidding. If it is on a range of very different items it starts to look a bit smelly. If items appear to get sold to the suspect ID and then the items get re-offered for sale it is highly likely shill bidding is occuring.

[lyndal1838]

The bidding % is not really a good way of detecting shill bidding.....if the bidder does not buy very much and is only bidding on one item from one seller then they will have 100% with that seller.

[*tippy*toes*]

The bidding history is no good if the item is a private listing. Just thought the OP may not be aware of that.

My advice to the OP is, don't bid until the last few seconds. That way if there are shillers around, they don't get a chance to inflate the price.

[joethenuts]

dont wory too much this happends to me a lot  some of my regular buyers put in 4 or 6 bids with a few minutes to go to try and scare other buyers.

for instance if an item is showing $10 and the buyer is winning the auction  and is  willing to go to lets say $15 , instead of bidding a maximum of $15  he puts in 5 bids at $11   $12    $13   $14   $15  , now because he is the highest bidder it stays at $10  , but when new buyers come in they see 5 more bids by the same person , and some buyers then dont bother to bid , thats what some of them have said to me many times. sometimes it works  and the buyer gets it for $10 

now if the buyer just put in a bid of $15  nobody would know how much he bid too    , so new  incoming buyers will bid $12  or $14 or what ever.    i once had a buyer with 1 minute to go put in an extra 22 bids    and it did not past the bid with 1 minute to go , so it worked for him that time.

but sometimes i have to laugh i get buyers messaging me saying do you think i will get the item as i am willing to bid up to $90  mmmmmmmmm