how do I know if the seller is not bidding against me to get his selling price higher

[123mulawa]

I am bidding at auction and keep on getting outbidded , how do i know its not the seller, bidding against me to get the selling price as high as possable

[enigmabear]

a seller cannot bid on their own item

However if you believe they are that untrustworthy,perhaps buy from someone else?

[123mulawa · Accepted solution]

That does not stop them from bidding in another user name, But you are right if i suspect this is the case, drop out and leave them to it.

Cheers

[lyndal1838]

Could you put up an item number so someone can have a look for you.....there are usually signs of shill bidding, not just the fact that you are being outbod.

[go-tazz]

Click on the number of bids and see whether it's automatic bidding,(eg: the bidder has put a high bid in and

it automatically raises the bid each time you bid).

Show automatic bidding is at the top right of the page.

Then click on their user ID and it will bring up their bidding history,(for it to be shill bidding they would have a

high number in percentage with that seller,eg 90% or higher).

[4green2000]

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@123mulawa wrote:

I am bidding at auction and keep on getting outbidded , how do i know its not the seller, bidding against me to get the selling price as high as possable

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lol..yes...happens to me all the time every day. i bid on lots of 4x4 accessories (had to google how to spell this word lol) and find 10 to 50 new listings from big sellers in AU and almost all new listings have first bids of $1.25 or $2.50..very suss to me and been happening for a long time now. when auctions come close to ending i quite often get ebay emails saying item no longer avail and all bids canceled lol..so yer, i suspect a few sellers use other accounts to inflate their listings prices but it dont bother me cause i just bid as high as im comfortable with. if i win,yay, if not, who cares?

[springyzone]

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@123mulawa wrote:

I am bidding at auction and keep on getting outbidded , how do i know its not the seller, bidding against me to get the selling price as high as possable

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Basically, you don't know for sure that it isn't the seller under another account name or a friend.

But people are usually on ebay to sell, so doing that, unless they get other bids after it, is shooting themselves in the foot.

My advice would be not to bid early on in the auction if you are worried. Usually it will be genuine buyers who outbid you if you bid early, but I did get caught once & it has made me wary.

One thing you can also do is go to one of those proxy bidding sites. They sometimes give you 3 free bids to try out their system (after which you pay for the service). I used them a couple of times when I knew I would not be online at auction's end. One auction i won, one I didn't. The proxy bidders bid for you in the last second or so but the thing is, if someone has bid earlier with a higher maximum they are willing to go up to, you can still be outbid.

But whether you use a proxy bidder or not-bid a lot later and put in your maximum. You don't have to bid in the final moments, you can still bid an hour or two out & I would say a dummy or shill bidder is less likely then as they couldn't be sure you would be back to outbid them.

[letscleanupmycupboards]

What is the gain using a proxy bidder? The winner is the one bidding the highest amount not the one who bids closest to the end.

[springyzone]

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@letscleanupmycupboards wrote:
What is the gain using a proxy bidder? The winner is the one bidding the highest amount not the one who bids closest to the end.

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I did mention that, if you read my post.

The gain is that if you are worried about someone maybe shill bidding you if you bid early, it completely cuts out that possibility.

It bids in the last seconds of an auction, when you may be at work or busy. Sure, you can bid earlier, but you run a slight risk of someone bidding up, seeing your max bid, then retracting their last bid, leaving you in the lead. Has happened to me.

Some people would just rather have their bid show up later rather than earlier-not reveal their hand so to speak. Proxy bidding allows that.

More & more things are buy it now in any case, but proxy bidding can still come in handy. I don't often use it but have a couple of times.