how do you know if a private listing seller isn't bumping up the price ???

[swordfish6.2]

Hi everybody

Could somebody explain how sellers have private listings and is it possible for the seller to bump up the price as its not possible to see bidders IDs ? ONE SELLER KEEPS RELISTING THE SAME ITEMS OVER AND OVER ???

                                    Looking forward to a answer . Cheers 

[*sparklz*]

Unless they are shill bidding and leaving feedback for each other each time it sells there is no way to see if they are shill bidding.

Another option is the seller has many of the same item but unless we can see it we will not know.

Can you post the title if the item for sale so we can all see it?

[swordfish6.2]

Hi

Thanks for that its strange that bidders info is protected when if its a normal listing the bidders ID is protected anyway ! It would be good to see if you have the same people bidding on the item .

                                                                                   Thanks 

[lyndal1838]

It is sometimes possible to work out if shill bidding is going on....but only if we can see the listings.

As sparklz said...post the title of one of the listings in question so we can have a look.

[tie*me*kangaroo*down*dizz]

Shill bidding is absolutely endemic. ebay actively encouraged it, when they started hiding the ID's of bidders, as the higher sale prices increase ebay's profit margin. Its totally pointless reporting it, as ebay won't do a **bleep** thing about it.

Basically bid what you believe to be a 'fair price' and NEVER get involved in bidding wars.  

[phorum_junkie*]

Shill bidding is definitely not condoned by ebay and if a seller is silly enough to actually use their own computer to do it they will be easily caught and will either be restricted to listing BIN only or suspended from selling altogether. Ebay can, and will, only act if there is proof and that means there must be some point of commonality between the accounts, same surname, address, phone number or isp. A successful shiller will use a friend with no connection so it is undetectable. A successful shiller will not win items unless they are only doing it to get feedback and most of all it is very easy to counteract by not nibble bidding but sniping at the last moment with your maximum bid.

[tie*me*kangaroo*down*dizz]

We have reported many shill bidders and they are still trading as normal, sometimes the shill bidding ID disappears but is replaced by another just as quickly. Just this week we've had 2 instances of shill bidding shortly followed by a 2nd chance offer on one of the items - coincidence? I think not..

[philgga]

the proof is don't have private bidders what do they want to hide

[davewil1964]

Apart from the fact this thread is 4 months old - eBay hide bidders' IDs, not sellers, unless the LISTING is private.

[belindabargainhunter]

I like to bid without people knowing who I am. Sometimes I may be bidding on things I would like to be private and sometimes u get angry bidders emailing you if you out bid them on a few items from the same seller.