shill bidding

[56bsadave]

is shill bidding is it illegal

[*new2vintage]

" is ebay turning a blind eye "

What the problem is Dave is that ebay don't use software that detects shill bidding, prohibited items or anything else that violates a policy and rely on members to report suspect listings etc.

[cherishnlisi2012]

Hi, Help please.

I'm bidding against a Private Bidder who's Identity is protected and shows up as a private bidder, How do you do this?

[lyndal1838]

The seller has set the auction to Private....you cannot do anything about it.  Only you and the seller can see your ID...everyone else sees it as Private.

[thesoulyearns]

Hi, Help please.

I'm bidding against a Private Bidder who's Identity is protected and shows up as a private bidder, How do you do this?

Are you referring to a bidder who has "(private)" to the right of their username?

Only buyers (e.g. if you just buy and don't sell) can set their feedback to private. That means if someone knows your username and wants to look at your feedback, they won't be able to see any of your feedback in the typical fashion.

Here is a link to make your feedback public or private - hope it works: http://feedback.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?FeedbackOption2

[reganmatt11]

Hi. dont know if this is a case of "Shill Bidding" or not I'm not even sure what shill bidding is but I have started to notice a lot of bidders in auctions I have been bidding on seem to have a lot of bid retractions and has started to make me a little suspect. The last item I bid on and won there was a bidder in the last 3 or so minutes who seemed to be pushing up the price but stopped bidding in the last 50 seconds or so giving enough time to counter their bid which led me to believe that they weren't serious bidders in the first place. I looked at this particular bidders history after the auction and they had about 165 bid retractions out of 185 bids in the last 6 months, this looks a bit suspect to me not to mention a bit blatant, is this ok with ebay?

And if its not, what can I do about it?

Thanks

Matt

[lyndal1838]

You can try reporting it to ebay but it is unlikely that they will do much after the auction has finished.

It is always worth reporting a member with that many bid retractions...it is not on and does ring alarm bells.

[go-tazz]

If you post the full listing title here,we can check and confirm whether it's shill bidding,(not the item number as that's against eBay policy).

Reports by more then one member will generally make eBay take action against the "seller".

If eBay confirm that it's shill bidding the seller can not list any items with an auction format for a month.

[***super_nova***]

Item Title: CRASS REALITY ASYLUM 1ST PRESS CARD SLEEVE RARE PUNK

Yes the bidder has heaps of retractions but only 1/% of bids with this seller.  Looks to me more like he is fishing trying to see how far his opponents want to go.  If too high he looks for the same item elsewhere.  It is a bad practice, very annoying for both the seller and other bidders, but unless people actually report him there is not much that can be done.

[reganmatt11]

Hi I'm not quite sure how you did that, but thats the one.

After posting my message here I went back and watched the remaining auctions as they were ending, but this particular bidder didn't show again. shouldn't that amount of retractions be causing alarms with ebay?

Thanks.

[go-tazz]

After posting my message here I went back and watched the remaining auctions as they were ending, but this particular bidder didn't show again. shouldn't that amount of retractions be causing alarms with ebay?

That bidder isn't shill bidding.

They bid to find the high price on the item and then retract their bid.

They then bid later to try and trump the high price or don't bid if they believe it's gone to high,(and then move unto the next one),X-(

As there is no way to check whether they have been sanctioned they generally don't get reported.

As you can see below their bid history shows that they are bidding on items from 22 sellers,(and this seller could be anyone of those).

30-Day Summary Total bids: 209 Items bid on:

144 Bid activity

(%) with this seller: 1%

Bid retractions: 11

Bid retractions (6 months): 164

Music >   Records   7                         Seller  1       3h

Music >   Records   1                         Seller  2       2h

Music >   Records   1                         Seller 3        1h

Music >   Albums/ LPs 2                    Seller 4      <1h

Music >   7'' Singles 2                        Seller 4      <1h

Music >   Records 4                           Seller 5        6h

Musik > Rock & Underground 2        Seller 6      <1h

Musik > Rock & Underground 1        Seller 6      <1h

Music > 7'' Singles 1                           Seller 7     <1h

Musik > Rock & Underground 4        Seller 6      <1h

Musik > Rock & Underground 1        Seller 6      <1h

Music > 7'' Singles 1                           Seller 8 <    1h

Music > 7'' Singles 2                           Seller 9        2h

Musik > Rock & Underground 1        Seller 10      2h

Music > 7'' Singles 1                           Seller 11      2h

Music > 7'' Singles 2                           Seller 11     <1h

Music > 7'' Singles 2                           Seller 11     <1h

Music > 7'' Singles 1                           Seller 12     <1h

Music > 7'' Singles 1                           Seller 13     <1h

Music > Albums/ LPs 1                       Seller 14       6h

Music > Albums/ LPs 1                       Seller 15       8h

Music > 7'' Singles 3                           Seller 16    <1h

Music > 7'' Singles 4                           Seller 17      1h

Music > 7'' Singles 1                           Seller 17    <1h

Music > Records 5                              Seller 18    <1h

Music > Records 5                              Seller 18     <1h

Music > 7'' Singles 2                           Seller 19       7h

Music > 7'' Singles 1                           Seller 20       5h

Music > Records 2                              Seller 21     <1h

Music > 7'' Singles 1                           Seller 22       4h