Stalkerish Messages

[simple.yet.fancy]

Am I able to block buyers from contacting me?

I have had a user messaging me inappropriately.

What also concerns me (well my husband more than me) is that he is quoting listings from months ago yet the user is only a few days old which means they have been following my account under different user accounts

[digital*ghost]

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@simple.yet.fancy wrote:


May just be someone with too much time on their hands

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I guess I'll be a little less subtle than lyndal.... o.o 

Are the messages accusing you of shilling? 

[*tippy*toes*]

Slightly off topic, just wanted to warn you before eBay catches you, your new listing for the car, you are keyword spamming. You can only say what the car is, not what it's not. You need to remove everything after "auto" in your title because if eBay catches you, they won't only end your listing, they'll give you a hard slap. Too many slaps and they'll close you down, permanently. Keyword spamming is a policy violation.

[imastawka]

It's got bids Tippy.      Too late to change it now

[chameleon54]

Inappropriate messages are not condoned by ebay, but the messenger may be highlighting some unusual  inconsistancies in the bidding histories of some of your recent auctions. You may not have been aware of these inconsistancies and it may be worth reporting the auctions with these histories to ebay to see if there have been breaches of ebays bidding policies by other buyers.

No seller likes to see their auctions interferred with and I have offered to assist sellers in the past by reporting listings with unusual bidding histories.  I would be happy to help you identify the auctions concerned and report them for you if this helps.  This may help to solve your problem      

[simple.yet.fancy]

I just googled shilling and checked some of my listings.

So it seems there are a few of the same bidders bidding on items (I have never really paid attention to the bidders, only the winning bidder)

I have opened cases on what looks like 2 of them because of non - payment. The other couple are regular buyers who collect from me.

Since finding the blocked list yesterday, I take it I should add them to that as well?

[simple.yet.fancy]

And the messages are not in regards to shilling.
messages are mostly not in regards to items or items that were listed around 6 months ago and didnt even sell

[imastawka]

I just googled shilling and checked some of my listings.

So it seems there are a few of the same bidders bidding on items (I have never really paid attention to the bidders, only the winning bidder)

Shilling is when the seller gets friends or family to bid up

an item to get more for it at auction.

Doesn't sound like you got the right definition

[simple.yet.fancy]

I understand thats what it means and looking at the fact that there are a lot of the same buyer made me think that's why people mentioned shilling?

The stuff I sell is for about 6 different family members as none of them have an idea on technology so no chance of them bidding items up. If I was going to do that I wouldn't be letting items constantly go for 99c

[collect247]

Same bidder with 100% bidding on a sellers auctions could come across as shilling

[chameleon54]

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@simple.yet.fancy wrote:
I understand thats what it means and looking at the fact that there are a lot of the same buyer made me think that's why people mentioned shilling?

The stuff I sell is for about 6 different family members as none of them have an idea on technology so no chance of them bidding items up. If I was going to do that I wouldn't be letting items constantly go for 99c

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PPPPPPLLLLLEEEEEAAAAASSSSSSEEEEE              OK you came to the boards asking for help........... I respect that and will try to offer some genuine advice.

I get it that ebays search system ranks your item higher in searches if you have a large number bids. I also get it that ebay encourage sellers to start their auctions at 99 cents and this probably helps to attract potential buyers. These ebay policies do not really help sellers and I get why some people would try to game the system to try to get around these policies.   

BUT, if you where to bid on your own items you risk.

 * putting off potential REAL LIFE buyers, as they would be able to see what appears to be going on and avoid your sales like the plague.

 * You would also end up " buying" some of your items yourself, waste your time cancelling and then have to re-offer the items again. Any genuine buyers will spot this a mile away and stay away from your sales.

 *  Disgruntled buyers are likely to contact you with unpleasant messages and may even become an ebay stalker.

 * Sellers using alternate ID,s to bid on their own items ( shilling ) not only encourage buyer suspicion in their own auctions, but spoil ebays reputation for all sellers.  Buyers in general view ebay as an unsafe place to buy when bidding inconsistencies occur.

 *  From a practicle point, it must take a lot of time to stuff around putting all those bids on and while it may occasionally pay off, I cant see the time spent being rewarded with regular consistent sales at good prices.

 *  If buyers where concerned about an auction process, they may report it to ebay. If ebay where to look into suspicious sales history and see the very obvious bidding patterns, a seller could find all of their ebay accounts closed down........ permanently 

So what to do about it.

 * If you genuinely dont know anything about it, report the suspicious auctions to ebay and let them handle it as some-one is definitely playing games with your bidding.

  * If you must try to push your items higher in searches, the only legitimate way I can see is to use all of your ID,s to view the item early in the listing process. This will help with Cassini rankings and at least no-one gets hurt.

  * start your auctions at the lowest price you are willing to sell your items for, not 99 cents. If they don't sell after the first few rounds, you can always list them as BINS for 30 days at a fixed price.

  * MOST IMPORTANTLY work to build a reputation as a reliable, reputable seller that buyers can confidently buy from. This DOES HELP with consistent sales, repeat buyers and prices achieved in the long run.