In what way can it backfire on me.  I and my builder are certain he is shill bidding.  I was bidded up to $2500 (which entailed 40+ bids) for a building item that my builder checked before end of auction and said was ridiculous and he will build it for cheaper and told me to retract the bids.  I retracted my last bid and the item ended back at $140 (instead of $1900) and keeping in mind I needed to retract all my other bids .  HOW DOES THAT FIGURE OUT? Every time I bidded & placed a maximun bid (it was reached virtually straight away) with 6 days to go.   I google Ebay shill bidding and a expert on the topic who had a online tutorial said you can check their feedback to ascertain whether they may be shill bidding, which I did and low & behold he had the same private customer (lets say g*****y 22)  littered throughout his feedback which is probably the account he is using for shill bidding.  That account has glowing feedback & he advertises his goods in follow-up feedback,  He regularly takes auction down and after he received my email he took heaps of auction down and did not return my email.  He NEVER DOES BUY-IT-NOW and has  2 RED DOTS in his feedback calling him a criminal & stating inferior product.  SEEMS LIKE SHELL BIDDING TO ME and I have told Ebay he needs to be reported to the police as he is dealing with building products which need to be of quality.