sellers using Private listing name to bid up their items. Is anything being done about this?

[tbone1-ca]

Private Bidders(actual seller)start the bidding then bid up themselves to what they want to sell for.

[pierrelebel]

That would be against the rules.

Could you provide actual evidence to back up your statement?

[femmefan1946]

EBay masked bidders' identities so that the only 'real' names you see are your own and the sellers.

If what you describe is 'Shill Bidding" , it is against the rules.

Report the auction to eBay. They monitor these reports.

Bid once, bid your maximum. That way you can't pay more than you budgeted.

Bid late. This prevents a shiller 'nibble bidding' you up as the auction fever hits. He doesn't have time. If necessary, use a sniping service like esnipe.

One way to spot a shiller, is that he never wins. Whether he is nibble bidding (making many small bids to push up the price) or just cancelling his bid at the last moment, he wants YOU to win.

If you are constantly being outbid, that is not shilling, you are just bidding lower than the market price.

[tbone1-ca]

Seller has all the listings starting with Private and when Private wins it is relisted with same seller. It seems only sellers from China are doing this,I have not seen this from any other country.

[pierrelebel]

You wrote "then bid up themselves to what they want to sell for."

Once again, could you provide actual evidence backing your statement.

"when Private wins it is relisted with same seller."

That is meaningless.

Like many other sellers, I often have a large quantity of an item.  If one is put at auction and receives a bid, an identical item will be immediately offered again at auction, and again, and again, until my stock is sold out.  There is absolutely nothing wrong with that.

Let us not make assumptions about how someone runs his/her business.

[tbone1-ca]

Why,one listings and there are maybe 5 sellers and private only bids on one seller and always is the first and always bids themselves up? It makes no sense that private  hits only one seller on listings . And the other odd thing is it is only some sellers from china this happens with.So Please explain so I can understand this. I have talked with ebay and they are going to check into this,and this is not the first time they have heard of this

[reallynicestamps]

Do you mean bidders with private feedback? Or do you mean sellers using private auctions?

The seller cannot control the former, although it is also possible that the private bidder is in league with the seller. Some buyers, especially those who have poor feedback use private .

The buyer cannot control the latter. It is often used by sellers who are selling 'adult' products or very very expensive items.

You can post the numbers of some closed transactions for experienced members to consider them.

You can also take action as you have, by Reporting the auctions to eBay. EBay will not give you any answer but a polite thank you, but they will investigate. They remove sellers every day.

You can cancel your bids when you think this is going on.

You can bid late in the auction, bid once and bid your maximum. You can then only be outbid by someone willing to pay more than you.

You can ignore auctions and buy only from Fixed Price listings, where the selling price is already set.

In all cases, check the shipping price and only bid on items being sent by Air, never Surface, which takes months to arrive.

[brenda1313403]

You are right, I have also noticed that there are 10 items  listed  to bid with maybe different designs by 2 different sellers

and while you are bidding the person example 3n*765 is usually at the start of the bidding and puts in a set bid and maybe some more

to boost the selling price, I have kept a record and have found that the person 3n*765 bids on alot of items and wins quite a few

also because the bid did not get high enough. I also believe it is the seller

[pierrelebel]

"wins quite a few"

That does not make any sense.

Sellers have to pay Final Value Fees on all those transactions, including shipping.

If the transactions were all cancelled because they are phoney, eBay would immediately smell a rat and suspend such seller..

[reallynicestamps]

the person 3n*765 bids on alot of items and wins quite a few

also because the bid did not get high enough. I also believe it is the seller

Is the item something a person would not want a whole bunch of ? For example, identical pairs of scissors? Or identical tee shirts in assorted sizes? OTOH, apparently you are bidding on a lot of identical items yourself to notice a possible pattern.

While the general advice is to bid late, there are also many bidders who place one bid early and let it ride.

With proxy bidding a bidder who places $100 early may still win at the opening bid, if no one else bids, and may lose at the last second to a $101.00 bid. The underbidder sets the winning price.

We really need an example. Try to give a couple of transaction numbers, or failing that, titles of current auctions that we can look at.

However, your own actions if you suspect this kind of violation could be:

Report the listing to eBay. There is a Report button on every listing.

Cancel your own bid.

Note the sellers who you suspect are using this tactic and do not bid with them. (Yeah, no-brainer.)

We may sound sceptical, but many new members are confused by proxy bidding. We want scammers gone as much as you do. Thank you for asking about this.