what can I do if I suspect that seller is Shilling bids?

[renehaa_0]

A person sometimes can tell when a Shill bid is happening...other bidder knows exactly when to stop increasing their bid by the dollar amount that comes up for next bid...have had this happen to me couple times when item I was bidding on didn't have many bids and I would have won at a low price.

[ypdc_dennis]

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@renehaa_0 wrote:

A person sometimes can tell when a Shill bid is happening... other bidder knows exactly when to stop increasing their bid by the dollar amount that comes up for next bid... have had this happen to me couple times when item I was bidding on didn't have many bids and I would have won at a low price.

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You do not know if they are shill bidding -- the best you can do is suspect.

You are able to look at the 30 day auction bid history of other bidders -- just click on the masked ID link of another bidder (in the Bid History of the auction) to see if what they are doing looks suspect.

Look at Bid retractions for 30 days and for (6 months) to see if there a lot. The shill bidder does not want to win and will retract bids that get too high.

Look at the number of auctions the other bidder has won (green numbers in the No. of Bids column), if they have been winning they are probably not a shill bidder.

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[femmefan1946]

If you are losing to another bidder, there is probably no shilling happening.

Shillers do not want to win. That means the seller pays fees not to sell his product.

They want you to win at the highest possible price.

If you are winning by a single increment, well, that's how auctions work.

You bid until you reach your budget. Then you stop.

The underbidder in every auction is just one increment below the winning bid.

The thing to look for is bidders who top your bid, then retract.

And if it only happens once, well, sellers spend a lot of time here moaning about bid retractions.

But if there is a pattern, then you may have a shiller.