Can it be possible for a bidder to be working with a seller? I notice that one bidder has 100+ retractable bids with the same seller.

[jchr3560]

this particular bidded - for one particular item currenly open for bidding - This bidder has bid against them sellers for the same item about 9 times; increasing the cost of the item big time. I could be wrong and misunderstanding this situation. It just seemed fishy and I am looking to receive some wisdom on this issue.

Thanks in advance for your help.

[femmefan1946 · Accepted solution]

While some bidders find favourite sellers and bid only with them, the fact that this bidder has retracted many bids from the same seller is a strong indication that he is "shilling" for the seller.

A "shill" works this way. He is a friend of the seller, or even the seller with another ID. He bids on an item until he is the high bidder. This means the maximum bid of a real underbidder is exposed. He then retracts his bid, leaving the real bidder bidding his maximum - even though that bid should be lower if the shiller had not been involved.

The retracted bids are the clue.

Another method of shilling is allowing the shill to win, but following the auction, the seller contacts the underbidder and offers the item with the excuse that the high (shill) bidder did not pay.

Shilling is not only an eBay violation it is actually illegal, as a type of fraud.

There is a Report button on every listing. Use it. EBay will only send you a polite thank you, but they will investigate.

[dmil8030]

100 bid retractions??  Wow.  It might be useful if you could post the item number here, - just the item number.

Some people are chronic retractors and may do it out of an indecisive/compulsive predisposition.  Others do it to find out people's high bid in an auction.  It is surprising, though, that those 100+ retractions have not yet landed the person in a stew with ebay.  Retracting is very poor form, - here is ebay's position on it if you have not already seen:

http://pages.ebay.ca/help/buy/questions/retract-bid.html

Or yes, it could well be a shiller.  Shilling, utterly despicable as it may be, is not uncommon on ebay.  So it would not necessarily be another bidder colluding with the seller, although it could be, - but may be one of the seller's own user IDs.  Most sellers have at least a few IDs.  Or they can certainly use that of a friend or relative. 

Perhaps it's nothing, - perhaps the seller just hasn't got round to blocking The Retractor yet.  Either way, there is a report button to the right of the listing you can use, - but nothing will come of it.  The higher the shill the more money ebay makes, multiply it by the number of auctions at any given time, -- so don't wait around waiting to see sanctions take place.  Here's ebay's policy on it if you want to have a look, but it is really there to make buyers 'think' that such activity would not be tolerated:

http://pages.ebay.ca/help/policies/seller-shill-bidding.html

The best thing you can do for yourself if you suspect shilling is don't bid.  Don't be shilled up, and just find a more honest seller.  There's loads of them.

But now just for fun, how 'bout sharing that item number everyone? 😄

[scifan57 · Accepted solution]

It's probably one of the most blatant examples of shilling that you can see on eBay. After reporting the possibility to eBay,keep an eye on the user IDs of the bidder and seller. One or both may suddenly become unregistered. This will be the best evidence that your suspicions were right.

[ok_so_im_50]

Did the person with all the retractions also re-bid after revealing the underbidders maximum? When someone retracts when they are in the lead, I too get suspicious since the whole idea of an auction is to be the highest bidder, not the second highest.

If you see that that same bidder keeps retracting, report the invalid retractions and report the seller for shill bidding. Unfortunately, we can no longer see what a person has bid on in the past 30 days. When we could, we could see all bids and retractions thus making it a lot easier to spot and report invalid retractions and shill bidding.