Has anyone ever suspected a seller of getting someone to bid to make you bid higher?

[silverpinups]

It's called shill bidding. The seller has a friend or friends that bid on the item to increase the bidder price.

Their goal is to bid up the item but not to win it.

This unscrupulous practice is against eBay policy but it is very hard to prove.

[strange*highways]

You can read about shill bidding on this link.

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

[reallynicestamps]

The usual test is if the shill bids up the item until he is the high bidder, then retracts.

The shill never wants to win the bid, he wants you to win, at the highest price you will pay.

If you are constantly being outbid by another bidder, that's not a shill. That's someone who will pay more than you.

And yes, even if the other bidder only bids with one seller. Still not shilling, just loyalty.

You prevent it by

• never bidding more than you are happy to pay (including shipping and import costs).
• By bidding late in the auction.
• By putting interesting items on your Watch List.
• Or by entering a very low bid early-- eBay will keep reminding you that you were outbid.

The mantra is Bid Once, Bid Late, Bid Your Maximum .

[hyperrush]

Oh we have a case here.

[momcqueen]

I fell for that once. It was very early in my career as a buyer. I was bidding on a designer coat (red flag) from China (red flag inferno) and lost after being outbid to my maximum three times (red flag inferno visible from outer space) after which I immediately got a Second Chance Offer which I naively and gratefully accepted.

It was actually ebay that alerted me to the fact the seller was suspended a week later. My item had shipped by then but ebay told me to refuse it on delivery which I did and got my money back. Normally, buyers aren't eligible for money back if they refuse an item on delivery but this was a result of special circumstances. I had paid a lot of money for this thing. I got that money back. 

I become more careful about maximum bids and mysterious opponents on auctions after that. If I ever get the sense I am betting against someone where it seems a little too.... fishy.... I simply quit bidding and leave. That seller can play their games alone, without me. And they do get caught, eventually. There are more items for sale on ebay than there are buyers for them so you don't need to feel like whatever it is for auction is the most important thing on earth. Make a note of the seller and avoid at all costs.

[tishagrooms]

Thank-you. All my years of buying on e-bay I have just run into this problem with some of the same sellers. I have had five  bid retractiions in the last little while. I have never had this happen before. Thank-you for the advice.