how do i know that when someone is bidding up against me and the bidder is 'private' that its not the seller upping the bids?

[biddibiddi289]

i have never in the past experienced bidding against me where the other bidder is always private. i have bids on a few items and two of them the listing is all private. i'm just wondering how does ebay know that its not the seller having someone out bid me to up the bids?

[scifan57]

There is no way for you to tell for sure that the seller is not using another account to run up the bid price. If you suspect shill bidding you can report it to ebay.

[femmefan1946]

Bid once, bid late, bid your maximum.

A shill bidder cannot force you to pay more than you have budgeted. At worst, he can force you to pay all that you had budgeted.

If a suspected shill bidder pushes you to your max and then retracts his bid you can cancel your own bid, although the reasons for doing so are limited, putting in a lower maximum bid would be acceptable.  (It is not unusual for someone to accidentally bid $10000, when they meant to bid $100.00.) the retraction is a strong clue that you are bidding against a shiller.

Two things that are not shilling.

Outbidding you and winning. Shillers want you to pay, not them.

Second Chance Offers on mass production, new items are not suspicious. SCOs on one of a kind or used items might be.  You are not required to accept an SCO.