Is there a limit for bid retractions?

[amcdc79]

I just came across another bidder on an item I was bidding on. In the past month they have 37 bid retractions, 257 in the past 6 months. All with the same seller.

The item I won cost me my maximum bid, which surprised me, and there were no other bids at the end, which also surprised me. The item went from $110-210 in just over 30 seconds, stopping at just over a buck less than my maximum.

Could I have been a victim of a schill bidder?

It's been paid and shipped.

What could I have done?

[pjcdn2005]

There is no official policy on the number of retractions allowed as far as I know.  If their bid retractions are all for the same seller it definitely looks suspicious to me too.  

[momcqueen]

I suspect so although there’s no way to prove it other than to Report the item and allow eBay to look at it.

Are you satisfied with what you paid? Or is this going to bother you.

[amcdc79]

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@momcqueen wrote:
I suspect so although there’s no way to prove it other than to Report the item and allow eBay to look at it.

Are you satisfied with what you paid? Or is this going to bother you.

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It has been reported.

Hehe, as far as satisfied, I have mixed feelings. Had there been other bidders, or if it had been necessary for me to raise my bid, I would be okay with it. The fact that it smells bad, has left a bad taste in my mouth.

[femmefan1946]

While shill bidding , which is what we think may be happening here, is not only against eBay's rules but illegal, the harm it does is more that it leads bidders to lack confidence in the site.

[momcqueen]

Right.

If this happened to me, I’d be bothered by my suspicions anytime I looked at it thought about the item. And, absolutely, it undermines confidence in the site when people suspect it.

Was it reported by the link? Or did you call?

[lady.stark]

How do you know the bid retractions are with the same seller? It is not disclosed with which seller the bid was retracted. Only the total is showed.

That being said, it sure looks fishy, so many bid retractions in just 6 months... wow!

[amcdc79]

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@lady.stark wrote:

How do you know the bid retractions are with the same seller? It is not disclosed with which seller the bid was retracted. Only the total is showed.

That being said, it sure looks fishy, so many bid retractions in just 6 months... wow!

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All the bidders bids(100%) are with the same seller, looking closely, at other items, there are more bidders, just like this one. Yikes!

Easy to tell, as they have set their feedback to private. they also occasionally win an auction, I guess to make it look legit. Canadian seller too eh, sad.

[amcdc79]

Reported to tyler with the item number. 

[esclyons · Accepted solution]

they have ebay bots, to closely monitor shill bidding, but unfortunately, if the seller has another person bidding, back and forth, and the i.p address's don't match up . it will go undetected until it is reported often enough for a real person to dig deeper.. and even then very hard to prove.. it is sad, but a reality..

I have stumbled across a few such auctions, where the person i am bidding against, has lots or retractions, and has 100% bid activity with the seller i was interested in,, i choose to move on, and never entertain their auctions again..

I can't prove it was shill bidding, but it is enough for me to move along..

Always remember Sill bidders don't want to win, they just want to drive up the price as high as they can, then they back out.. a lot of times that means a bid retraction, when they outbid the high bidder..

[momcqueen]

This might be a place to submit thoughts on this subject:

http://qu.ebay.com/survey?srvName=bidhistory+newstack

I stumbled across it by accident.