When there is a bid by a "private listing" bidder, could it be a bid by the seller himself? Is there a way to verify that?

[jeanfrancois5910]

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[heidilynn0_3]

All bidders are anonymous whether the listing is private or not. With anonymous its extremely difficult to detect shilling.

One cannot make a direct connection between private listings and shilling. If suspected , can be reported and eBay determines..

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

Sellers use private for many reasons including anonymity for their buyers..

http://pages.ebay.ca/help/sell/private.html

[scifan57]

In the feedback given for a private listing, only the comment is visible, the item title,number and link to the completed listing are absent.

[dmil8030 · Accepted solution]

Hello 'jeanfrançois',
Yes, it could be the seller shilling up his auctions.  The 'private listing' is the best protection ebay offers the shillers, - it is reaaallly difficult to detect when listings are set up this way.  That is the reason many people will take one look, see 'private bidders', and move on to another auction.  There really is no way to verify it, not quickly and easily anyway.

On regular auctions we are assigned quasi-anonymous IDs but they stay with our ebay ID for all eternity and hence a shiller can be fairly easily tracked.  But in either case, unless the seller is foolish enough to use another ID registered to her same name and address there is no way ebay will ever figure it out.  You have to decide for yourself then.

All the same, sometimes these 'private' auctions are okay.  They are usually for personal-type items, but I have bought porcelain dishes and children's dvds that were 'private', -- go figure.  Why, only yesterday I received some nice dishes for my set that had been on 'private' auction, - but I know the seller and he's honest as the day is long.  So if you want to bid in one, go ahead, just don't be shilled up, not ever.  After all, the best cure for a shiller is no bids at all. 

Happy spending. 😄

[femmefan1946]

The best way to beat the shillers is to bid once, bid late and bid your maximum.

A shill bidder does not want to win- in fact one way to be fairly sure that an auction is honest is that you lose. He wants you to pay more than necessary.

Late bidding prevents shilling. Bidding your maximum and only once prevents a shiller from teasing you into nibble bidding.