Bid Retractions Highest I have ever seen Glitch ???

[lukey9]

I came across this bidder on German E-Bay. He has

Total items bid on 7412

Bids 1681  Seller & % with this seller

1 Month Bid retractions 632

6 months total Bid retractions 1539

They had have clearly bid on items from this seller but it shows 0 % with this seller

I have never seen one this high Glitch ????  or the real deal

[cumos55]

There are two systems that can be operating with bid retractions.

(1) Shill bidding......  Someone bids up the item on behalf of the seller.    The bids continue to rise..... 

The item can be won by someone that does not know the seller...  The shill bidder did their job by bidding up the item until the right price is reached.

There could also be a time when the shill bidder... the seller's friend....  becomes the top bidder, who then retracts the bid before the suction ends.....  the second bidder becomes the winner  and supposedly the seller is happy.

(2) Friends bidding on the same item.... This was observed several years ago when a new gaming system became available.

Let us say you want to buy a new gaming system...  You live in Toronto  and you have friends in Ottawa and Montreal.....

The starting bid is $100.   You, in Toronto bid $200.  The person in Ottawa bids $500, and then the person in Montreal bids $1000.   Then before the bidding ends  that $500 bid is retracted...... and then just before the auction ends that $1000 bid is retracted.       The Toronto buyer appears to have won with a $200 bid.   The seller is unhappy and most  likely cancels the transaction.

Option 2 is not a workable option.

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Shill bidding is most likely with  many bids, bid retractions  and all by a bidder and with the same seller....especially if the bidder does not buy from this seller.

eBay can track bidders based on IP address....  and then how closely related the shill bidder is to the seller....  Even though true shill bidders know how to hide their bids and relationship with the seller... .....  shill bidders do get caught... eventually.   

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The classic example of a shill  bidding operation occurred in the UK Many years ago,

A seller of furniture was doing very well.  The seller lived in London.....    The shill bidder lived in Scotland.  Things went well for many years, until eBay tracked down that the shill bidder  was the seller's former "wife".....  The seller and shill bidder were divorced....  Seller was suspended by eBay, a major newspaper story. 

[lukey9]

I know all about Shill bidding but this person has  Zero activity with this seller even thou he has bid on the Auctions unless when he retracts the bid he goes back to zeros activity I don't know. This person who is the seller has no many shill bidders and buyer's retractions on all their Auctions it is scary.

[reallynicestamps]

Is there a typo?

Do you mean the seller has SO many retractions and possible shills that it is scary?

[lukey9]

No that is the actual totals of the bid retractions and there are a couple more bidders bidding on the Auctions with a lot of retractions also with very high % bidding with the seller. The thing I do not under stand is the bidder with all the retractions he has zero  with this seller even though there are many actual bids unless the zero out when he retracts them.

I can't see any body slipping through the cracks with that many retracts.