Seller using shill bidding???

[73rhc]

It's against the rules. And just plain wrong. But you think that the seller would be a little less obvious.

I was watching an item for 3 days. There was no activity. So, instead of waiting longer, I decide to bid. Not even an hour goes by and I'm outbid. Coincidence??? I then look at the bid history. The bidders name is hidden, of course. But I clicked on his scrambled user name and saw his bidding history. 100% of his 85 bids (on 45 different items)  were all to the same seller. Coincidence???

Not very smart!!!

[reallynicestamps]

Did he win any of them?

If he mostly wins either he is shilling really badly or he is just a single-minded repeat customer.

The point of shilling is not to win the bid, but to make the other bidder pay her maximum. If the suspected shill always loses, that's a pretty good indication of what he is up to.

You can Retract your bid here:

http://offer.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?RetractBidShow

There are limited reasons, so just do your best.

And you can always Report a suspected violation to eBay. Their response will be a polite note, but they will look into it.

You could put the seller's items on your Watch List to see if he suddenly goes NARU.

About the Retraction, this will appear on your Feedback page, but since most sellers don't run auctions, it shouldn't affect you.

[73rhc]

I took a little time and looked through the seller's sold items. There was a definite pattern. The shill bidder never was the initial bidder. And he only won one auction. But I'm sure he just overestimated the other bidders bid. It was a low dollar amount item. All of the other items sold for relatively good money.

This seller will not become NARU. He's been around forever and had well over 11000 feedback score. I actually know him and he's considered an expert in his area of collecting. He makes his living on eBay. And knowing this person, I have no doubt about this being a shill.

[ladybug2785]

We have encountered this exact same thing before. I would report it to ebay.

[73rhc]

I did report it the minute that I saw the bidding pattern. I'm not expecting much. But it ticks me off. This is one of the reasons that I hate that the bidders names are hidden. Not like in the old days!!!

[femmefan1946]

The most eBay will give you is a polite note.

But that doesn't mean there is no investigation.

Sellers do get shut down for violations or lose TRS discounts or find that their ability to list is restricted in number or value of items. We see the complaints here all the time.

And sometimes other posters call them on their complaints.

[73rhc]

Yeah, that's what I meant. I don't expect to hear anything. If they investigate and find something. Then he deserves to be suspended or worse!! But I'm sure he'll get a slap on the wrist.

[bigscotty]

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@73rhc wrote:

It's against the rules. And just plain wrong. But you think that the seller would be a little less obvious.

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If you want to explore this topic just a little more, Google "Shill bidding on ebay" or click on this link, from ecommercebytes, for an interesting read:

       http://www.ecommercebytes.com/forums/vbulletin/showthread.php?24736-Shill-Bidding-on-eBay-Case-Study...

From my personal experience, years ago I reported, to eBay, both a seller and bidder for what I thought was shill bidding. The evidence I had was good, but it's too long ago to go into details. I never heard anything from eBay - but, within 36 hours of my complaint, my bid was cancelled and both the Seller's account and the Buyer's account were show as, "No longer registered". Of course, this was before the advent of hiding the bidder's name.

[73rhc]

The numbers I posted were off. But you get the idea

[bigscotty]

Wow!

I think that qualifies as being really suspicious. But it's really hard to make the final leap, without the smoking gun. As it stands, only eBay, the Seller and this, very zealous Bidder, know for sure.

[73rhc]

Yeah, that's what I thought. And the range of items bid on, doesn't make sense. Most collectors concentrate on a relatively contained area. If you collect American Civil War items and then you bid on WW2 Japanese items. It usually, I did say usually, doesn't connect. And this is what is happening here. Oh well....

[73rhc]

I don't know what is more frustrating. That this shill bidding is still going on today or that eBay never responded to my complaint. Not even a polite reply.