With ebay changing the rules and hiding bidders ID's and with the sellers able to even hide IDs further by making an auction private they are just asking for shill bidding.

So what do you do if you know of an auction that you suspect has shill bidding happening given the limited ability we have to find or show any evidence?

What do you do if you think the seller is a member here?

( I know ebay is supposed to police these things, but other than bad publicity how does shill bidding hurt them? They make alot of money off of inflated auctions.)

Interesting topic. They seem more intent on protecting the seller than the bidder. Problem is, without any proof, suspicions are just that The burden of proof falls upon the bidder to prove "shilling" is afoot.

ok - put the cuffs on me-- in fessin up

every time i recognize one of our members names -as a seller -- i always pop in a few bids --
just to help him 'get it started'

or - if his box is not moving for a few days -
then i often will 'bump it along' --
so it gets some attention --

not sure if thats REALLY shill bidding --
because --if i am dumb (or lucky) enough to end up winning it ..........

then i pay.

I don't consider that shill bidding.... if your intent is to buy it if you win. I am talking about specific and strategic bidding by the seller through a different account or by a friend on the order of the seller to drive the price up within an inch of winning it. Pushing bids up all during the auction... But not quite winning it...

I will say there is a gray area in there...

Personally I bid on certain "favorite" boxes that come up and anything less than fair market value never happens.... to anyone else.... because I buy it otherwise. But I am dead serious about buying it if it goes for anything less. That is not shill bidding... that is "dollar cost averaging"

well spud --maybe its a win/win deal --
if we intend to either help a member or actually win the box --'its all good'

but i so agree with you when i see some very obvious true shill bidding
--especially when its jacking up any box that i want

however --as thafuzz implies --
whats OBVIOUS is still not PROOF

It's like the NIB Pansonic on Ebay now.. my freind wants me to bid that up to $900.00 then stop....


The nerve of some people

I'm just kdding I know its being watched like a chicken hawk


Johnny <-

there is nothing i have ever wanted from ebay that i would be willing to put up with all the crap that goes along with buying something from there. i am patient and a very very shrewd and thrifty when it comes to spending my cash.
i mean if i have to wait a extra year or two to get a deal on something i will do it.
for sure ebay has the whole shill ****e going on but i am not someone who is ever going to be affected by that.
a auction is pretty much set up to as much money for something as possible. i am set up to get something for as little money as possible.
shill bidding deadbeat sellers and buyers. heck its a big enough planet for me to find pretty much anything i need or want without ebay.

I agree Bill, I put in what I'm willing to pay and if I don't get it... oh well.. I do often use buy it now.. if it seems worth it to "me"

It is a good example of competitive impulse buying.... you don't wanna loose, so you keep clicking away.. even for more than its worth to you


Johnny <-would give 2-cents but only have 1.

ebay works on such a odd level. i mean its like ok its only a couple bucks more. next thing you know its ten bucks more then a hundred bucks.
i mean if you can afford it all the power to you. for me tho anything used off of ebay is a no go. i can find it cheaper and actually touch test and see it before i buy it.
i am super picky when it comes to stuff. when i say something is in mint condition that means it looks and operates like it could have just come out of the box.
too much room for let down from the ebay stuff.
i have a nice collection now. enough for me i will add something nice if it comes around. ebay is just not worth the headache.
i mean people with two ebay accounts placing bids against their own items.
not for me. i mean i was born at night not last night tho.

If you suspect shill bidding, walk away.
End of.

It's a big world & I learned along time ago from an esteemed colleague on s2g: "there's always another deal"

The problem is the way ebay has things set up now you cannot prove anything... and it is even hard to suspect anything... but sometimes you just KNOW.

So what do you do if you end up winning an auction that was bid up by shill bidder(s)?

A couple of times I have come in a close second in my bid. And the "winner/buyer" did not pay up. The seller contacted me and gave me a second chance offer. I said sure... I will pay what I would have paid had that non-paying bidder never bid. (Which would be one bid increment above the "third place" bidder... who would have been outbid by me) I usually never hear back from the seller.... but I am not going to pay extra because of someone who never intended on paying up in the first place.... shill or not.

just now though of some PROOF // or semi proof

when we want to win a box -ALOT
we (ME) might make some $$ insane wacky high bid with a few seconds to go --

assuming/hoping to win it for 1/2 $$ that --

then -shocked to see the outbid notice --

but then --the official ebay second chance offer comes in the NEXT DAY ---
not the usual 7 or 10 days later

That is a good example of shill bidding gone wrong ( for the seller ). However I worry about the shill bidding that "works"... driving up the price artificially... but you still end up "winning"

right --thats the pits

Is that a shill bidding gone wrong or was that the intention? Out bid the high bidder then make him a second chance offer, if the second chance offer is accepted then the seller just maximized the sales price.

True... I didn't look at it that way.

did you guys ever get an 'official' EBAY 2nd chance offer ?
it not just an email direct from the seller -

instead - it seems like an ebay INVOICE !!

it comes with a 24 hour BIN --and a PAY NOW button --
and, of course, the BIN price --is always your final highest bid -

sort of a neat trick -- if it works

ebay should be able to track it by someones IP address. if it is the same IP address that is logging into the sellers account and then logging into the bidders account. it should auto red flag it. now if the person has someone eles bid on it from another location it would be harder to tell. unless the same person is bidding on every single listing the person has.

Like Ebay gives a sh1t about anything other than their pockets. Why should they care if someone shills to the roof? It makes them more money. Ebay doesnt give a fk about anyone but Ebay.

looking for a little argument there bash ??

NONE here --you are 100% right --
they live on a percentage of $$ sales -
or they would have no reason to live

Looks like shill bidding to me.....

A new record for this model, I've never seen it sell for half of that end price before:


Then again nobody told the winner to lose his mind bidding, either.

Perfect example of shill bidding...

Take a look at the times and bids that were made.... the "winner" placed 6 bids on Dec 12th between 9:35:33 and 9:44:21. Less than 10 minutes... $65,$75,$100 and three higher than that. Kind of a stupid way to bid if you ask me. You really tip your hand...

The potential shill bidder bid 14 times on December 12th between 22:31:49 and 22:49:12... less than 20 minutes in increments of between $2 and $5. AND THEN THEY STOPPED once they equaled the other bidders $100 bid... then they threw out one more bid for $3 more 15 minutes later. Looks to me that the seller saw this bidder had put in multiple bids on this item.... and then the knew it was safe to just keep bidding away because if they bid small enough they could just chip away at the lower bids with no risk of outbidding the buyer....

Smells to high heaven...

I sell things on ebay and from time to time things sell for less then I would of thought it should. and I saw items that are the same sell for more money. It happens I never would think of bidding on my own items like that. but I have bid on items I think that is happening too. I already saw items like mine for sale and I was the only one that had an item like it then someone list something like it and mine gets bids and the winner ends up being someone who just joined that day.


my one boombox I had listed this happen to it. person joined the same day and was the only one that bid on it. then he didn't pay for it. I am thinking it was the seller who had the same thing for sale. trying to make it look like people were looking for something like that. I had to wait to relist it. until the unpaid item dispute was done just in case it was a real person who paid.

I never even thought about the possibility of a seller trying to take out the competition....

And the more info ebay hides from us the less we will be able to catch this kind of thing. But anything that drives up prices is "good" for ebay in their minds...

It sucks is what it is.