beware the shill

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lucscaps

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add blesscai to this list.

He had a couple auctions ending that I had my eye on and I asked him if he offered combined shipping. He said it was an extra $0.xx per card and asked me which cards I was eyeing. The second I bid on those cards a 0 FB bidder came and upbid me on both items so I went ahead and cancelled my bids. The 0 FB bidder had something like 96% bid activity with him
 
Burner said:
add blesscai to this list.

He had a couple auctions ending that I had my eye on and I asked him if he offered combined shipping. He said it was an extra $0.xx per card and asked me which cards I was eyeing. The second I bid on those cards a 0 FB bidder came and upbid me on both items so I went ahead and cancelled my bids. The 0 FB bidder had something like 96% bid activity with him
Click to expand...

He had a thread started about him last month:

http://hobbyinsider.net/forum/showthread.php?t=314489&highlight=blesscai

See you already posted there - good, I will block that one.
 
Last edited:
Hi, Im new on here and buy from ebay sometimes, never even knew about shill bidding....how can you spot it and is there anything that can be done to shill bidders?
Can anyone recommend where I can get more info on this please?

PS, nice site, am very mucn enjoying it:)
 
I don't understand why anybody would go through the trouble to create multiple accounts and nibble up bids.

Just put a BIN for whatever you want for it and leave it at that.
 
Rocksterh8 said:
Hi, Im new on here and buy from ebay sometimes, never even knew about shill bidding....how can you spot it and is there anything that can be done to shill bidders?
Can anyone recommend where I can get more info on this please?

PS, nice site, am very mucn enjoying it:)
Click to expand...
A couple of good indicators are a high percentage of bids with one seller or numerous bid retractions. Shill bidders typically have low feedback and will bid numerous times on a auction, usually in small increments.

These aren't hard-fast rules, merely guidelines. If ever in doubt about an auction, ask around here to get some opinions. In the end though, it'll be up to you to decide if you're comfortable with how things look.

As for stopping them, I don't think eBay gives a shyte. Increased awareness is really your only defense.

Welcome aboard. :beer:
 
Rocksterh8 said:
Hi, Im new on here and buy from ebay sometimes, never even knew about shill bidding....how can you spot it and is there anything that can be done to shill bidders?
Can anyone recommend where I can get more info on this please?

PS, nice site, am very mucn enjoying it:)
Click to expand...

You need to look at the bid history of an item and keep an eye out for these telltale signs:

1. very small, very frequent and repetitive bids by one or two bidders which drive up the price of the highest bidder as close to his maximum bid price without going over.

2. look for bid retractions. Best example is suppose a card is at $5 and a shill bidder comes along and places a max bid of $20. The current price could be $12. The shill bidder would then retract his bid of $20 and re-place his bid at 11.99 or something really close to $12 without going over.

3. Look for these shill bidders to have very low feedback or even 0 feedback but high feedback isn't impossible, it's just not very common.

4. A lot of shill bidders' accounts are just a second account made by the seller and if you click on their name it will lead you to a bid activity page and look out for "Bid activity (%) with this seller:" If that number is anything high, then he's likely shilling his own auctions.
 
Thanks to everyone for all the tips on shill bidding, that is great stuff to know !!
Special thanks to burner for explaining how to spot them :)
 

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