Did I Get Shilled?

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RGM81

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So I just won my 3rd Josh Gorges 07-08 UD2 HG from the Bay. This one came in at $20.00, exactly the amount of my highest bid. I put in my bid pretty early and didn't pay much attention afterwards until this evening when the auction was coming to a close.
There was one other major bidder for the card, he put in five bids total. Strangely enough, all of his bids except for the first ended in xx.99.

Me US $20.00
17-Nov-08 11:43:23 EST

l***i US $19.99
23-Nov-08 17:15:46 EST

l***i US $14.99
23-Nov-08 17:15:35 EST

l***iUS $12.99
23-Nov-08 15:48:24 EST

l***i US $11.99
21-Nov-08 22:53:00 EST

l***iUS $10.00
20-Nov-08 12:26:17 EST


Usually when you're trying to outbid somebody you enter xx.01 since most people bid an even dollar amount. The result of his bidding brought the final total up to exactly my maximum bid amount. Not a big deal really, since that was what I was willing to pay for it, until I took a look at these little statistics:

30-Day Summary
Total bids: 117
Items bid on: 54
Bid activity (%) with this seller: 76%

To me, that seems a little fishy. To bid on that many items, with that number of bids, and with the overwhelming majority from that same seller, it just doesn't feel right to me. What do you guys think? And if it does strongly look like a shill bid, is there anything I can do?
 
Seller is redmath007. The other bidder was loyerracing. And guess what? They're both from Sorel-Tracy, QC.

Ironically, not too long ago the seller outbid me on this very card; he ended up paying more than I did on this one.
 
I will add to this one same seller shame POS

http://offer.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewBids&item=120335333936

Just won the item today. I was shilled but my issue is I need this card and its been haunting me for nearly 2 years and if im honest its a good price. However without el douch bag bidding it up it wold have been a great price. Can I pay get it shipped and then complain????
 
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Wow. I'm shocked to see it happen to another person as well. It looks like he follows the same pattern: bid to $10, then go up by various increments always ending at .99.

See, I don't have a problem with the sniping programs or being outbid with 2 seconds left or having my bid pushed right to the max if it is truly legitimate. I said I would pay $20.00 for the card; if someone's willing to pay $20.01, so be it. If a random other bidder wants to bid $19.26 at his max (because it's Gorges' jersey number) and that pushes my bid to that point, fine. If someone puts in the same max bid as mine thinking that it will get them the high bid and a cushion, tie goes to me, that's cool. But bidding at 19.99? And in your case $19.99 and then $24.99? No way, man, that's just not kosher.

Which brings me to this question: what happens if eBay rules in my favour? Is the auction voided? Do his shill bids get cancelled out and do I get to pay a lower price based on the sole legitimate other bidder's high bid?
 
drkicker said:
And get the ` To us, there no obvious shilling there` and a page long of crap.

Every bidder id`s are hidden, and now the winners.

They encourage shilling, more final fees, more millions for the CEO.
Click to expand...

You better believe it.

I had a card once at a very low price. Within the final 10 minutes it was bid on about 8 times to drive it incredibly close to my max bid.

The other bidder has NEVER bid on a single item from another seller. I message eBay and get that same load of crap. A month later they still never bid on another item. Apparently the second buyer joined eBay to make a stab at a strange cam neely card and then decided they weren't interested in anything else...at least in eBays eyes.

Only way to not get shill bid is to wait til the last second. Otherwise, I don't trust anyone not to bid me up. It's sad, really, how little eBay seems to care.
 
Wow, I just bought a bunch of Habs' HG /10 and Exclusives /100 cards from this guy last night, too. I'll have to check the bidding history and see if I got the same thing.

In my experience, bids that end in $.99 are the surest sign to detect a shill. A person trying to win an auction surely wouldn't bid $19.99. I hope it works out for you.
 
Yeah he's had a bunch of them for a while now. He'd been trying to put in ridiculous BIN prices and I guess he decided it was time for them to go via the auction route. If it turns out that you find the same thing as I did, get in touch with eBay about it as it will only further build the case.
 
Just a quick update on this in case anybody's curious: I received a message from eBay this morning indicating that they have taken unspecified "action" regarding the matter. This would suggest to me that they have indeed found sufficient evidence of shill bidding. I've sent a follow-up question asking what will happen involving this auction; if there were shill bids, do they get cancelled out and lower the final price? Do I still have to pay the final amount despite the presence of illegitimate bids? Or does the auction altogether get voided out? I'm hoping for option 1 since I want the card for my PC and for the seller to learn a lesson...but we'll see I guess.
 
There are reasons to use bids with $x.99 that have nothing to do with shill bidding.
Testing the waters is one such reason... test the mettle of the high bidder without becoming the high bidder.
Before the removal of identity of bidders/winners, the vindictive types could use the $x.99 bid increments to put the screws to people for whatever reason... I believe that happened to Nathan7070 a few months back.
 
What happened to Nathan a few months back was even worse if I remember correctly. I think Ray33 would set an abnormally high bid, just to figure out Nathan's max, and then "correct" his bid to just below that.

Either way, the answer is always the same, SNIPE!!!!!!!
 
cards-gotta-go said:
There are reasons to use bids with $x.99 that have nothing to do with shill bidding.
Testing the waters is one such reason... test the mettle of the high bidder without becoming the high bidder.
Before the removal of identity of bidders/winners, the vindictive types could use the $x.99 bid increments to put the screws to people for whatever reason... I believe that happened to Nathan7070 a few months back.
Click to expand...

I would think these scenarios would still qualify as shill bidding, as they are done in attempt to drive the ending price up without any intention of winning the item.
 
It's seems like shilling is regular occurance now. All the more reason to snipe at the end to the max your willing to pay.Your taking chances otherwise

Sorry to hear ,that's brutal
 
Yup - snipe, snipe, snipe... I don't know why anyone would bid with more than 12 hours left on an auction anyways... :rolleyes: If you ask me, you are just asking to either be shilled or outbid when you bid with days left... I know when I bid on things with 3 days or more left, I am hoping to get outbid!!
 
crankshaft said:
Yup - snipe, snipe, snipe... I don't know why anyone would bid with more than 12 hours left on an auction anyways... :rolleyes: If you ask me, you are just asking to either be shilled or outbid when you bid with days left... I know when I bid on things with 3 days or more left, I am hoping to get outbid!!
Click to expand...
Agree 100%!
 
Totally agree on the sniping. Even from a seller's perspective, I remember having a Mario Lemieux buyback auto up last year (from OPC) and was kind of disappointed no activity in the last couple hours, and then BAM it went from $99 to $365 in the last 6 seconds :)
 
mclean_m said:
I would think these scenarios would still qualify as shill bidding, as they are done in attempt to drive the ending price up without any intention of winning the item.
Click to expand...

That's not shill bidding. Its just being a jerk. Shill bidding implies that the seller is involved in some way. If its just another bidder out to annoy you across the board - its not the seller's fault, and they shouldn't be accused of shilling. Its a really damaging accusation for a seller.

If I were so inclined, I could bid in $1.00 increments on all kinds of cards. Its actually really easy now that eBay has added the 'Quick Bid' button on items. If I pay for any I win, I'm not breaking any rules - just being a jerk.

As happy as it would make most people, there's unfortunately no way to make a rule against being a jerk.
 

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