Shill Bidder Help

hextall27

hextall27

Verified Trader,
Joined
May 1, 2008
Messages
2,978
Reaction score
0
Location
St. John's, NL
There is a local seller who I know shills his bids. I have been watching them for awhile. The standart mo is a follows:

Ebayer "A" Busts tons of wax regularly.

He gives them to Ebayer "B" to list on ebay

Ebayer "A" is free to bid on his own items at will.


He does this for %50 of his higher end auctions. I reported them and Ebay did nothing about it. I have since decided to keep my mouth shut and not bid on the auctions.

New problem: Ebayer "A" has a one of a kind jersey that I want to bid on and Ebayer "B" has him bid up already with 5 days left.

What do I do? I really want this item but it's gonna get inflated too much??

PM for ebayers id's.
 
Does waiting until the last minute help or is there already an original bid in there from the other bidder which makes it almost a reserve bid?
 
He usually inflates it before the end time.

Meh... its probably better I don't go after it.

Anyone PM me to get his ID.
 
Last edited:
shill bidders don't matter too much if you stick to your max and snipe at the last minute. ie. - you're willing to bid $50, item is at $26. shill bidder or legit bigger, i don't care. if i get it i win within my limits, if not, the seller can relist the item again. important thing is to snipe at the end so that the shill bidder can't gauge your interest.

also, i've come across shill bidders and they tend to have patterns. i purposely bid $.01 below the selling price on 3 auctions in a row once and let the shill bidder win each time. cards were relisted a week to 3 weeks later and were won at half the price of the original. :)
 
SkyFire47 said:
shill bidders don't matter too much if you stick to your max and snipe at the last minute. ie. - you're willing to bid $50, item is at $26. shill bidder or legit bigger, i don't care. if i get it i win within my limits, if not, the seller can relist the item again. important thing is to snipe at the end so that the shill bidder can't gauge your interest.

also, i've come across shill bidders and they tend to have patterns. i purposely bid $.01 below the selling price on 3 auctions in a row once and let the shill bidder win each time. cards were relisted a week to 3 weeks later and were won at half the price of the original. :)
Click to expand...

This case is a bit different than what you describe. This is for a unique item in the $1000-1500 range, not for a card that might come up again next week. He is bidding against people right now inflating the price days before the auction ends and creating a false bidding war pushing the price above the value.

Sniping would be a great solution if I was the only one bidding but there are others involved as well, people who are not typical ebay users.
 
cards-gotta-go said:
Doesn't change the idea that you set your snipe and be done with it though.
Click to expand...

Yea, I guess I'm done with it... Too bad it was a nice piece.

Do you agree that the final selling price will be much higher now, regardless of when/if I bid on it?

If my max bid is $1600 and I set the snipe at that is it right that I have to pay $1500 when the next bidder besides the shiller is at 900?

This is fraud!!
 
Snipe at the end. If you are willing to spend $1600 then enter that amount with 30 seconds left. If it ends for anything less then $1600 congrats you got the item you wanted. If it is at $900 when you put in your bid and win it for $950 great. Wait till the last minute. If it ends over $1600 shilling or not it was not ment to be.

I bid on most for my wins this way.
 
hextall27 said:
This case is a bit different than what you describe. This is for a unique item in the $1000-1500 range, not for a card that might come up again next week. He is bidding against people right now inflating the price days before the auction ends and creating a false bidding war pushing the price above the value.

Sniping would be a great solution if I was the only one bidding but there are others involved as well, people who are not typical ebay users.
Click to expand...

i understand your frustration in thinking "but would if you could win it at a cheaper price...." but for a one of a kind piece worth that much money and isn't likely to come by again, that's all the more reason to put your best foot forward.

like it's been said, if you don't win, it wasn't meant to be. it sucks and its clear the shill bidder is taking advantage of that but if you're willing to pay $1600 and the shilling is between the $500-900 range, what does it matter?
 
Last edited:
SkyFire47 said:
i understand your frustration in thinking "but would if you could win it at a cheaper price...." but for a one of a kind piece worth that much money and isn't likely to come by again, that's all the more reason to best your foot forward.

like it's been said, if you don't win, it wasn't meant to be. it sucks and its clear the shill bidder is taking advantage of that but if you're willing to pay $1600 and the shilling is between the $500-900 range, what does it matter?
Click to expand...

Matters about $500-900. It is fraudulent. The seller is inflating the value beyond fair market price.

If the seller wants to put a reserve up he should do a BIN/BO. He is taking advantage of the whole point of an auction.

I can't believe that people think it's acceptable??
 
hextall27 said:
Matters about $500-900. It is fraudulent. The seller is inflating the value beyond fair market price.

If the seller wants to put a reserve up he should do a BIN/BO. He is taking advantage of the whole point of an auction.

I can't believe that people think it's acceptable??
Click to expand...

no one thinks that is acceptable. what i was trying to say was the reality of the situation is that you're winning bid is most likely going to compete against legitimate bidders who have also bidded above the shill bidder. in these instances, the shill bids didn't matter. your competition will put his best bid and so will you.

shill bids aren't effective unless they come in second place and have actually driven the final price up. if 2 legitimate bidders end the auction in 1st and 2nd, the shill bid had no effect. just my take...
 
SkyFire47 said:
no one thinks that is acceptable. what i was trying to say was the reality of the situation is that you're winning bid is most likely going to compete against legitimate bidders who have also bidded above the shill bidder. in these instances, the shill bids didn't matter. your competition will put his best bid and so will you.

shill bids aren't effective unless they come in second place and have actually driven the final price up. if 2 legitimate bidders end the auction in 1st and 2nd, the shill bid had no effect. just my take...
Click to expand...

I agree and understand with what you're saying. I think though that inflating the price early on can adjust bidders maximum bids, on the other hand, if it goes too high others could drop out - such as myself.
 
hextall27 said:
I agree and understand with what you're saying. I think though that inflating the price early on can adjust bidders maximum bids, on the other hand, if it goes too high others could drop out - such as myself.
Click to expand...

yeah...if it's within range just bid your best at the end and see what happens.
 
In my humble opinion, the idea that it doesn't matter as long as he gets the item in his price range is a pile of garbage.

Shill bidding is fraudulent, and anyone who sets up an auction is taking a risk that their item will sell cheaper than they'd hope. That's the game, those are the rules.

Put it this way...I like a certain card, and I might be willing to pay $100 for it. In a regular auction, I get it for $50. With shill bidding involved, I get it or $98.

Some of you guys are saying I have no worries because I got it under the max I set for myself?

Wow...you are a lot more generous than I am. I'd be pissed, and someone would have to answer for the fact I paid $48 more than I would have in a legitimate auction. I don't give a rip what my max price was, there are rules, and people who break them suck.


hextall27 said:
If my max bid is $1600 and I set the snipe at that is it right that I have to pay $1500 when the next bidder besides the shiller is at 900?

This is fraud!!
Click to expand...


Heck no!!!!! It's not right!!!
 
Last edited:
that's brutal..

i'd alert ebay regardless, atleast so the account(s) are documented..

an aside question, i was watching (and had a bid in) on marleau limited logos from 05/06, but got an email this morning stating it was cancelled due to violation of ebay policy. the patch wasn't that great, so i don't think it was a fake, my assumption was shill bidding...

i'm curious if you can see the auction page once it has been cancelled, is there a way? or is it gone gone...

mostly asking hextall27, don't want to hijack the thread (or was a spot on a new thread)
 
huh? am i missing something? the guy who has only 3 feedbacks and has only bid on this item won and the guy with 900+ feedbacks is the shiller?
 

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Threads
390,200
Messages
2,239,300
Members
4,172
Latest member
Singin
Back
Top