Shill Bidding Or Something Else?

bosox

What would you think if you:

1. You are bidding on two very similar and somewhat expensive items on the Bay.
2. You are very interested in the items, so you set a relatively high max bid.
3. Another bidder very carefully bids up one item in increments until he finds, but does not exceed, your max bid (he's less than one bid increment away, so it's obvious what the max is).
4. He goes to the other item and places one bid in the same amount of his highest bid on the first item. By doing so, he finds out that your max is the same on both items. He does not exceed your bid on this item either.

Is this a shill trying to drive the price up? Is this a person trying to find the current max to set up snipes on both items? The items haven't ended, or else I'd post the links.

CIVITAS

Not enough info. How many feedback does the bidder have? What else has he/she bid on in the past 30 days? Only the same seller's stuff? Similar items or random stuff like stereos and used cars?

satootoko

To paraphrase Lewis Carroll - Beware the Sniper Guy, and shun his wicked final bid.

coinpage

I wouldn't say that qualifies as shill bidding, youhaven't raised your original amount

BigAlan

What would be the aim of not bidding over your max?

1960NYGiants

Bosox,

If both items are from the same seller, it could be a shill. Or it could be someone playing games with you. They search on the items your bidding on, incrementally bid until the find or exceed your high bid, sometimes they'll cancel their last bid as "a double bid error", then use that item to figure out your "percentage" and bid on the other items. It's happened to me when bidding on tokens. Rarely do I place a bid with more than 24 hrs left.

Follow up on Josh's statement to see if there is a pattern.

Gene

0john0

<< <i>What would be the aim of not bidding over your max? >>



Because shills are sellers in disguise, so they wouldn't want to buy their own item.

Agreed, not enough info. Look into the bidder's recent bidding history. That usually answers the question.

bosox

Thanks, guys. I saw no obvious ties between buyer and seller in the histories. It just struck me as very strange that in both auctions he left the bid just under my max, when he knew what my max actually was.

It is a moot point now, since other bidders have entered the fray. I have raised my max bids and will see what happens. I am expecting the bidder discussed above to go for the snipes.

syraq

Maybe it's because I'm in a foul mood today, but to me it seems very clear that the other bidder is a friend of the seller ,or even the consignor and he made sure that the price of the item would go as high as your max bid. In other words I agree with Gene. Once the desired price was reached , there was no need to do the same trick with the other bidders that entered later.Also, the fact that there's no similar pattern or obvious connection between the seller and the bidder means nothing. They're not amateurs,they know how to play.

My advice:if you really want an item, place a very low bid , and then place your max bid to an autosniper and sleep tight. (and don't let the bed bugs bite).

0john0

My advice:if you really want an item, place a very low bid , and then place your max bid to an autosniper and sleep tight. (and don't let the bed bugs bite).

Why place an initial bid at all? There is NO need for it. Just snipe it and don't worry about your initial bid being run up.

canadiancoinguy

Hard to say unless you're in their mind. I've done that several times (small increment bidding) myself "just to see".

PuddlePirate

I may get a couple of "growls" about this, however when I am looking for something and find several items I will put in my bids hoping that the "competition" hasn't bid strongly on all of them. If there is another bidder already there and the "automatic bidding" process jumps the price beyond what I am willing to pay I generally stop and look elsewhere. If I really "want" the item I will come back and try to snipe it. Since I generally work from 12am to 8am I am often awake when the rest of the US is snoozing. I have "sniped" my fair share of goodies over the years, just because an item goes for one increment over your final price doesn't mean the bidder didn't bid more than that, only that his final price was higher than yours.
Personally I don't think it is "shill" bidding, just the competition's "strategy.

bosox

Okay, the auctions have ended. The bidder I was wondering about was "henningr". In 20/20 hindsight I don't think he was a shill, but rather setting up for a snipe. His snipe never came because the price got too high for him. I won both items and probably paid too much for them, but they look like great coins. Very hard to find.

Norwegian 10 Ore, 1942, KM-391, Government In Exile Issue, Unmelted mintage 9,667 pieces.

10 Ore

Norwegian 50 Ore, 1942, KM-393, Government In Exile Issue, Unmelted mintage 9,238 pieces.

50 Ore

satootoko

Pretty high prices for coins with holes in them.

0john0

Very nice coins. They look super.
Looking backwards though, if you had never done an initial bid, then "henningr" would not have run up the price and "mutterrate" would have sniped at a lower price and you could have placed a snipe in Auctionsniper for 30-40% less than what you paid and won the coins, saving you lots of money. Give it a try next time, maybe and see how it works.

Auctionsniper