Spotting a Shill Bidder

scoutsout47

Quick couple of questions, fellas:

At what point does one's bidder activity with a particular seller become problematic? 20%? 50?

Also, when a fellow bidder (on the same item) has over 80 bid retractions in the past six months, and retracts again in the early morning hours, should I begin to worry about the integrity of the auction?

Thanks in advance.

mtcards

When a fellow bidder has 80 bid retractions, he shouldnt be allowed on ebay anymore

shagrotn77

I can tell you without hesitation that eBay does absolutely nothing to enforce their no shill bidding policy. I've reported some of the most obvious cases of shill bidding you could ever even imagine to them, several times apiece, and nothing happened.

galaxy27

shagrotn77 is right. I've been on eBay for 15 years and I can safely say without a shadow of a doubt that they could not care less. I've brought forth some of the most patently obvious examples over the years (most of which were not card related), and invariably a rep from eBay would insult everyone's intelligence by claiming to have thoroughly investigated the matter -- yet somehow came up empty. If you hold your breath waiting for eBay to do the right thing, you'll require oxygen first. Policing shill bidding adversely affects the bottom line, so it's really no surprise how lax they are. Therefore it's incumbent upon you to conduct your own due diligence.

byronscott4ever

It's not right, but makes sense, as the higher the bids are (inflated or not), the more they make

cardbender

I can't believe the balls on some sellers who auction a card, have a friend shill it up,
then wait maybe only one or two days and relist the same card at auction again.
Like no one will notice.

A seller just did that with a Joe Namath PSA 8 card.

There's no way a seller can tell a buyer won't pay within a one or two
day window after the auction concludes.

These are sellers I'll avoid bidding on their items.

jivan

personally i use a snipe program...i bid on what i feel comfortable with and don't let other bidders bids sway me..

wallst32

<< <i>I can tell you without hesitation that eBay does absolutely nothing to enforce their no shill bidding policy. I've reported some of the most obvious cases of shill bidding you could ever even imagine to them, several times apiece, and nothing happened. >>



Same here. Think about it, the practive puts more $$$ in ebay's pockets so...

NickM

Bidder activity percentage alone is not determinative, especially on buyers with considerable feedback.

I just looked up my bidding percentage with Rick Probstein - it's 69%, out of 961 items bid on!

The reason is simple - he sells a lot of stuff I collect (e.g., cards), combines shipping over a lengthy period of time, and opens auctions at 99 cents. I may throw out early bids (sometimes the minimum) on dozens of auctions on cards from the same set, and win anywhere from a lot to none of them. Example: today I won 2 out of over 20 items I bid on - one from a set I collect and one because it's a vintage card that seemed to be going way cheaper than others from its set (which I know little about but couldn't resist at that price).

Nick