eBay shill?

[LongHornCaddy]

I've noticed that the seller in the link below sells stuff for outrageous prices sometimes.  Going though the available previous sales, there seems to be a recurring bidder that never seems to win an auction but does drive up the cost of the items for sale?

The bidder I refer to is: k***n ( 1457) * Always bidding but never winning

I guess these tactics are OK with eBay?


http://www.ebay.com/itm/FOS-Scale-MARSHALLS-BOAT-GAS-OOP-ULTRA-RARE-Fine-HO-Craft-Miniatures-/231569397747?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item35ea9c97f3

[bparrish]

Leo...

The term you are looking for is............ shill.  That is a person who resides in auctions whose sole purpose in the activity is to bid up such items.

Your observations are correct.

The cynic in me suggests that if you could get to the root of the shill you would find the person to be on in the same as the offering agent.  I would suspect that not only is ebay not able to pursue such personalities......... they are not willing or motivated to pursue as they hold a piece of the final price.

You have heard of a clinical analyst............ Well I find myself to be a cynical analyst.

Thanx
Bob

[RailroadKits]

If you expect a shill bidder, you can report them to eBay. I know eBay tracks IP addresses of bidders, so if it is indeed the same person, they will do something about it.

If it is a family member or friend of the seller, they can assume he/she is guilty by how close the shill bidder gets to the reserve price each time they bid up an auction.

Just above the description of the auction and the auction number is a "REPORT ITEM" link.
Report Category "LISTING PRACTICES"
Reason for Report "FRAUDULENT LISTING ACTIVITIES"
Detailed Reason "SELLER IS USING OTHER ACCOUNTS TO INFLATE ITEM PRICE"
(The seller, a member or the seller's family, a co-worker of the seller, or one of the seller's friends placed a bid on their own listing)

Sometimes a shill bid can be as shady as bidding a high price, to which you out-bid the current high bidder, then you can tell what their high bid was. You then retract the shill bid, saying you entered the wrong amount. You then bid again, just under what the high bidder has bid. To prevent this, eBay initiated the no bid retraction rule withing 24 hours of an auctions ending. Confusing? Say seller lists an item with no reserve for $1.00. There is one guy who really wants it and he bids $100. He is now the only bidder, so the auction is at $1.00. The seller places a shill bid for $500. That makes the seller the current high bidder at $101. He now knows the real bidder had a bid of $100. The seller retracts his shill bid of $500. Then he bids again at $99, bumping the real bidder to $100. The auction ends. Had the seller not bid on his own item it would have sold for $1.00 since there was only 1 interested buyer. Sleazy, but it's happened to me.

I was on a focus group in 2004 when eBay was developing updated rules for sellers and shill bidding was a rule we discussed in great detail. It ruins what eBay is all about.

That's some good investigative work LongHornCaddy if it is a shill bidder!

Jimmy

[Oldguy]

Jimmy, obviously you are correct.  In the above case the K***n has had 33 bid retractions, out of a total of 35 total bids, in just the last 6 months!

[deemery]

Jimmy, obviously you are correct.  In the above case the K***n has had 33 bid retractions, out of a total of 35 total bids, in just the last 6 months!

I'm surprised that alone didn't trigger an automated eBay review.


dave

[bparrish]

All of this is why I'm not a part of ebay....

Too many people have lost sight of the notion that this is a hobby.

see ya
Bob

[Carter]

Bob you are right. I started in 2003 as a Hobby. I sell a lot of new engines. EBay &PayPal now take 15% with EBay 10% of the shipping cost. So mark up 20% to start off. EBay now has 1% pay-back on purchases. Use to be 2% and $5.00 in payback or more before you get any money.

The CEO gets 2 Million a year.. Somebody has to pay him...the small time sellers.

After I sell the last few engines I will stop selling.

Carter

[rpdylan]

I, for one, would like to see more selling on the forum. Eliminate the "middle man".  People can list things for the price that they want, plain and simple.

[RailroadKits]

I think what ruined eBay was the decision to allow listing items for free. It allows everybody & their sister to post items at ridiculous prices continually. As someone who lists on eBay for the sole purpose of selling an item, I have no problem paying a fee to list something. I say cut the final value fee in half, and charge a % listing fee. On "Good Until Cancelled" listings, charge a fee each month.

This will of course prevent the hundreds of sellers who list thousands of items. Ebay is no longer a person-to-person selling website. A big percentage is now business-to-consumer. Many listings are just duplicates of a seller's own website listings. Railroad Kits included.

Many of eBay's listings are years old. I get so tired of looking through the same old stuff.

JD

[engine909]

eBay also has no respect for the seller. Siding with the buyer 93% of the time. I guess they feel the buyer is right 93% of the time.
Experience tells me that is not accurate.
ed