That stinks...I suppose you can't "out" the seller as you're not sure, or?
Bummed out about a seller I like shill bidding
I just found out tonight a particular eBay seller I like and have bought from several times is shill bidding. I saw an item he had listed last night that had not been bid up to high and would have been a good buy at the current high bid. So I placed a bid out bid so I placed another instantly outbid so I checked to see who I was bidding against. The seller had a fairly low feedback rating. So I used a trick I learned you can not find out who the bidder is but by clicking on the bidders hidden eBay ID it will show you history of how this bidder has bid. This bidder had a feedback of 27 but his bidding history show that 100% of all of the bidding he had every done was only on items from this seller. It seems every single day I run into yet one more scam on eBay and eBay does nothing.
Michael
Michael
1 - 9 of 9 Posts
There's a lot of skullduggery these days on eBay. You have to be so careful. As you say Michael, eBay really should be doing something but instead it turns a blind eye, especially to all the fake stuff on there.
They have a monopoly and that's not good!
They have a monopoly and that's not good!
I have sent a message to a seller before, via ebay, who was doing this , pointing out that I didn't appreciate shill bidding on his items, next item of his I bid on flew through, got it at the 'right' price. 
Its no good moaning, its not so much Ebay turn a blind eye, unless everyone gives feedback to Ebay they will do nothing. The onus is on the users if they feel so strongly about the situation.
Thing is though, the bidding history only covers the last 30 days. So if I haven't bid on anything in a month and then bid on the same item then it can look like I'm a shill account with 100% activity with that seller, albeit with higher feedback.This bidder had a feedback of 27 but his bidding history show that 100% of all of the bidding he had every done was only on items from this seller.
If the bidder has a low feedback and he's bid on more than one item from that seller then its probably a shill account, but sometimes its easy to draw false conclusions.
I'm maybe being cynical here but I think ebay are happy for shill bidding to continue. If it drives the prices up and increases their fees then why try to prevent it?Its no good moaning, its not so much Ebay turn a blind eye, unless everyone gives feedback to Ebay they will do nothing. The onus is on the users if they feel so strongly about the situation.
Not cynical. Correct. BINGO.I'm maybe being cynical here but I think ebay are happy for shill bidding to continue. If it drives the prices up and increases their fees then why try to prevent it?
I love to buy and sell on fleabay but the fact is the business has a dirty side that just is not going to go away.
I have no plans on outing the seller as I have actually exchanged emails back and forth with this seller. I like this person. I guess it just shows how it is becoming the norm and 100% acceptable by eBay. I always did kind of wonder though that this seller could start dozens of auctions on items worth well over $100 bucks for .99 cents and never once ever have someone score a deal for even $60 bucks at 10PM on a Wednesday night? I never even though for a second this seller would use shill bidders so I never looked until last night when it was just to weird. At this point those of us who use eBay have no choice but to accept the fact that it is 100% crooked and the owners of eBay are crooks themselves but what else can we do but whine about it? I am selling off a large collection of plastic scale airplane models I have stashed over 20 years. I'm done with them I want them gone so I figured the best way is I list them at .99 cent start priced to assure they keep moving out as I have over 250 to unload! I will not shill bid. What I get is what I get. I would say about 80% of the time I do pretty good with the ending bid without having to resort to shill bidding. Others have gotten some really good deals from me. it happens. That is what bidding is suppose to be. I have not seen one true honest open bid on a valuable item on eBay in a very long time. Seller can come up with a million reasons to not ship even if you manage to win the highest bid. The other biggest joke is feedback. I ran across an eBay seller while looking for watch batteries who had over 100 negative feedback in 1 year and another 120 neutral!!! When you see that you know beyond a doubt eBay does not care how badly seller screw over buyers. Just as long as they keep collecting their outrageous fees.
Michael
Michael
1 - 9 of 9 Posts
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