[sdiy] ebay internal shill bidding?

[Bob Weigel]

I'm going to mention something today that isn't in my personal financial 
interest at all.  Since I've sold a lot of stuff on ebay and if is 
really doing what it appears they might be doing, it works in my best 
interest overall probably.  However after a friend played some guy's 
videos the other night on the phone I'm thinking it's time for an 
investigation.  And if ebay HAS been doing this crap, it's time to 
imprison the people responsible and have a class action suit which would 
liquidate ebay and return them to ground zero financially pretty much. 
Let them start all over but with accountability this time so that this 
can't repeat. (ie. make identities known again.)

Ya know guys... I have enough personal data to strongly suspect this.  
After all for a while there it was like 'what are the odds of that..my 
snipe won out by..2.50 again!  And again!  It seemed preset for a bit.  
Then I believe they diversified it.  It's still just ONE PERSON (whose 
identity of course you can no longer read.  I liked the day when someone 
would send an email to me saying "3 seconds left... outbid me by 
1.50.... very nice".  lol.  I was one of the early people probably to 
figure it out.  Before sniper programs existed I was using two windows 
of a browser and was clicking refresh on one..then would launch the bid 
at 12 seconds or so because it always took 4 to 10 seconds to get the 
bid down on my connection back then.

But then ebay got 'smart'.  They prevented people from seeing who was 
communicating.  There are some legitimate reasons they might have made 
this decision.  However it also opened up a very sinister possibility.  
That they would, of course, place code in effect that would monitor 
auctions and watch last second bids coming in, and post, within 
miliseconds (or even false report times to make it appear as though the 
bid actually came in slightly before your bid) from a 'shill' account 
that they create, an automatic counter bid to drive the price up some 
percentage of your maxiumum bid.. perhaps randomizing it now.

THe other day I won a russian organ.  Typical thing.  Stayed at 10.50 
for some time with no doubt a legit bidder.  THen the last seconds..one 
guy and myself. He drives it up to 55.00 or so.  I get it for just under 
200 including the 139 shipping... Good deal.  And HEY maybe this one was 
a legit bidder.  Because I *doubt* they would do it on every auction 
lest a documented pattern emerge and people present a case based on that.

However..the raw number of times it's been..just...one... person.  
Something seems strange.  We're talking a worldwide thing here.  And 
it's always (except on really popular items of course like Prophet 5's 
or whatever...where there are mass numbers of people bidding within 100 
dollars of each other at the end. lol.  Yeah in those cases if there is 
a shill bidder they're kinda lost in the mix.) just one person.  
What..are..the....freaking odds of that?  It's just too consistent.  
It's up to a 1 in 1000's odds scenario at least at this point without a 
doubt minimally.

But then appears this guy who claims to work for ebay or have worked for 
them.  And he's coming out and my friend said he's talking about class 
action lawsuit.  Has anyone else heard of this?

Anyway examine your own results with ebay and let me know if you've 
observed the same thing.  MAYBE the guy is a hoax and I'm just having my 
usual bizarre 'luck'. lol.  However knowing how disreputably they've 
acted in the past over various things, it would surprise me..truly...if 
they were NOT doing something like this. -Bob

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