[sdiy] ebay internal shill bidding?

[Paul Cunningham]

I've done a ton of ebay buying and selling (synths) and can tell you  
that unless you really have the evidence that it's fraud, its not  
unusual that only one other person is bidding on your item of interest  
at the last second.

More than anything else, I've seen a lot of popular items go to a  
single bidder, or no bidder at all. If you are in competition for an  
item with one *other* person, that's not unusual (the market isn't  
that huge), and anyone who wins on eBay knows you have to bid at the  
very last second if you want to win.

I often don't bid until 15s or so, and often I am not the only bidder  
at the end of it. I try to bid what I think is a reasonable price for  
the item, and sometimes I don't win, but usually I do. So the 10$ item  
turns out being 45$ (but worth $100), and frankly there's really  
nothing keeping the seller (or one of his friends) from bidding  
against me as long as they low-ball.

I did win a calculator watch for $10 with no competition, so it's not  
happening all the time at least.

I've also been watching for a Korg Micro X and did not bid on one that  
was $200 (!). It did not sell. Twice. Seriously? A $450+ synth with  
100% seller feedback went unnoticed? It happens, and happened more  
than once this week. Sometimes there just isn't a market for even the  
best deal.

So if you have the hard evidence, go find a lawyer who wants to take  
on ebay. Although I'm always disappointed to end up paying more than  
the current bidding price, I haven't felt that I have ever paid more  
than the product was worth. If ebay is benefitting off inflated  
sellers fees, and you have the proof that the other bidder is an ebay  
employee, sounds like you have a case. Doubt you can destroy them, and  
frankly I hope you don't.

How do you know the other bidder is really willing to spend the amount  
they are bidding? You don't. That's part of the auction game, and as  
long as everyone is playing by ebay's terms and policies, nobody is  
doing anything wrong. -pc



On Jan 4, 2011, at 6:07 PM, Bob Weigel wrote:

> 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.