[sdiy] ebay internal shill bidding?

[Eric Wood]

I was gonna say this is OT bit that's the other list. Regardless, I used to always bid last moment as I thought that was the only real way to gauge a deal.

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On Jan 4, 2011, at 5:34 PM, Paul Cunningham <paul at cometway.com> wrote:

> 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.
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