[sdiy] ebay internal shill bidding?

[Bob Weigel]

On 1/4/2011 5:15 PM, David Bulog wrote:
> Bob
> I dont believe that Ebay would do this--it makes no sense to risk everything on shill biding just to get a little extra commission
> instead I think people just excited over auctions if they see other bids , they want it to thinking that the item is popular
> Dave

Again Dave I'm not talking about auctions that are popular.  Those 
auctions it would gain LITTLE to shill bid.   I seldom participate in 
those.  That's why I have this unique perspective possibly.  I don't bid 
on Pro- one's, P5's P10's JP8's etc. much.  They're usually higher than 
I want to pay before it ever hits the last moments. lol..  I bought one 
broken P5 once.back in the day when names were visible that were bidding 
against you.  Hence in that day ebay obviously didn't do this.  OR 
SHOULD I SAY SOMEONE HIGH UP in ebay..who happens to have enough 
autonomy AND interest in profits to 1) create a way they can 
pre-evaluate auctions for parameters.  Anyone with ebay access period 
can do this.  Not tough :-)  2) flag certain auctions (ie. non buy it 
now only, and ones that have significant spacing or are .99 start 
auctions...)  3) have an interface that could get a response bit up 
within milliseconds of an incoming snipe bid.

ANyway believe it or not the VAST majority of ebay items are not super 
popular.  They attract only a few bidders for the most part.  Just 
randomly search for all kinds of things and get an overall perspective 
and I'm sure you'll see this is true.  Lots of things don't sell at 
all.  No bids at all.   But when things DO get bids, perhaps even the 
majority of the non-buy it now only (fixed price) ones are ones that 
would gain ebay 40% or more on the selling price by shill bidding.  
Because when those more obscure items DO finally get 1 bidder, he may 
put a ceiling bid that if 100X higher or more than the starting bid.  It 
happens.  In the majority of auctions they'll put a bid that is 30 or 
more percent though.  I would bet that overall ebay could potentially 
get 40% MORE on the closing amount by shill bidding THAT class of auction.

And that class of auction may well be the majority of the non fixed 
price auctions.

Furthermore *if* they are doing this it's not the whole ebay team.  It's 
a person or persons who have a large vested interest in the company 
obviously.  Such people could be making extra millions each by pulling 
this stunt.

You doubt that if they thought they could get away with it that they 
would not do this?   Shoot...I absolutely believe they would because in 
the past they've followed some protocol that is strange and smacks of a 
company that has a person capable of arbitrary rationalizations at the top.

This is no joke.  We aren't talking about "just a little commission" .  
This is huge.  If they are doing this they are 'risking it all' to build 
up such wealth that they can pay off anyone who tries to bust them 
probably.  And never miss it.


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