Maybe it’s anecdotal, but I have noticed an uptick in shill bidding on eBay in recent months.
I am so sick of it.
If you don’t want your item to sell for a specific price, use BINs rather than wasting everyone’s time in an auction. I don’t mind paying higher prices if the auction was legitimate. But when I see that the seller regularly engages in shill bidding, it makes me immediately uninterested in their account/store regardless of how badly I want their cards.
BIN + Make offer, master race.
How do you know it’s shill bidding? Do they keep relisting?
Does it not hurt the seller more, if the seller is involved in shill bidding? It only means that they have to keep relisting the same card and it will just end up hurting the value / reputation etc. I have also heard of buyers making multiple accounts and using the high price to dissuade others from bidding, only to retract the price last moment, to lower the as-seen price etc.
Either case, its sad that this is happening more frequently now. Best is to hope it is either at a price you’re willing to pay or it isn’t. Just move on if it goes too high, and avoid that seller if you really suspect shilling.
Cheers!
Looking at individual accounts’ bid activity with the seller + relisting practices.
Shilling happens with buyers as well. Every auction block I get at least one buyer who immediately cancels after the auction ends. Some accounts have hundreds of feedback. In 2020 it was obvious people were protecting their investment. Usually happens more frequently on popular chase cards. Rayquaza and charizard gs were brutal. I think I have a charizard now on it’s 3rd auction block. 
real champs make offers when offers are not allowed
Yikes, that is rough. Does eBay let you block buyers who do that?
Yes I instantly block non paying buyers, but I’ve never had an auction block without one.
Woah. You’ve never had an auction without a non-paying buyer? That’s stunning to me.
Yea that is why I’m so outspoken about them. 
I’ve been pretty surprised by some recent auctions. Some have set new price records. So it’s been hard to tell which ones are being shilled. Maybe there are big buyers in the market and things are being shilled because they are aware of these big buyers? No idea.
There was a half-art mario/luigi set that set a price record and it did have sketchy bid history. It was relisted almost immediately and again, went for a pretty high price, but this auction had private bid history so I couldn’t tell, but if I had to guess, they shilled it to the previous max bidder price. It has not been relisted (auction ended 3 days ago), so I’m guessing it’s been paid for or awaiting payment