Is this an example of shill bidding?

[ankleguy]

Just won two items this morning!

But looking through the bid history it seems that there were two bidders in the last couple seconds (another person and me) who bid the price up over 25% of where it sat for the past couple of days.

In addition it looks like it was the same bidder for both auctions, and upon looking at their personal bid history, 95% of bids over the past 30 days have been with this seller.

I get that there could have just been another person who was willing to pay 25% above record price for the cards, but how likely was I shill bidded into paying more than I could have? Is this what shill bidding looks like or am I just being a little paranoid?

[poken00b88]

It could very well be, but there’s not much you can do here. You got 2 cards under the max you were willing to bid so that’s a win.

[primordialaa]

@ankleguy

Just won two items this morning!

But looking through the bid history it seems that there were two bidders in the last couple seconds (another person and me) who bid the price up over 25% of where it sat for the past couple of days.

In addition it looks like it was the same bidder for both auctions, and upon looking at their personal bid history, 95% of bids over the past 30 days have been with this seller.

I get that there could have just been another person who was willing to pay 25% above record price for the cards, but how likely was I shill bidded into paying more than I could have? Is this what shill bidding looks like or am I just being a little paranoid?

much more likely to be sniping / sniping tool vs shill bidding

[assassin5757]

@ankleguy

Just won two items this morning!

But looking through the bid history it seems that there were two bidders in the last couple seconds (another person and me) who bid the price up over 25% of where it sat for the past couple of days.

In addition it looks like it was the same bidder for both auctions, and upon looking at their personal bid history, 95% of bids over the past 30 days have been with this seller.

I get that there could have just been another person who was willing to pay 25% above record price for the cards, but how likely was I shill bidded into paying more than I could have? Is this what shill bidding looks like or am I just being a little paranoid?

There’s not a good way to tell in this particular scenario. How would the seller know using only one bid at the last second that they wouldn’t outbid the competition? Sounds like someone was just sniping and you are paranoid. I recommend just sniping yourself but you won and right now I wouldn’t dwell on the fact you could have gotten them cheaper if it was indeed being shilled.

Also some buyers will stick with the same seller if they have had good experiences. For raw cards I use only a handful of sellers across eBay/T&T and will pay more than the lowest listed BIN prices from other sellers I haven’t personally vetted but I’m sure some buyers do the same with graded cards.