Shill Bidding

General
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1

Ok everyone, this is going to be a lesson in what not to do on ebay, and a slight rant!

I do not know how familiar everyone is with shill bidding, but it is when you make another account or get someone to bid on your auctions to boost the price. Here is an excellet example of shill bidding that happened to me today,

cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=160551578437&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT

I don’t know if you are able to view the bids on the auction, but in case you can’t here they are in text :blush:

Bidder Bid Amount Bid Time Action
smpratte( 771) US $122.50
Mar-04-11 16:34:58 PST
Pay now
More actions

0***5( 0 ) US $120.00
Mar-04-11 16:53:08 PST

0***5( 0 ) US $110.00
Mar-04-11 16:52:55 PST

0***5( 0 ) US $100.00
Mar-04-11 16:52:32 PST

0***5( 0 ) US $54.00
Mar-04-11 16:52:16 PST

0***5( 0 ) US $52.00
Mar-04-11 16:50:45 PST

0***5( 0 ) US $50.00
Mar-04-11 16:50:05 PST

0***5( 0 ) US $45.00
Mar-04-11 16:49:42 PST

0***5( 0 ) US $42.00
Mar-04-11 16:49:18 PST

0***5( 0 ) US $40.00
Mar-04-11 16:48:43 PST

0***5( 0 ) US $38.00
Mar-04-11 15:10:23 PST

c***u( 32) US $37.00
Mar-04-11 15:09:45 PST

0***5( 0 ) US $36.00
Mar-04-11 14:30:33 PST

h***l( 396) US $35.29
Mar-04-11 12:42:18 PST

0***5( 0 ) US $34.00
Mar-04-11 14:30:11 PST

e***e( 2027) US $32.00
Mar-04-11 11:00:38 PST

h***l( 396) US $30.29
Mar-04-11 12:42:02 PST

h***l( 396) US $25.79
Mar-03-11 03:15:31 PST

h***l( 396) US $20.29
Mar-03-11 03:15:19 PST

g***k( 255) US $20.00
Feb-27-11 07:58:46 PST

h***l( 396) US $15.09
Mar-03-11 03:15:05 PST

_***e( 323) US $10.00
Mar-02-11 04:48:43 PST

_***e( 323) US $7.00
Feb-28-11 05:53:24 PST

Starting Price US $4.99

If you notice the bidder who made the auction end at 122 only bid on this guys auctions. The bidder has bid on nothing but this auction. Even further, the final bid was retracted by the bidder. So what happened is that the auction ended double what it should and the shill bidder did not pay so it goes to the next bidder but the bidder’s fake bids still remain :angry:

I would pay this immediately if it was a fair auction but since I looked at the results I am livid. The auction fairly ended at half of the ending price. :angry: :angry:

I went ahead and reported the item, and if you guys want to report it as well you can. Here is the link to the auction,

cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rt=nc&nma=true&item=160551578437&si=8U8beVJXiNy59vlHjMosr1cATxc%253D&viewitem=

If you look under the right side under the username you will see an option to report the item. If you click on that and choose Fraudulent Listing and then choose Seller is using other accounts to inflate item price (shill bidding).

Anyway I appreciate you reading this and if anyone else experiences this please post it on here and we can help out! Honest sellers should shine, not this crap!

2

I’ve seen that before and didn’t understand it. It was a pikachu Lv. X and this seller kept bidding over and over til it got to 70$+ Now I know what it is -.-

4

Yes that is how it works. Most auctions do not reach your max bid, shilling inflates the auction to an unrealistic level. No matter what your max bid is you will be outbid and then the person will retract or re-list. It is a tactic that is being examined more now than before.

5

The point is that if you wouldn’t have bid as much if it wasn’t for the shill bids.

6

Wow never noticed anything like that before. Hopefully I haven’t gotten screwed in the past…I’ve bought so many things on eBay. Definitely don’t buy it.

7

well, i just sent a report, kinda awkward though so I had no participation at all in the auction

8

haha its alright, the seller was acting like he didn’t know what was going on, but I checked his other auctions and similar results. He tried to show me buy it now prices as evidence that he does not shill but he worded the auction poorly.

9

This frustrates me beyond belief. Someone was S_B’ing a Kabutops all the way up to $60…I shook my head and just laughed when a seller I was dealing with wanted to sell it to me for “just $40.” :stuck_out_tongue: