Shill Bidding

shown73

Anyone who has been to one of the really big car "auctions" for the first time must come away wondering why they bothered. The recent models sell for trade price, end of story, no trace of a true auction with potential real bargains. You could say that trade price is a bargain of course, but only if you know what you are doing. Pitfalls are many!

paul_h

mike230652 wrote:

Top and bottom is that shill bidding is against eBay rules.

Like soolin, I'd report it too.

And me. Shill bidders are often trying to exploit the proxy bid system - they know that people will often proxy bid more than they hope to eventually pay to buy an item.

A genuine bidder only expects to pay one bid above the next genuine bidder - whilst they may be prepared to pay a higher price to secure an item, it is not fair to have the end price artificially massaged upwards. These sellers will also try to offer goods to the underbidder with a 'second chance offer', at their highest bid, when their own bid wins. I always look at these SCOs very carefully...

Real auctions will only take bids 'off the wall' in order to reach a reserve, so as the other posters have said this would never disadvantage a winning bidder.


Here's a useful tool...

http://auctionpix.co.uk/shill_bidding.php

... just put in the suspect auction number, it will check out the bidders on the auction and see how 'familiar' they are with the seller.;)

donstermonster

thanks everybody for all the comments and replies, that is what i like about this site, people are not afraid to say what they really think so thanks again

if i could find the thankyou button i would thankyou all

Redmikee

paul_h wrote:

And me. Shill bidders are often trying to exploit the proxy bid system - they know that people will often proxy bid more than they hope to eventually pay to buy an item.

A genuine bidder only expects to pay one bid above the next genuine bidder - whilst they may be prepared to pay a higher price to secure an item, it is not fair to have the end price artificially massaged upwards. These sellers will also try to offer goods to the underbidder with a 'second chance offer', at their highest bid, when their own bid wins. I always look at these SCOs very carefully...



Here's a useful tool...

http://auctionpix.co.uk/shill_bidding.php

... just put in the suspect auction number, it will check out the bidders on the auction and see how 'familiar' they are with the seller.;)

Real auctions will only take bids 'off the wall' in order to reach a reserve, so as the other posters have said this would never disadvantage a winning bidder.
Does this work? I put in a valid number from an item I bought (i used this because I have previously bought from this seller.) but the other transaction didn't show up.

Mike

MarkyMarkD

Donster

Your attitude to "people are happy to pay the higher price so what's wrong" ignores the economic theory of "consumer surplus".

With anything which is sold at a fixed price, there will always be lots of people who pay less than the maximum they would happily pay. But the seller has to sell at that price in order to achieve the total level of sales they require. All of those (except the person who pays exactly the most they would happily pay) get a benefit - the consumer surplus - which is the difference between what they actually paid, and the maximum they would have been willing to pay.

Shill bidding is a means for the seller to steal the "consumer surplus" from the bidder, and that's why it's wrong. Not because the bidder is unhappy with the price they eventually pay, but because the bidder should have paid less because no other genuine bidder was happy to pay more.

jenniferpa

It was working, but the last time I tried it, it didn't work for me, either.

gardnt1

Doesn't anyone believe that shill biding is caused by ebays fee structure in any way?

I've been on ebay since it started and i believe their greed has increased shill bidding activity. Listing costs alone are getting far too expensive as are final fees to ebay and paypal. Because of this it appears to me that sellers list at the cheapest price and will then nudge it up to a figure which represents the true value. If someone bids higher they win in a couple of ways....lower costs to list and sold at a price they wanted. This is why sellers started to load all costs onto postage too.

I agree with previous posts that set yourself a limit, bid too it....only pay what you feel items worth. I also think that serious shill bidding is reportable, but i certainly dont go out my way to do it as it seems others do, to track down and report as a matter of course!

rdwarr

gardnt1 wrote:

Doesn't anyone believe that shill biding is caused by ebays fee structure in any way?

In the same way that shoplifting is caused by the high price of goods, yes.

rdwarr

donstermonster wrote:

if i could find the thankyou button i would thankyou all

It's on eBay

mike230652

gardnt1
No...shill bidding isn't caused by eBay's price structure.

The price structure is there for all to see before they decide to sell..or not.
So..if you don't like the terms, don't use eBay...but don't use eBay's pricing structure as an excuse to cheat people out of money.....I'm talking generally here, not to you specifically.
It never ceases to amaze me how people will use any lame "reason" to excuse underhand behaviour.........

mike