The buyer history thread....

StaffsSW

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1988825

I'm selling a couple of things which finish today and the same bidder is top at present for both. No problem as its free postage so will save me some money as well. As you do I had a quick look at their feedback profile and its confused me totally.

They have just over 100 feedbacks all positive. Good so far
However they have a history of buying of over 1400 items. 1300 of these were from one clothing company. First thought was shill bidding but the large majority of these items were one bid only so not shilling. Feedback buildup by the clothing company was my next thought but that doesn't hold as they would only get one positive and anyway they have over 20000 feedback anyway. The clothing is all different sizes so not for the same person.

They don't sell clothes on ebay so perhaps running a shop?

I've seen this quite a lot in the last few months, and it is a two fold exercise. Normally, regular shill bidders do not leave feedback as that would be too obvious, however it could well be "shill buying" - more often seen with BIN listings, and used in order to pad out the Detailed Seller ratings. 1300 sales with straight 5 stars will make any loss of discount nigh on impossible to dilute.

The second reason is for best match manipulation, again more often seen on BIN listings, but any successful auction that is relisted and converted into a BIN will carry over the previous sales history, therefore giving a boost to visibility in searches.


(I know this can be merged back in afterwards if necessary...)