Sunday Times exposes Titanium Powerseller shill bidder

motorguy

rizla01 wrote:

And as mentioned before shill bidding is the SAME as putting a reserve on an item without having to pay Ebay for the priviledge. Ebay have the Monopoly on online auctions and they should have more controls imposed on them.

They are the true crooks, especially when you look at PayPal charges.

:T:T:T:T:T

tomstickland

Whilst shill bidding is wrong, what difference does it make if it's shill bidding or another Ebay buyer bidding against you?

pinkgem

pgilc1 wrote:

EXAMPLE 1

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The reserve has been set at £70 by the seller as thats the lowest price its worthwhile selling the item at.

item is bid up to £60 by bidder A though he has a max bid of £80 on the item, no one else bids it any further. The bidder would have been happy to pay up to £80 but noone else bids, it doesnt meet reserve and the auction ends. Result :-

Ebay get their fees and a reserve price fee too.
The seller doesnt get a sale.
The buyer doesnt get the item he would have happily paid up to £80 for.

if the reserve was £70 and the buyer bid £80 then he would get it for the reserve of £70.

motorguy

Nope, only if someone else bid the item up to £70. the auction would have ended at £60. From ebays help pages

'The winning bidder must meet or exceed the reserve price and have the highest bid. '
and
'Until you see that the reserve price has been met, there have been no successful bids in the auction'

Also, you can only set a reserve to a min of £50 not so good for low priced items

pinkgem

pgilc1 wrote:

Nope, only if someone else bid the item up to £70. the auction would have ended at £60. From ebays help pages

'The winning bidder must meet or exceed the reserve price and have the highest bid. '
and
'Until you see that the reserve price has been met, there have been no successful bids in the auction'

Also, you can only set a reserve to a min of £50 not so good for low priced items

if the bidder bid £80, and the reserve was £70 then he would have met the reserve of £70, had the highest bid and therefore won the item for £70 if there were no other bidders

benjimoron_2

pinkgem wrote:

if the bidder bid £80, and the reserve was £70 then he would have met the reserve of £70, had the highest bid and therefore won the item for £70 if there were no other bidders

That is correct.

rizla01

Shill bidding is merely a moveable reserve.

And if you overcook it then the sale fails and you have to re-list the item at a cost to you?

Simple!

motorguy

pinkgem wrote:

if the bidder bid £80, and the reserve was £70 then he would have met the reserve of £70, had the highest bid and therefore won the item for £70 if there were no other bidders

how would he have had a higher than reserve bid, if the only other bidder against him had been at £59, and his highest bid when the auction ended was thus £60?

He may have set his max bid to be £80, but he will never pay that unless another bidder bids it up.

Thus if the highest bid he has had to make against another bidder is £60 (even though he has set his max bid to be £80) as i quoted from the ebay rules, 'the winning bidder must meet or exceed the reserve price and have the highest bid', thus he wouldnt be a winning bidder. the auction would finish with the item not being sold as it didnt meet its reserve.

motorguy

benjimoron wrote:

That is correct.

Did you bother to actually read the scenario, or did you just read the (incorrect) sentence above you?

pinkgem

pgilc1 wrote:

how would he have had a higher than reserve bid, if the only other bidder against him had been at £59, and his highest bid when the auction ended was thus £60?

Its below the reserve, and as i quoted from the ebay rules, 'the winning bidder must meet or exceed the reserve price and have the highest bid', thus he wouldnt be a winning bidder?

if someone bid £80 and the reserve was £70 then it would go straight up to £70 because as soon as someones bid matches or exceeds the reserve price then then reserve is met and the bidder will win the auction for £70 if no one else bids.

if the the seller is willing to sell for a minimum of £70 and the bidder has bid £80 and no one else bids then the item is sold for £70

i don't know how else i can explain this, i think this is my 3rd attempt now