ebay observations

Smokeyone

Just thought I would post an observation here - it might help another forum member at some time -

I have been looking for a particular item and one particular seller seems to have sold the very same used item twice and is now on his third auction as far as I know. The seller has various items for sale unconnected with each other.

Also it appears to be the same buyer each time with mostly the same one or two buyer/bidders - the latest auction even started before the previous one closed.

Going through the feedback from the seller - the seller has sold various used items with the same item being sold more than once to the same buyer.

Maybe other forum members are familiar with this ....

soolin

It's called shill bidding and is not allowed on eBay, however eBay rarely do anything about it when it is reported.

Edit; although a shill bidder should not be allowing the shill bidder to win as that defeats the object- which makes this very strange indeed.

Smokeyone

Ah, thank you for the information - "shill bidding" - just cannot see the advantage if the seller has to pay out Ebay fees each time - one bidder has 15 bid retractions -

Brooker_Dave

Smokeyone wrote: »

Maybe other forum members are familiar with this ....

People get their mates to stick a bid in to stop things going for less that they think their worthless tat is worth.

Sadly at the moment everything on ebay either seems to be Chinese junk sold at a loss, or nice things hopelessly over priced.

qsk

soolin wrote: »

Edit; although a shill bidder should not be allowing the shill bidder to win as that defeats the object- which makes this very strange indeed.

Could the transaction then be cancelled so the penalty will be the only 20p from Paypal (or no penalty al all if cancelled before payment)?

rach_k

I noticed this was the case with something I bid on but didn't win. I contacted the buyer to ask if it was them and to find out what they would let the item go for without doing it. It turned out to be somebody who was completely clueless - she had no idea it wasn't allowed or that she could set a reserve. I suspect she was paying the fees each time!

Smokeyone

In the case I am thinking of the same bidder has increasing amounts with no other bidder inbetween - slightly odd - although it might be possible if they have set a high maximum bid which outbids everyone else -

soolin

qsk wrote: »

Could the transaction then be cancelled so the penalty will be the only 20p from Paypal (or no penalty al all if cancelled before payment)?

If the 'bidder' doesn't pay there are no fees to pay as long as seller cancels the transaction.

soolin

rach_k wrote: »

I noticed this was the case with something I bid on but didn't win. I contacted the buyer to ask if it was them and to find out what they would let the item go for without doing it. It turned out to be somebody who was completely clueless - she had no idea it wasn't allowed or that she could set a reserve. I suspect she was paying the fees each time!

Selling with a reserve is the most expensive way of selling on eBay as the reserve fee remains payable whether or not item sells. It is much easier to just start at the amount the seller wants.

forgotmyname

I bought an item for 99p because the seller shill bid it so many times and always won it themselves. Nobody else bid and they must have got fed up of relisting it.

I complained to ebay and they were useless, they said its normal for the same buyer to buy several items from the same seller, they have done it themselves.

When i asked how many times have they won a sofa, and then bought the same sofa again and again from the same seller. The sofa was something else they were selling and it looked like the pet dog used it as a bed.

It paid off for me though, i doubt they ever sold that sofa though. yuck...

makeyourdaddyproud

There could be another reason why shill bidding is used; The Advanced Search form includes an option to only show auctions for which there is at least 1 bidder. I use this feature all the time.

There is nothing more unattractive than an item languishing with zero bids; and as a consequence, I look for items where someone else places value in the item. Especially useful for DVDs which you intend to watch and then resell.