Shill bidding gone wrong maybe?

Avoriaz

I was watching a guitar but bidding went way above what I would have paid. The guitar “sold” for £85.52, an excellent price for the seller, a daft price for the winning bidder.

Less than six minutes later it was re-listed by the same seller with a starting price of £20.

Either the seller has more than one for sale or he was shill bidding and bought it himself.

The bidding list is private.

Below are the links and the item numbers.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Tanglewood-Acoustic-Guitar_W0QQitemZ280187334136QQihZ018QQcategoryZ2385QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

280187334136

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Tanglewood-Acoustic-Guitar_W0QQitemZ280188731396QQihZ018QQcategoryZ2385QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

280188731396

Hintza

Might have more than one for sale, but Private bids on an item like this would worry me.

If I was seller I think I would have it on BIN with best offer possibly.

greedbay

And the silly thing is that he will continue to be able to shill bid on all his items because of the stupid ebay rules regarding private bidders.

ormus

if you put a bid in for say the 20 quid, so you can then see the other bidders?
is that right or not?
worth watching in any case to see if he does it agin.

Avoriaz

greedbay wrote: »

And the silly thing is that he will continue to be able to shill bid on all his items because of the stupid ebay rules regarding private bidders.

True, but it may cost him in the long run.

Presumably he had to pay listing and final value fees for the first listing and he will have to pay them again on the second listing.

I will be surprised if it goes as high as £85 again. We shall see.

It is possible that he is genuine and has two identical guitars for sale. It is a popular and widely available brand and model. I’ve got two of them myself. I am keeping one and selling the other. Hence my interest in this listing. I would be delighted to get £85 for mine as I only paid about £50. I am normally happy to make £10 or £15 on that level of guitar.

Wolfsbayne

I had a similar thing. There was a textbook I wanted for university and it was the only copy on ebay. It went above my limit to someone. Next day, I did a search to see if another copy had been put on ebay. The exact same copy had been put on by the buyer within hours of winning it. Informed ebay as I thought it was a bit weird but they didn't do anything. I actually won the book that time for half the price it sold for first time!

Avoriaz

The second listing ended at £75.25, £10 less than first time around.

dotchas

Different bidder ???

greenstreetprince

if the guitar went for a really good price for seller and seller had another same item, surely it would make more sense to send a second chance offer which is free?

Avoriaz

Good point gsp.

greenstreetprince

which means shill bidding is likely!