Is this a shill bidder?

Kimberley

I am watching this sofa, but if you look at the bid history, a new member with no feedback has bidded several times to bump up the cost..

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=4406592987&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWA%3AIT&rd=1

angelcake

Sorry but it is quite difficult to tell! I had bids like this from someone with 13 feedback!! they bid 7 times!!

because there is no recent history then I would say no but if you are strongly suspicious then report it - only ebay can tell!

Kimberley

How would they be able to tell?

angelcake

they can see if the usernames are coming from the same computer - apart from that probably not a lot, perhaps wait for someone with more knowledge of this to see the thread and respond.

mrbadexample

I don't think so. The current high bidder has put a bid in on the 25th, the bidder with 0 feedback has put 5 bids in today, each successively higher, trying to beat it. Looks fairly normal to me.

angelcake

also I think a reserve encourages people to keep bidding!!

Hintza

No I very much doubt it. They have not pushed the price up at all!! This item has a reserve and no one has met it, they were bidding in increments to try and find at what level the reserve was set at. As it stands no one will win it.


What is it worth to you? Bid high (the maximum you are willing to pay) and bid late (last minute) one of three things will happen:-

1. You win
2. You are outbid by someone who values it more than you do.
3. The reserve is not met and it will remain unsold

If I was going to shill on this I would be watching for the nibblers who are easy prey for a shill bid. If I came accross this and was not even interested I might toss in a bid just to ramp the price.

Tonight I have bid on 35 items from 1 seller because I will not be around for the close. In most cases I have bid a little bit less than the likely selling price to ensure that market integrity is maintained and prices don't drop. On the ones I am really interested in I have bid my max. The seller must love me becuse I will ensure a fair price for his stuff. If I win then that is great too as they will be off to Europe and I will say cheers.

Kimberley

Ok thank you all..xxx

Mandles

i think its innocent too

Kimberley

Well i'm not going to bid on it anyway now, the price is too high, i'm watching a different one. I''ll keep watching it to see how the bidding goes though.

candys_kisses

Strange though that both the seller and buyer have 0 feedback but are not newly registered - one was September 2004 and the other December 2004 and neither has brought or bid on anything else in the last month?

They both suddenly come active this month?

Report it to ebay and they can check if the emails/addresses or IP addresses are close or related.

Looks suspicious...