Ebay shill bidding??

fattiman

Senior Retro Guru
Can one tell if an item is getting shill bids by seeing the percentage of bids placed with the seller?
 
That is one way to spot it, also unusual bidding pattens like a price that shoots up all of sudden or the top bidder just signed up. Of course there are legitimate reasons for all of the above so I alway decide in advance the most I am wiling to spend and place the bid the day before the auction ends. This works for me because the shill bidder only wins if he can get more money from me than I was willing to pay. I hope this makes sense...
 
Wise man. I only ever snipe with seconds to go, which stops a shill bidder jacking the price up by tickling the legitimate buyers auto-bid.

Also forces me to keep row budget, and not get into a testosterone fuelled bidding war and end up paying loads for tat.

I have I'm the past bid on items I'm not interested in just to piss off a rival bidder, but you got to be real careful you don't end up buying it!
 
Another way to spot shill bidding is if the same item has been successfully sold several times. So if you search the seller's completed items and the bike is in there as being sold to someone else recently then this is a red flag. Obviously this would not apply if someone had multiple identical items...
 
they may have joined a while ago and just not bought anything though. What about an account - say the other halfs account has been used, is this where the percentage data comes in useful??
 
fattiman":1c34i1oq said:
how can I check when someone joined ebay then?

Just click on their username in a sale listing. It will offer you latest feedback, other items for sale and also JOINED APRIL 2011 or something like that.
 
There are some red flags and a combination of them is an alarm bell.
- Yes check the "bid activity % with this seller".
- Also check the sellers "other items", see if the same bidder pops up on the current items for sale.
- Lots of "bid retractions" is a warning sign.
- Lots of bidding but no actual purchases or sales is a big warning (check the number beside the username).
- A bidder who places lots of little bid increases, gently nudging the price up (looking for the high bidder's limit without overstepping it by much, or at all) may well be a shill bidder. Not necessarily but watch for it along with the other signs.
- A shill bidding account will tend to show less or no last minute bids (<1hr). Again not a sure sign, but a clue.

I was being shill bid once, i spotted it via a combination of the above clues. There were lots of little bid increases coming in. I confronted the seller directly declaring that if i saw even one more bid from that particular bidder i would immediately retract my bid and report the seller to ebay for shill bidding. Of course the reply was a denial but the shill bidding stopped. A sure sign he was guilty and didn't want to be exposed.

Since then i only ever place last minute bids.
 

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