Shill Bidding Suspicions???

[Drewson]

I'd just like to know what folk think of the following scenario....

I found an item that i was very keen to get ahold of on eBay in Germany so i contacted the seller to see if he would take a "Buy It Now" price. He quoted 500 euros or let the auction run. As i had seen the last such very similar item sell for 187 euros i thought OK let it run and just make sure you win the auction. I told the seller that he could contact me should he lower the BIN price and i lighthearted told him that i better make sure i win the auction then (so he could see i was very interested....more the fool me, but i wanted to also make sure he didn't sell it elsewhere if he didn't think he get that much for it or a decent offer came in to him).

So i bid high and led the auction right til the end. However, with 2 seconds to go the price shot up from 287 euros to 512 euros, which is very close to the offered BIN price. I still won the auction but i was gonna have to pay a whole lot more. Now the price shooting up is no surprise as their are plenty of auction snipers out there, but the bidder who raised the price from 287 euros to 512 euros has no feedback and had only bid 14 times on 9 items in total. This raised my suspicions regarding this bidder....He had, however, only ever bid once with this seller and all of his previous bids (bar one) had been put in on auctions within the last hour of them running.

Also, 512 euros is quite high for this item when comparing it to previous sales......but i really wanted it.... :roll:

Does anyone think this looks like a likely "Shill Bidding" scenario or am i just being paranoid? If so, should i contact eBay so that they can investigate whether the seller and bidder are within the same household or area. Even if they are, what could they do? Their might be a perfectly good explanation for it. Also, i don't wanna annoy the seller as i still really want the item and i don't wanna falsely accuse someone....

What would you think? Is it just me being paranoid or what? :?

 

[barry2017]

You're right to be suspicious. But realistically, what could you expect to do about it? Complain to Ebay?

 

[kaiser]

Tricky one, sounds shilly but ultimately you paid what the seller was looking for and it was within what you wanted to pay. The thing that comes through is that you really wanted the item, if it was me I'd accept it and not let it taint whatever you've bought.

 

[Drewson]

Yeah, i guess their is not alot i can do about it.....and i was prepared to pay that amount or i wouldn't have bid so high.....just annoying that's all....

You're right....i shouldn't let it taint my purchase.....it is v nice after all....

Cheers

 

[Steve Kish]

Let it go! You bid for it and that's it.

Next time, bid what it's worth to you and if it's a shill, the seller may come back with a second-chance offer.

 

[REKIBorter]

Use a sniper like www.gixen.com your bid goes on 6 seconds before the auction ends so no time to shill the auction. Plus it gives you the choice to shop arround. You are not commited until the bid is placed. Gixen is free, secure and very reliable

 

[Drewson]

already use an auctionsniper as it happens.... but thanks for the advice...

 

[perry]

Pah that's nothing . If I see something without a bid and start watching it and within half an hour someone puts a quid on it I start shouting at the laptop and either stop watching because I'm not going to be conned by some fooker or I won't pay more than a couple of quid .

Paranoia isn't a state of mind , it's a way of life

Edit ; six seconds :shock: I can refresh the page and bung an extra quid on in 2

I thought these things people who can't do auctions properly were using were putting those wimpy gutless bids in in the last fractions of a second , but six whole seconds I can walk into the kitchen and come back with a sandwich in that epic time scale .