eBay

kaiokken1976 · ‎11-05-2023

Been hunting for Swiss army knives and saw one that I liked. I've never really bid on stuff, so didn't have knowledge of it. Went with a price and eventually saw I was outbid within an hr or 2. Thought "No big deal", but I suddenly found it strange that they had auto bidding till I bid a max value, then just manually started adding bid numbers until they outbid me. Then they added another auto bid.

I now (stupidly) added a higher number and strangely enough, they haven't bid since, so I went into their history and saw this bidder only had one feedback. "(1)". When I checked their history, they had 86% activity with the seller who is selling the item I'm bidding on... and curiously, 2 bids on another seller where they retracted one bid.

Now after reading on stuff about shill bidding, my red flags have gone up. I get the feeling that I fell for the trap. But will see if they outbid and retract when the time ends. Either way I think I'll be a bit more wary about bidding in the future. It's a pity there was no sure way to know.

buyselljack2016 · ‎11-05-2023

Could be shilling, but then again it could just be another nibble bidder that gave up after reaching (or exceeding) how much they want to spend.

stephenmorgan · ‎11-05-2023

As long as you are high bidder there is no need for a Shill Bidder to retract their bid. If you want a better chance at winning at a auction wait until the last seconds of the auction to bid.

kaiokken1976 · ‎11-10-2023

Nah I definitely believe it's shill bidding. The very "user" just retracted. I thought ebay stated you couldn't retract over an hr of bidding? They had bid to a certain amount last Sunday and not that last bid along with a couple below that was theirs, are now gone. The bid history shows the user retracted.

I think that's enough evidence for me.

stephenmorgan · ‎11-10-2023

@kaiokken1976 wrote:
Nah I definitely believe it's shill bidding. The very "user" just retracted. I thought ebay stated you couldn't retract over an hr of bidding? They had bid to a certain amount last Sunday and not that last bid along with a couple below that was theirs, are now gone. The bid history shows the user retracted.

I think that's enough evidence for me.

One purpose of a Shill Bidder is to make seller gets the highest price for their item. They will bid to reveil the max bid then retract their bid and rebid just below the max bid to artificually inflate the bid. Sometimes a third bidder is involved with the shill bidder to descuise what is going on.

After their bid was canceled did someone bid just enough to make sure your high bid was the winner?

kaiokken1976 · ‎11-10-2023

They weren't the highest in the end, I was. Last Sunday, I first set a limit of about 250 limit, which the "user" started manually rising to beat, until they started auto bidding and they outbid me. I ended up going to 350 max and they stopped at 310. I was the lead at that point.

It's been like that all week with 17 bids. Now all of a sudden, I went to the listing and saw the bids at 8. Went to the bid listing and sure enough, the "user" retracted their bids. Now, funny enough, there's another "user" with 0 feedback that's started at the 301 mark.

That's a bit suspect.

stephenmorgan · ‎11-10-2023

The purpose of a Shill bidder is to get the highest price for a item but not to inflate the price so much that the Shill Bidder is the high bidder at auction end. It is hard for a user to prove there is shill bidding going on.

That does sound suspect with 8 bids retracted and a new bidder with 0 Feedback enters a bid of $301. I would cancel my bid as well and if I really wanted it I would come back and do a Snipe Bid in the last seconds.

kaiokken1976 · ‎11-11-2023

Interestingly enough, that same new "user" was also pushing up the price of another listing the seller had for a 2 day run. I'm definitely going to try and retract mine.

kaiokken1976 · ‎11-11-2023

So update: just as I was about to retract my bid, someone outbid me. Said "good for them" as they have a lot of feedback (145). Retracted and went along my business. Just happened to watch it and that person has retracted as well!

Crazy stuff.

buyselljack2016 · ‎11-11-2023

It's been like that all week with 17 bids. Now all of a sudden, I went to the listing and saw the bids at 8. Went to the bid listing and sure enough, the "user" retracted their bids.

----------------------------------------------------------

So, did that lower your bid amount as the "high bidder" ?

If so, that is not the work of a "shill". A shill would hold their position below you to keep your winning bid "up high".

kaiokken1976 · ‎11-11-2023

Well that user had bids above and below. The retracted bids were above mine, but they still showed bids for that "user" below me. yes, my bids did lower briefly, but was then outbid and in quick succession, retracted.

Thing is, someone with 1 or 0 feedback with high ( or full percentage bidding) go above you and retract 6-7 days later, doesn't seem as a shill? I mean they probably have found loopholes to work it better, but this is too suspect IMO.

Either way, I've retracted. I'll see another listing for what I want at some point.