Have I been Shilled?

[JohnnyDrama]

No link provided as the auction is still going, but here's the dealio:

I'm bidding on a Derek Roy Parkhurst Rookie Jsy/Au /100. Now, I know these are tough to find and are very sought after, so I placed a high bid of $67 ($70 shipped) in on the first day and left it. I come back the next day and I've already been outbid!

I think nothing of it until I get an email notification a day later that a bid has been retracted and that I was the high bidder again. Weird. Even weirder considering there's been no action in the three days since that.

Also weird, it's 2 people doing the bidding: one who has close to 100 feedback, but seems to bid exclusively on this seller's items. The other is an under-10 feedback guy.

What does everyone think? Am I just being paranoid? If I am being shilled, what do I do? What can I do?

Ryan

 

[Khabby]

Forward the info to E-Bay...let them sort it out.

 

[hextall27]

Shill bidding is rampant right now, Ebay does nothing about it. It's so bad that I have changed my style of bidding all together.

 

[JohnnyDrama]

Shill bidding is rampant right now, Ebay does nothing about it. It's so bad that I have changed my style of bidding all together.

Shilling is the primary reason I won't bid until the last second. With this one, I wanted to kind of "mark my territory" on it, but apparently (at least it seems that way) it just opened me up to shilling.

We'll see what happens if I win this thing, though I still have my doubts.

 

[SkyFire47]

you probably were shilled. and not that it matters but marking your territory means nothing. you don't mark your territory by putting in a large bid early on. you mark it by consistently winning the cards you want. the people you keep going up against will eventually realize who you are and come to expect your bid. in the end, people are still going to put their bids in. for your wallet's sake, i hope you snipe going foward.

 

[JohnnyDrama]

you probably were shilled. and not that it matters but marking your territory means nothing. you don't mark your territory by putting in a large bid early on. you mark it by consistently winning the cards you want. the people you keep going up against will eventually realize who you are and come to expect your bid. in the end, people are still going to put their bids in. for your wallet's sake, i hope you snipe going foward.

In all honesty, I do win the majority of cards I go after, Derek Roy in particular. I'd prefer to snipe and normally do, but like I said, I've seen 2-3 other copies of this card get snapped up before the auction even ended, so I kind of wanted to get my foot in the door.

I'll see what happens when it ends and if I win, I'll forward it to ebay to see what happens. I'm obviously more than willing to pay because I put the amount in, but I don't like that someone's greed is making me potentially pay more.

 

[hextall27]

As an aside does anyone know of a case where EBay actually did anything about a shill bidder. I mean even though there are almost certain cases of it, to prove it can be difficult.

 

[SkyFire47]

I'd prefer to snipe and normally do, but like I said, I've seen 2-3 other copies of this card get snapped up before the auction even ended, so I kind of wanted to get my foot in the door.

ah, so that's what you meant by marking your territory; that makes sense then. you never mentioned they got snapped up before the auction ended though, just that they were highly sought after. in the future, you're better off contacting the seller and asking him if he'd sell to you or to keep the auction open. you may have the bids in but if the price isn't high enough yet, that won't stop the seller from cancelling your bid after a side deal has already been conducted.

 

[RGM81]

As an aside does anyone know of a case where EBay actually did anything about a shill bidder. I mean even though there are almost certain cases of it, to prove it can be difficult.

This is a great question. I reported an incident a couple months back that was sure-fire shill bidding--two guys from the same city in QC, one of them had placed about 75% of his bids with the same seller and for odd amounts usually ending in .99 seemingly designed to drive up the high bid rather than overtake it--and I ended up giving up after eBay emailed me saying "I understand you no longer wish to purchase the item..."

 

[chihawk19]

I was just checking some of his other auctions. Looks like he has an arsenal of shill bidders at his disposal. Yikes!

 

[hextall27]

I was just checking some of his other auctions. Looks like he has an arsenal of shill bidders at his disposal. Yikes!

Guys I'm not a big conspiracy theorist but the trend I've been noticing is shill bidding going on between several accounts - all with good amounts of feedback.

There is the possibility that people are networking and shilling each others bids - there is no way to prove any of this with the new hidden id's but there is an awful lot of suspicious activity going on. In the long run this will only hurt online sales even more but ebay would never carry out an expensive operation to investigate this.

I know of 2 - 3 case where I have been shilled in this manner. I can't see any reason why someone would bid 49.99 on a card or 119.99 - it makes 0 sense...

 

[SkyFire47]

I know of 2 - 3 case where I have been shilled in this manner. I can't see any reason why someone would bid 49.99 on a card or 119.99 - it makes 0 sense...

i do that sometimes but not for the purposes of shill bidding. let's say there's a card i would like to have but it doesn't go into my have to have category of importance. rather than go all out and bid my max of let's say $200 for examples sake, i might only bid $124.99 in slight hopes that if someone beats me at $125, i might save some money. if i win it cheap, then great. if i don't, i save some money (which i probably should have done anyways except for my lack of willpower )

 

[Mack]

Guys I'm not a big conspiracy theorist but the trend I've been noticing is shill bidding going on between several accounts - all with good amounts of feedback.

There is the possibility that people are networking and shilling each others bids - there is no way to prove any of this with the new hidden id's but there is an awful lot of suspicious activity going on. In the long run this will only hurt online sales even more but ebay would never carry out an expensive operation to investigate this.

I know of 2 - 3 case where I have been shilled in this manner. I can't see any reason why someone would bid 49.99 on a card or 119.99 - it makes 0 sense...

I bid at 49.99 on auctions that state "if auction goes over 50.00 express shipping is mandatory". Most times I bid it is usually completely random amount.

 

[cfind]

I've had that happen a few times on auctions I've bid on. If someone bids over me then retracts I think it's someone associated with the seller trying to figure out what my highest bid is. On occasion, if that happens and I have good reason to suspect foul play, I retract my bid if they don't place another bid afterwards. The times I've done that, I've never seen the the other bidder place another bid, so I know it was a ploy and it never ends up selling for more than what my highest was.

 

[JohnnyDrama]

What a stunner: it was cancelled!

 

[kamper23]

I don't understand this. If the other persons max bet was $125 and you bet $125 it would essentially be the same as betting $124.99 because if identical bids are placed the first person who bid that wins the card.
Unless you are the person puttin the first bid in, and then it makes sense? But if you are sniping then my aboce statement still applies.
cheers

i do that sometimes but not for the purposes of shill bidding. let's say there's a card i would like to have but it doesn't go into my have to have category of importance. rather than go all out and bid my max of let's say $200 for examples sake, i might only bid $124.99 in slight hopes that if someone beats me at $125, i might save some money. if i win it cheap, then great. if i don't, i save some money (which i probably should have done anyways except for my lack of willpower )

 

[gwheath]

I have a question, how do you find the identity of the person bidding against you. I am currently bidding on a card and have another bidder who has put 11 bids on it increasing by $1 each time until he outbid me, the guy only has 2 feedback so I'm not sure if its a shill or if they are just new.

Anyway just want to know how I can check into the other bidder.

 

[SkyFire47]

I don't understand this. If the other persons max bet was $125 and you bet $125 it would essentially be the same as betting $124.99 because if identical bids are placed the first person who bid that wins the card.
Unless you are the person puttin the first bid in, and then it makes sense? But if you are sniping then my aboce statement still applies.
cheers

i'm usually not the only sniper. for examples sake, say the auction is at $80. i put in a snipe of $124.99 just to see if i might win it. 2 seconds after me, someone snipes at $125. they win, i save money and don't really care at the same time. if i win, great; if i lose, no biggie.

 

[Funkmobile]

i'm usually not the only sniper. for examples sake, say the auction is at $80. i put in a snipe of $124.99 just to see if i might win it. 2 seconds after me, someone snipes at $125. they win, i save money and don't really care at the same time. if i win, great; if i lose, no biggie.

Kev, you and me think a like

 

[Boom Boom]

I have a question, how do you find the identity of the person bidding against you. I am currently bidding on a card and have another bidder who has put 11 bids on it increasing by $1 each time until he outbid me, the guy only has 2 feedback so I'm not sure if its a shill or if they are just new.

Anyway just want to know how I can check into the other bidder.

Is this the Shutt auction? Its hard to say if it is a shill....though it would seem to be at first glance.....45% of his bids are with this one guy. low feedback..... There's no way to tell who it is that Im aware of. I would report this one to Ebay and let them figure it out. These days it doesnt seem they care much......in the end a higher sale amount means more $$ to Ebay in the form of fees.....I dont think they are too motivated to end the shenanigans.......



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