Why does eBay not show unpaid cases in bid history to avoid shill bids?

[ltrentlage11]

A seller on eBay can shill bid on their own stuff to raise the price or place a final bid to avoid a loss. Instead of retracting the bid and selling it as a second chance offer if they are stuck with item (which shows in bid history), they just don’t pay for it and get a strike on their fake account but there is no way of telling when this happens in bid history. They just relist the item, And set up new fake accounts as needed if eBay suspends them. The only provision eBay has in place is checking if the seller and buyer IP address matches. I have been trying to buy a welder from a big auction house on eBay but there are so many shill bids placed and it just goes on and on. The prices get bid up with shill bids, Items get relisted if they do not sell for a given price, So it is not bidding at all you are just paying what they want for something. It defeats the purpose of an auction and eBay should put an end to this by not allowing these unpaid items cases on 0 accounts and showing these unpaid cases in bid history. My Guess is they make a lot of money off this too so they just let it go on. Any ideas on how to check for this scenario to avoid these sellers? The only way I see is they have a ton of 0 purchase accounts that are only shown bidding on their own stuff in bid history.

[eburtonlab]

Why would a shilling seller open an unpaid item case on a shill bidding account controlled by the seller?

Being overly worried about shill bids is generally a sign that you are bidding too early in an auction.

eBay does not provide any details of the steps taken to identify and stop shill bidding.

If you are convinced that a seller is engaging in shill bidding, then find another seller. A seller that is willing to risk losing a selling account rather than setting a reasonable starting bid amount or using a reserve price is unlikely to be willing to ever part with the item for less than whatever minimum amount the seller has in mind.

[ltrentlage11]

If a shill seller lists several $4000 + dollar item for $99 cents as rental equipment auctions do, the seller must either shill bid these items up and hope bidders place new bids that are higher than shill bid. If they don’t get new bidders the fake shill account gets a purchase made on it, This protects sellers from selling under what they want for an item but they are stuck purchasing the item on their shill account. Starting an item at $.99 versus a reserve price attacks a lot more buyers, but if a seller is shill bidding they may be stuck with the item purchased on their fake shill account. My point is when this happens there is no way for a buyer to detect it, The seller just relist the item and takes a hit on their fake shill bidding account, and the item gets re-listed. This will not show as a retracted bid in seller history which is the only matrix eBay provides bidders to tell if a seller is putting in shill bids. In the end the bidder is assuming they are purchasing something for the value of the product and they could resell it for that value. However in this case they can’t as the shill bidder increased the price above and beyond what item is actually worth. eBay does have articles on how they check for shill bidders and how to protect yourself, I am saying in this scenario unless you spot a shill bidder and avoid the seller it goes undetected. A simple fix would be to provide not only retracted bids in bid history but also show unpaid items as bid retractions on the bidders account. I agree avoid the seller in these cases if you could spot them. However with the limited information in bid history it’s hard to spot. 

[eburtonlab]

I understand why unscrupulous sellers might be tempted to shill bid their own auctions.

Shilling sellers do not actually need to open unpaid item cases on their own shill bidding accounts, though.

And if the number such cases were displayed, shilling sellers definitely would not incriminate themselves by voluntarily opening unpaid item cases on their shill bidding accounts.

So eBay potentially showing unpaid cases will not actually help users to detect shilling.

[fab_finds4u]

Not to mention running buyers off.

[ltrentlage11]

If eBay showed items not paid for / then relisted on the bid history on these 0 rating shill bids, you could spot a shill bid easily and a shilling seller.  Some items like welders with serial number printed on side sell with shill bids 5 times, then someone finally pays what seller wants and purchases it. 

[theguitarpartsguy]

I believe that at one time eBay had it set up so it is not possible to bid on your own items.  I don't know if that is still the case or not, but I would assume it is.  The best thing you can do if bidding on an auction is make your maximum bid (your bid won't go higher than the minimum next higher bid unless someone bids against you) and just walk away until the auction ends.  You'll either win it for what you wanted or not.  If it's something I want so bad that I want to make SURE I get it, I just search for "buy it now" only listings.   I mean, I get what you're asking, but what you're asking is a non-starter for most people, because everyone I know who uses eBay just bids whatever they're willing to pay and then walks away and lets the listing end.  If you win, then great, if not, then great, too, because you didn't overpay.  AND, bonus, if you didn't outbid any shill bids, then you don't end up with a seller who might not ship the item anyway because it didn't meet their minimum desired price.