Manipulated bidding...Ebay no longer a viable true auction site

[rocklen60c7]

We have been buying items for both resale and collecting from Chinese sellers for over 15 years.

Today many of them manipulate bidding on their items.  Every item begins with one bid and will be bid up by the seller until it reaches the sellers desired price.  Items we used to be able to purchase at reasonable prices, are now high.

We also get messages that even though we lost an auction the highest bidder retracted their bid and NOW we are the winner.  This is a lie.  It is the seller who is retracting the bid so they can get what they want for their items.

So Ebay goes along with this scam and is no longer a viable place to bid with many sellers.  What will come next, who knows but I do know Ebay will do nothing to stop it.

[mudshark61369]

@rocklen60c7,

  "Every item begins with one bid and will be bid up by the seller until it reaches the sellers desired price. Items we used to be able to purchase at reasonable prices, are now high".

Since you know the chinese sellers starting auctions at .01 or  .99 cents are doing that, don't bid on those auctions. eBay says if they can't trace the serial retracting bidders back to the seller they can't take action.  If people stop bidding on those auctions the sellers will stop listing their items in that format.  Sellers starting auctions at very low prices who use Private Auction bidders identity protected are using shills, so don't participate. Better yet do not buy from China until they clean up their act.

  "We also get messages that even though we lost an auction the highest bidder retracted their bid and NOW we are the winner".

If an auction ends with someone else as the winner ignore those messages. Once an auction is over, all they can do is send a second chance offer, they can't force you to pay for something you did not win.

[hu.nga-55]

Stop buying cheap crud from China

[eburtonlab]

@rocklen60c7 

Without knowing whether a bidding account is actually connected to the seller, shilling is very difficult to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt.

In many cases, the signs of shilling are also common traits of the bids of reactive newbie nibble bidders: bidding on lots of items from the same seller, but not winning many (or any) auctions; many sequential bids in small increments; only bidding after another bidder has already bid; bidding up an auction and then retracting the highest bid.

A really clever shill bidder can ensure that there is no pattern to the shilling, and is therefore virtually undetectable using only publicly available data.

With all that said, being overly concerned about shill bidding is usually a sign that you are bidding far too early in an auction.

Unless you are bidding on penny gemstones from the far east, you are much more likely to run up against newbie nibble bidders than a shilling seller, statistically speaking. There are far more newbies out there than sellers, crooked or otherwise.

Snipers who bid their maximum once late in the auction do not particularly worry about shill bidders or nibbling newbies. The only time a shill bid affects a sniper is if a seller uses a preemptive shill bid as a hidden reserve; and if such a seller is willing to risk losing their account to break the rules and cheat eBay out of a reserve fee, most likely the seller was never going to let the item go for less than the shilled "reserve" price anyway.

Snipers also do not worry about getting "stuck" winning multiple auctions when bids are retracted, since they only need to bid on one auction at a time, and do not need to place a bid until they know whether they have won their last auction or not.

[myescape]

ebay will do something is shilling is proved which happens from ebay's end by looking to see if there is a shared ip,contact info etc.If they can not prove it they can not act.

If the bid is retracted before the auction ends leaving you high bidder you will win at the price you offered so should be willing to pay and are obliged to or seller can complete and unpaid item case against you which gives you account a strike(2 or more in 12 months will find you blocked w many sellers)

If you receive a 2nd chance offer after listing ends with you as the non winning bidder you do not have to take it,just delete it.

[carbonart0]

Yes.  I have watched the clock wind down on many listings in the past.  I've watched a few bids come in within the last couple of seconds on the clock.  Then the clock would reach 0 seconds and the listing ends, but then the screen would blink and suddenly there would be another few seconds back on the clock, and sure enough another bid would come in and drive the price higher than it was when the auction ended "the first time."

This can only be happening internally within Ebay...to drive the price higher and thus the final value fee higher.