Won an item, think the seller was shill bidding

[bizbuyer916]

Hello,

I recently won an item and noticed an unusual bid pattern. It seemed someone was auto-bidding.

Looking into the bid history, with autobids turned off, there were still bids coming in at roughly X minutes after someone placed a bid, and then a plethora of bids happening every 2 seconds on the dot.

I contacted the seller after I won the auction and asked them if it was possible for me to see the bid history, which they surprisingly obliged.

I noticed one specific account was doing the large portion of the bids, and looking more into their feedback, I noticed they had several other purchases from this same seller.

This seller does not sell a niche of items though, just very random things you'd find at a pawn shop.

I want to contact eBay and have them look into it, but it looks like contacting eBay is much harder to do these days.

Does anyone know how I can approach them to investigate shill bidding?

Thanks!

[7606dennis]

You can report your suspicions to eBay.  However, I would be cautious about contacting the seller and accusing him of criminal activity.

By the way, you should have been able to view the bidding activity by simply clicking on the number of bids.  However, you really need to include auto bids to get a complete picture of how the bidding occurred.  Actually, the term auto bid is something of a misnomer.  The proxy bidding system used by eBay does not place bids for anyone, but rather accepts a bid for an amount entered by the bidder and uses that amount as needed to increase the bid price keeping the bidder in the lead until the amount of the original bid is used up.  If you check the bid history with it showing the auto bids it will show the precise time that the original bid was placed.

Shilling is extremely difficult to prove and almost impossible for a member to prove themselves because they do not have access to all the data that would be necessary.  Frankly, from what you posted it doesn't sound much like shilling to me, but you are certainly free to report your suspicions to eBay. 

One way to avoid being shilled is to have a firm idea of the value you place on an object you are after, setting the maximum you are willing to pay for it and never going over that amount when bidding.  It is also helpful to place your bid, for the maximum amount that you're willing to pay as close to the end of the bidding period as possible.

[lintbrush*]

I don't get the shilling vibe from this because of your statement:

"I noticed one specific account was doing the large portion of the bids, and looking more into their feedback, I noticed they had several other purchases from this same seller."

The idea of a shill bidder is only to push up the price but not to win.  If the alleged shiller is leaving feedback, they won.  That seller is paying a whole lot of fees if the shiller is constantly winning.

When you're looking at the bid history, you can click on that masked ID.  It will show a little bit about them.  Now if they had 200 bids all with the same seller, I'd say you were spot on.  If they had 4 bids, with 100% and the seller is selling 200 items, then probably not a shiller but a loyal customer.  Their bids could be scattered among 8 different sellers too with varying percentages.

[mudshark61369]

@bizbuyer916,

Since you didn't open the Show automatic bids page you missed out on importatnt information.  There are times when the basic bid history page time stamps, show a few seconds difference when someone bids against an early max bid.  When you open the auto bid page, you'll probaly see the auto bid shows the exact time each time it was bid against. 

Liker the others I don't think your description of the events, add up to a shill bidder.  You may have been a member for 5 years, but you are not what I would call an experienced member.

[thatsallfolks]

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@mudshark61369 wrote:

@bizbuyer916,

Since you didn't open the Show automatic bids page you missed out on importatnt information.  There are times when the basic bid history page time stamps, show a few seconds difference when someone bids against an early max bid.  When you open the auto bid page, you'll probaly see the auto bid shows the exact time each time it was bid against.

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Example, please.

[thatsallfolks]

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@bizbuyer916 wrote:
I contacted the seller after I won the auction and asked them if it was possible for me to see the bid history, which they surprisingly obliged.

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Everyone can see the bid history. Your surprise is, well, surprising.

[curjoh_13]

You cant always tell from bid history when the seller sets to private. It will only show on our end private listing. Unfortunately I've seen it with sportscards collectables and believe shill bidding was definitely going on but talking to an ebay call center rep who handles numerous calls from Verizon, Sprint, xyz company, Ebay you dont usually get the help you need. If you suspect shill bidding avoid that seller. Most are honest on ebay but the others ruin it for them.