eBay

percgrabbe-0 · ‎05-16-2018

I feel this way because I bid on an item today (and not just today) and it just automatically bid me up 3 times in a row. This kind of set up is "shadow bidding" by the seller using multiple ebay accounts to bid up their own items (to get you to spend more money). Ebay even hides the names of the bidders and shows you their number of feedbacks but wont let you look at this feedback history if you click on it. Why would ebay do that? It enables and drives sales and higher FVF while they pretend its to benefit buyers anonymity. Ebay shouldnt allow any kind of anonymity. This is a business. We need to know who we are buying from and selling to. It involves money. Our money. Not ebays.

lewisburggold · ‎05-16-2018

Someone could be shill bidding and ebay is pretty good at catching them. You have to call and report so they will look at it. If you dont report we cant catch them. You can avoid the sill bidders all together buy doing fixed price listings. Best regards

percgrabbe-0 · ‎05-16-2018

Its easier to just not buy from an ebay auction anymore if I see this kind of activity.

itsjustasprain · ‎05-16-2018

@percgrabbe-0 wrote:
I feel this way because I bid on an item today (and not just today) and it just automatically bid me up 3 times in a row. This kind of set up is "shadow bidding" by the seller using multiple ebay accounts to bid up their own items (to get you to spend more money).

So after you have put in a bid - everyone else should just stop bidding?

We need to know who we are buying from and selling to. It involves money. Our money. Not ebays.

You do know who you are buying from and selling to. You just dont know who youre bidding against - which is the same as an live open outcry auction. You can still look up the hidden bidders 30 day histories to see how many other sellers they are bidding with. Click on the disguised bidding IDs on the bid history page to see that.

There is no point in bidding before the end of the auction. All you do is give everyone else in the world a chance to push your bid up or outbid you. Slam in your single highest bid at the very end and you will either win or not. If you dont then someone else wanted it more than you.

If you think you did find shill bidding then post the listing ID here so that we can all have a look.

rschissler · ‎05-16-2018

Seriously? Neither eBay or anyone else is making you put in a higher bid than you want to pay for an item.

johnrj1226 · ‎05-16-2018

Often other bidders provide a maximum bid amount that they are willing to pay above their initial bid. This allows automatic bidding each time another bidder bids above their bid. This is legal undr eBay rules see attached.

https://www.ebay.com/help/buying/bidding/automatic-bidding?id=4014&st=2&pos=2&query=Automatic%20bidd...

It is easy to detect bidders with automatic bidding as their bids will have the same date when you look at the bidding history.

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percgrabbe-0 · ‎05-16-2018

It was literally the moment I bid on it that it went up. I am not saying people cant bid I am saying its the seller bidding up their own item.

percgrabbe-0 · ‎05-16-2018

OK so ebay potentially helps sellers who create secondary buying accounts bid up their own items. Good to know.

the*dog*ate*my*tablecloth · ‎05-16-2018

If it goes up the second you bid it's because someone else has a proxy bid. That's how it's supposed to work. Ebay is a proxy bidding system.

Back in the day it made more sense for people to shill because it was a free way to set a floor for the auction when fees were tiered. It really doesn't make as much sense now that listing fees are the same. The risk of a shilling seller being permanently banned is much higher than the risk of starting an auction at the least you will accept.

the*dog*ate*my*tablecloth · ‎05-16-2018

I have no idea how you got that from john's comment. He was explaining proxy bidding to you and how it can be confusing if you use "show automatic bids".

At no point did he say anything about sellers or shilling.

percgrabbe-0 · ‎05-16-2018

It doesnt matter. I bid the item up a little and decided it wasnt worth the price. Then I walked away outbid.

the*dog*ate*my*tablecloth · ‎05-16-2018

It does matter if you think the seller is committing a felony because you are somehow misunderstanding the bid history. It will cause you to mistrust things for no reason and you may miss out on good stuff. Most accusations of shilling are misunderstandings, not actual shilling. However that is not to say there is no shilling. It is pretty common in some categories like cell phones and coins (from what I have read here).

If you're going to bid on auctions you should bid right at the end. It is much harder to shill that way.

retrose1 · ‎05-16-2018

@percgrabbe-0 wrote:
It was literally the moment I bid on it that it went up. I am not saying people cant bid I am saying its the seller bidding up their own item.

OP, you know how ebay (and others) say to enter your highest max bid? Well, that is why. Unless there is a bid to drive some earlier bid up to the highest max, the amount the seller will get is the next bid over the last bid - and the extra is sitting there waiting for someone to bid so it can be used.

This is a legit process and not a shill or scam. And one of the few ebay programs that works the way it should. If you understand real life bidding, think of it as an absentee bid.

And it is so nice to see a thread about it after all these years.

(*Bleep*)

bubbleman2010 · ‎05-16-2018

At live auctions the back bidders are always complaining about being outbid and like I tell them the bright side of coming in second place is you're the first place loser...