I run auctions and have some concerns about how others perceive the bidding (or what eBay sees).
I have a group of regular bidders that all bid against each other. A few weeks ago a guy from the Middle East was determined to win everything that wasn't already priced too high. His high bidding brought in unusual sales for the week.
I had another bidder who bids but takes forever to pay (like 3 or 4 weeks, I've known him since I started auctions in 2013, that's why I put up with this), and he created a new account due to eBay non payment strikes to get around the block, then eBay saw the same behaviour on the new account and terminated his bidding privileges. Makes me worry how things look.
I once had a dealer in Russia (before when I could ship there) bid on every auction, sometimes he got a bunch of stuff cheap which he could sell in Russia, other times he bid up the price for everyone else just for fun (hoping he'd get it, but if he didn't, then I got a higher return for my stuff).
I suppose eBay might suspect shill bidding if it's one account (doesn't matter who) and they always bid on the same auctions from the same seller and habitually don't win anything. That kind of looks like shilling from eBay's point of view.
I do have one regular that has retracted a few bids. I haven't said anything to him (yet) but I don't like him doing this because it's revealing the high bidder's maximum and I don't want to be contacted by the high bidder with accusations of how I run my auctions.
Anyway generally I wouldn't worry but because I run auctions now (to liquidate a large collection) it's always on my mind how things look to others.
C.
