Shill bidding on Ebay today

mort · June 2016

77' Les Paul Custom on Ebay;

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Gibson-Les-Paul-Custom-1977-/322133114138?hash=item4b00a13d1a:g:EOkAAOSwR5dXSxYN

'Sold' earlier today for £1550:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Gibson-Les-Paul-Custom-1977-/322128541005?hash=item4b005b754d:g:EOkAAOSwR5dXSxYN

Relisted due to 'timewaster' (that's yourself mate!)

FelineGuitars · June 2016

How did you figure it out as bids were kept private

Tell us so we can spot it when it happens..

Hang on - is it because someone had put a max bid of 1500 and he kept trying to outbid that (via second sockpuppet account) just to push the final sale price up till he went too far and won his own item?

Whitecat · June 2016

I've had more timewasters than usual on eBay lately... two binding offers and then both with retractions, one "officially" and one via private message. I'm inclined to believe it...

Garthy · June 2016

Surely the second highest bidder should have been contacted if it was legit?

Neil · June 2016

Too many loopholes on ebay for the underhanded.

My youngest put up a book starting at 99p and was thrilled to see it had reached £14 except that one buyer retracted his bids and now it is back to 99p.

How can people just retract bids willy nilly?

Can't do that in a proper auction can you?

step_hent · June 2016

Garthy said:

Surely the second highest bidder should have been contacted if it was legit?

eBay used to do a 'Second Chance Offer' thing, where they offered it to the second highest bidder but at the price the auction ended at. I havent seen that lately - I guess because it was too open to shill bidders who would push up the price knowing they could offer it again without relisting.

Whitecat · June 2016

step_hent;1094384" said:
Garthy said:

Surely the second highest bidder should have been contacted if it was legit?

eBay used to do a 'Second Chance Offer' thing, where they offered it to the second highest bidder but at the price the auction ended at. I havent seen that lately - I guess because it was too open to shill bidders who would push up the price knowing they could offer it again without relisting.

It was also abused by scammers who would forge the entire "second chance" process and con you into buying something you didn't actually win.

Sambostar · June 2016

I'm getting virus warnings on ebay at the moment on certain pages.

mort · June 2016

FelineGuitars said:

How did you figure it out as bids were kept private
Tell us so we can spot it when it happens..

The 'private' bidders is the main giveaway. You can't see that the same (normally zero-feedback) bidder is pushing the price up (and in this case winning). It will be the same bidder bidding on the relisted item - a dead giveaway if bids weren't private.

The other giveaway is the speed of the relist. If you have a genuine 'winning' bidder who doesn't pay you have to give them more than a couple of hours to pay before you relist.

It happens a lot, but most people just relist without the stupid 'rant' about timewasters (which is why I flagged this one up) In the relist he even says 'first sensible offer over £1700 will be considered' which all but blows his cover - as it only went for £1550 first time......

WezV · June 2016

Whitecat said:

step_hent;1094384" said:
Garthy said:

Surely the second highest bidder should have been contacted if it was legit?

eBay used to do a 'Second Chance Offer' thing, where they offered it to the second highest bidder but at the price the auction ended at. I havent seen that lately - I guess because it was too open to shill bidders who would push up the price knowing they could offer it again without relisting.
It was also abused by scammers who would forge the entire "second chance" process and con you into buying something you didn't actually win.

I hated the second chance offer thing.

I remember arguing with a seller who came to me with one. can't remember the exact values but it was on a pedal. Lets say it ended at £100 and my highest bid was £90. They came to me and said it was mine for £100. Obviously I said no and explained I never bid £100. After a bit of back and forth they came back with an offer of £90.

I pointed out that it only got to my upper bid because of a bidder who didn't want it. By my way of thinking, all of the bids by that person should be ignored. That would have put the auction final price at £75, so I offered that. They were not happy because the way they saw it I was willing to go up to £90. I was not happy because the only way they knew my upper limit was through potentially nefarious means

No new pedal for me

victorludorum · June 2016

I had this the other day with a guitar body. It was clearly a shill ramp in the last 2 seconds. The guy came back the day after to offer it me for my maximum bid price and I said no. I haven't checked, but I bet it's back on there being auctioned again.

Shill bidding suits ebay in terms of higher fees, so it's very unlikely they'll do anything about it.

Loobs · June 2016

do what you gotta do I guess

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Shill bidding on Ebay today

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