Suspicious eBay Bid

This is very concerning. I hate shill bidding and find it to be unethical.

 

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Huh?

Create a new account for a $25 coin?

Come on. Get real.

I think the OP is just being paranoid and in reality should just wait until near the end of the listing then drop your final bid.

 

Understandable. After the dust has settled hook us up

 

Obviously it would be ridiculous to do it for one item at $25, but as I previously suggested, he may be planning on using that account to shill bid future auctions also.

 

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Shill bidding shouldnt really concern you. You place the highest bid your willing to pay, if you dont win it, there will be another coin that will come along. Whether a seller starts the auction at a 100.00, starts it at .99 cents with a 100 dollar reserve, or starts the auction at .99 cents and puts a shill bid in at 100.00, they are all differnt ways a seller gets the price he wants for a coin.

 

Lot of truth in that Bkozak.

 

Yes and no.

In a perfect world (or perfect auction rather), where shill bidders don't affect the outcome between highest bidders, then it doesn't matter. Just set your high bid and let it ride.

However, if you could of had the winning bid at a lower price, but jackass shill-bid-guy runs up the price closer to your max bid, then it's a problem. You are paying more than you would of had to because seller is manipulating price. That should be a concern.

Anyone who says it should not be of any concern and suggests "just set your max bid and don't think twice", has aroused my suspicions.

 

I understand how shill bidding could be annoying but I set my bidnapper bids such that if I win I am always happy with the price.

 

So you wouldn't be happier if you got an even better price??

 

To me, shill bidding, a reserve and pulling a coin are all the same. No matter how the seller wants to hedge it the coin was never really in a true auction. That's just life. No one says you have to use eBay. You could be at a live auction someone could do the same thing. If they guess wrong they owe fees

 

Your basicly talking about a reserve. There are 3 ways sellers can do it, which I posted earlier. They all have pretty much the same effect. When bidding on Ebay I personally would rather go up against a shill reserve than a physical reserve. Because a shill reserve, I can bid up to the price im willing to pay by myself and maybe win.
A physical reserve on Ebay, you need a partner to get going. There have been a few coins that i bid on with a reserve that didnt go anywhere because im the only one bidding. It will say your the highest bidder but you did not reach the reserve. I was willing to bid more, but I couldnt.

 

When I bid on an item, I always check what else a seller has and may bid on other items as well. I think that's very normal.

 

The last sentence. Not sure that is correct. Do you mean to say the ebay wouldn't let you keep bidding more and more and more?

 

You need someone else to increase the current bid... at least if you're already the highest bidder.

 

Well..................... I guess you should be suspicious of a lot of folks then.

The ONLY activity in an auction that raises my suspicions is the bidder that bids huge, see's what the under bidders have bid, and then retracts the huge bid.

Nothing else really matters.

 

Like stared earlier you need somebody else to bid against. I could be the only one interested in a reserve coin. If nobody else bids with me, it wont meet the reserve

 

Doesn't work that way. If your bid reaches or excedes the reserve, the reserve automatically becomes even if you are the only bidder.

 

I never knew that. I always just stopped bidding, and waited. Is that explained on ebay

 

Yes

http://pages.ebay.com/help/buy/reserve-price.html

 

Always amazes me the number of people who don't mind potentially having to pay a lot more than they need to, as long as they don't pay more than they are willing to.

If a coin is at $100 and you are willing to pay $500 so you put that in as your max bid, and a shill bidder runs it up to $400 so you win it at $420 you're happy because you got it for less than your max. But without the shill bidder you would have gotten it for $100. Shill cost you an extra $320 but you're happy.

Even if it wasn't a shill but just a "nickel and dime" bidder who just keeps bidding the next increment just trying to become the high bidder, you still get run up. That's why you snipe. A shill or a "nickel and dimer" might get one bid in, but they can't "run you up" and you can win at the lowest amount possible.