Good morning,

I do a bit of bidding on Ebay and am not that experienced at it, and wonder if there is any way to find out if someone is using the practice of shilling on an auction that I am bidding on now.

Help/advice would be much appreciated.

Mary

Allison wrote:Good morning,

I do a bit of bidding on Ebay and am not that experienced at it, and wonder if there is any way to find out if someone is using the practice of shilling on an auction that I am bidding on now.

Help/advice would be much appreciated.

Mary

There are a number of signs. Zero or low feedback bidders is the easiest to recognize. Link the auction and I'm sure a number of people here will look it over.

Allison wrote:This is the link.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 0562030236

Sure looks like the seller or a friend has opened up a new account to shill, to me. The 0-feedback bidder's account is less than 30 days old, and all of the bidding on the new account is on this auction.



Of course, there is the possibility that someone wanted this lot so much they opened up an eBay account to get it.

I am in a quandry over what to do. They describe it as suspicious on Ebay 'chat' and they reported the auction. But, maybe on the other hand, as you say, it is someone desperate to bid and just wants this...

TheHistorian wrote:I'd agree with maybe.

It could be a shill.  It could also be an inexperienced bidder plopping in multiple bids.


This is reason #118 why bidding late is a smart strategy - can't be shilled.

This auction started with a $95 bin. I picked up a $50 lot from the same seller. I just don't get the feeling this was a shill, just the bad luck of running into a newbie bidder. For the right person I don't think that was a bad price. A Tegal and and Inferno and 19 other items.

I don't think it was shilling, at least not experienced shilling.  

An experienced shill would try to bid you up methodically and carefully, because they really don't want to win the auction -- they want you to win it for as high a value as possible.  You only bid once, so they had very little info to work with.  Shills tend not to bid in even dollar values unless they're confident your high bid is much higher.

Finally the bidding pattern itself, when grouped in five minute intervals, shows periods of increasingly aggressive bids followed by periods of complete inaction.  

15:25-15:30 -- three bids, high bid increased by ~$10, average $3.33.
15:30-15:35 -- no bids.
15:35-15:40 -- two bids, high bid increased by ~$17, average $8.50.
15:40-15:45 -- no bids.
15:40-15:50 -- five bids, high bid increased by ~$53, average $10.60.

This pattern is more typical of a frusterated newbie than a shill.  As I see it, the bidder is repeatedly taking stabs at the auction, then taking some time to reconsider, until the auction gets out of his price range.  Sniping will eliminate this sort of bidder being a problem for you.

Hey Allison,
I agree with the others that bidding late is the best way to avoid these situations. I'm guessing it could have very well have been someone just jerking you around, much the same way that the ebay member prvteye bids. Similar things have happened to both myself, ifearyeti, and themilford over the last six months.

Seems WAY too convenient that it happened on this particular auction.