How can you tell if someone is shill bidding?

GUCCI_COOCHIE

GUCCI_COOCHIE

O.G.
Jun 12, 2007
2,141
8
#1
I've been watching a few designer items. Two of them have many bids that are mostly from people with 0-2 feedback. They really bring up the price.

Usually when sellers sell high-end items, they don't allow new ebayers to bid, it makes me wonder if these people are shill bidding?

What do you think? And have you ever 'caught' someone shill bidding?
 
#2
I think people with low feedback sometimes drive prices up early because they don't understand what they are doing. I never bid on an item until the last 30 seconds. I don't know if you can catch someone shill bidding? I didn't even know it had a name, LOL!
 
#3
I see alot of it. Especially with sellers who are trying to draw interest to their high priced listings. They will have another ID bid on the item multiple times so that when people search for it, they will see that it has a lot of bids and some will assume that it is a good deal. Its really annoying because its become more and more rampant.
 
#4
It used to be easier, the "bidders" would only bid on items from one certain seller or keep bidding, then retract their bid.
However, it has gotten a lot harder to tell since on higher priced items, they conceal the high bidder's identity with those asterisks.
 
#6
Lvbabydoll said:
It used to be easier, the "bidders" would only bid on items from one certain seller or keep bidding, then retract their bid.
However, it has gotten a lot harder to tell since on higher priced items, they conceal the high bidder's identity with those asterisks.
Click to expand...


Yes, I agree now on the high end items and the buyers ids are protected I've seen quite a few auctions where several very new bidders bidding around the same time on these items. I avoid those auctions.
 
#7
I refuse to bid on items that have their prices driven up by 0 or low feedback bidders. Either it's shilling or it's new buyers who don't know how to buy stuff on Ebay. Either way, when I see lots of low feedback bidders, I find another seller. ;)
 
#8
i only watch the items i like/might be interested if the price still in my range, then bid around the last 2 mins.
isnt it prohibit that seller bid on their own stuffs? (under dif. id ofcourse)
 
#9
caannie said:
I refuse to bid on items that have their prices driven up by 0 or low feedback bidders. Either it's shilling or it's new buyers who don't know how to buy stuff on Ebay. Either way, when I see lots of low feedback bidders, I find another seller.
Click to expand...


Yeah. I hate to be that way, but when I get outbid on a 0 FB seller who just joined a few days prior, I tend to skip that auction.
I keep getting these new people bidding on my auctions though, so I hope it doesn't look bad. :Push:


i_love_yorkie- yes it is.
 
#10
Seller's don't have any control over new eBayers with zero or very low feedback bidding on their items. It's not like you can block them all from initially bidding on your stuff. I sell high-end things every week and often get bidders with zero feedback who bid on my items and I've never shill bid in all of my 9 years of selling. I just ask them to email me for permission prior to bidding and more times than not, they do. I rarely have a problem with any newbies.

I have my preferences set to automatically block (1) those with no PayPal account and (2) those who have 2 or more unpaid item strikes in the past 30 days. That's about as far as you can go with blocking people from bidding on your items.

Just because you see someone new bidding on an auction you want to win does not mean that the seller is shill bidding. Sure, it happens. But that's not always the case. LOTS of new people join eBay every day and everyone starts off with zero feedback. A seller would have to pretty much sit at their computer 27/7 to block these bidders when they pop up if they did not want it to "appear" as if they were shill bidding.

As a buyer, I don't worry about things like this. I know how much money I want to spend on an item and that's the price I bid. Period. If it goes higher, then so be it. At that point, it really doesn't matter if shill bidding (as wrong as it is) was taking place or not. The item has gone beyond the price I wanted to pay anyway.
 
#11
caannie said:
I refuse to bid on items that have their prices driven up by 0 or low feedback bidders. Either it's shilling or it's new buyers who don't know how to buy stuff on Ebay. Either way, when I see lots of low feedback bidders, I find another seller. ;)
Click to expand...

Everyone has their own way they like to bid and feel comfortable doing so and I totally get that. But don't you think that sometimes it's just someone new who may just REALLY want the item more than anyone else? I get bidders like that all of the time and I find that they pay very quickly. Almost all of my non-paying bidders are established eBayer's with lots of feedback.
 
#12
print*model said:
Seller's don't have any control over new eBayers with zero or very low feedback bidding on their items. It's not like you can block them all from initially bidding on your stuff. I sell high-end things every week and often get bidders with zero feedback who bid on my items and I've never shill bid in all of my 9 years of selling. I just ask them to email me for permission prior to bidding and more times than not, they do. I rarely have a problem with any newbies.

I have my preferences set to automatically block (1) those with no PayPal account and (2) those who have 2 or more unpaid item strikes in the past 30 days. That's about as far as you can go with blocking people from bidding on your items.

Just because you see someone new bidding on an auction you want to win does not mean that the seller is shill bidding. Sure, it happens. But that's not always the case. LOTS of new people join eBay every day and everyone starts off with zero feedback. A seller would have to pretty much sit at their computer 27/7 to block these bidders when they pop up if they did not want it to "appear" as if they were shill bidding.

As a buyer, I don't worry about things like this. I know how much money I want to spend on an item and that's the price I bid. Period. If it goes higher, then so be it. At that point, it really doesn't matter if shill bidding (as wrong as it is) was taking place or not. The item has gone beyond the price I wanted to pay anyway.
Click to expand...
I totally agree with you! I always seem to attract low feedback bidders on my high end bags. Don't know exactly why and I certainly don't shill bid and never have either. I don't understand why that would dissuade someone from bidding on my items? :shrugs: I have no control over low bidders bidding and I have sold to several 0 - low feedback buyers with wonderful success.

I am more concerned with sellers that set their items sold to "private" than anything else. I don't understand why you wouldn't be proud of the items you have sold so that others can see that you have sold other authentic items! ;)
 
#13
I recently reported an auction that I was planning to place a bid on but I noticed that every time there was an acutal bid, the same 0 fb bidder would immediately place a bid soon after. I reported and I then noticed the next day the auction was removed.

On the other hand, I currently have several LV on auction BIN with best offer, almost all my offers are from 0 fb bidder, this often makes me question if these offers are real.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top
Back