Dishonest sellers shill bidding...

eff

eff

O.G.
Jan 26, 2006
1,694
0
#1
I was looking to buy some prismacolor markers on eBay, I saw a great auction with a low starting price and contacted the seller about how old the markers were(they dry out after a while) and she even tested one for me. "What a nice seller!" I thought to myself. Yeah right. I checked the bid history, and the genius made an eBay ID to bid up her auctions and it's the same as the domain name she clearly lists as hers in big bold letters. I did a search for for that ID as a bidder and she's bid on like 20 of her own auctions! This is incredible. I just reported it and hopefully something gets done about it soon. This really makes me hate eBay and makes me wonder how often things like this happen.

ETA: Would this go here or general discussion forum? I don't know if this is only for bag-related stuff on eBay, but I needed to rant!
 
#3
eff said:
I was looking to buy some prismacolor markers on eBay, I saw a great auction with a low starting price and contacted the seller about how old the markers were(they dry out after a while) and she even tested one for me. "What a nice seller!" I thought to myself. Yeah right. I checked the bid history, and the genius made an eBay ID to bid up her auctions and it's the same as the domain name she clearly lists as hers in big bold letters. I did a search for for that ID as a bidder and she's bid on like 20 of her own auctions! This is incredible. I just reported it and hopefully something gets done about it soon. This really makes me hate eBay and makes me wonder how often things like this happen.

ETA: Would this go here or general discussion forum? I don't know if this is only for bag-related stuff on eBay, but I needed to rant!
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I'm in the art supply business and I know that the Prismacolor Markers are a big seller. I'm in Canada however, companies like dickblick and cheapjoes and jerrys artarama have good sales on from time to time. Your best bet is to buy from them. I don't recommend a certain "craft" store chain, since they sell at retail value.

Try those companies, they ship all over U.S. and they all have online stores.
 
#5
Aren't you able to go on Toolhaus.org and check out if it looks like auctions have shill bidding going on? I seems to me in the past I was able to see this, or maybe I'm wrong.:shrugs: Anyone know?
 
#9
boxermom said:
I'll have to look up the rules for tPF, but I am very uncomfortable with individual sellers being accused based on a vague "I heard .......". We all share general information, but naming a particular person is unfair without some solid data to back it up.
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Totally agree.:yes:
 
#10
You are probably correct that soemone is shill bidding - how ever keep in mind that it may be legit.
I have a few sellers on my favourites list. One of them sells a lot of clothes. I often bid on his stuff and then don't get it. So my name is pobably on a few of his auctions - just one bid but then I didn't win. I sometimes thin k people might think I was shill bidding him =)
 
#11
Little update... since I reported this, this person is no longer a registered user. I can only assume eBay suspended her account. Finally, some justice on eBay!
 
#12
I used to be paranoid that all these sellers are shill bidding. Then I started selling and these same people with 0 feedback keep bidding on my stuff, so keep an open mind.
 
#13
cola262 said:
I used to be paranoid that all these sellers are shill bidding. Then I started selling and these same people with 0 feedback keep bidding on my stuff, so keep an open mind.
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I sell as well and know that this happens... but in this case it was blatantly obvious because of the names. I guess the people at eBay thought the same thing, though I'm sure they use other methods to check, and now both accounts are gone. :smile:
 
#14
this is just my opinion but...

we all have a certain limit to what we'd pay for an item, depending on what it is, the maker, and the quality.

when you go into a store, it's the same. they don't have shills, but they sure as hell have the product marked up at least 50% (employee sales, they still gotta make a profit right?)

:: side track, no matter how good of a sale you've gotten for an item, don't think for one second that they still aren't making a profit until the item is marked down to like 75-80% off, or when you see a pair of jeans on sale for 4.97 from the gap, then you're getting a deal ::

that's when you think, i'm not going to pay that much.

you move on.

same with bidding, granted there's a frenzy with it.

but when you think about it, it's pointless to pay anything over what the product retails for (e.g. they had mini ipods bid up to more then what they cost retail)

and if its anything under, and brand new, count yourself lucky, that person, unless they had some sort of discount (e.g. employee) or got it as a gift, wouldn't be able to make much of a profit anyways (i'm always suspcious of things that sell for 300$ when it costs 1600$, e.g. gucci's horsebit on ebay, you know, the one with the magentic lock that never existed!)

i don't believe in shilling, but i'm not going to report someone, ebay makes it clear that you want to spend X amount on that item when you bid, if you don't want to go over, no one's forcing you. granted they'd have their friends or make alter accounts to drive the price up but if you guys realize that's whats happening and say, i'm not going to pay that much for it, i can do without, they'd end up having one of those account win, and not only would they not have a sale, they'd end up with seller's fees! (i've bid before and i'm assuming this happened b/c the person who outbit me had no feedback and was a new account, and i was offered the second chance right after the auction)

they probably should make ebay solely just a BIN auction but i guess that takes the fun out of it.
 
#15
ms-whitney said:
i don't believe in shilling, but i'm not going to report someone, ebay makes it clear that you want to spend X amount on that item when you bid, if you don't want to go over, no one's forcing you. granted they'd have their friends or make alter accounts to drive the price up but if you guys realize that's whats happening and say, i'm not going to pay that much for it, i can do without, they'd end up having one of those account win, and not only would they not have a sale, they'd end up with seller's fees! (i've bid before and i'm assuming this happened b/c the person who outbit me had no feedback and was a new account, and i was offered the second chance right after the auction)
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I'm sorry, but if I see a seller engaging in shady practices, I feel like it's my responsibility to report them. If they're shill bidding, who knows what else they're doing? I don't want someone to end up getting ripped off because I decided to look the other way. I respect your opinion, but I just have to respectfully disagree with you. Aside from the whole dishonesty factor, it's a way of circumventing fees--they don't have to set a reserve, they just bid up their item as high as they want. And when it's something like what I was bidding on, which costs hundreds of dollars more at retail and will end up in the 200s, they will have saved on reserve fees(which I think is totally unfair) and people will be tempted to bid it up (because they think they're getting a deal) and I don't think it's right to just sit there watching people get into bidding wars with the seller. This seller had been doing it in every single auction and it was blatantly obvious because of the name she used. Honestly, I'm glad I reported it and that eBay investigated it, that's another dishonest seller that no one will have to deal with. :smile:
 
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