My seller was shill bidding against me, what to do?

Shoppinmel

Shoppinmel

Handbag Enthusiast!
O.G.
May 11, 2010
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1,454
#1
OK I just paid for my bag I won on Ebay Australia and then discovered that my seller was shill bidding against me. I noticed that several of her bags she sold had feedback left by the same buyer and I thought that was strange so I went in and investigated and have just now realized that she shill bid the price up against me. She knew I was interested and those bids came in after I contacted her with questions and before I made my final bid. Should I accuse her of shill bidding and tell her I want a partial refund or I'll report her or do I just go to Ebay with it? She got almost another $100 AUD out of me by shill bidding. Gosh, I have the worst friggin luck. I thought I'd found the best seller ever and now this.:sad:

Here's the auction http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/louis-vu...pt=AU_Women_Bags_Handbags&hash=item1c469ea166
 
#2
With all due respect to you I don't believe that is a shill bidder. Maybe that bidder follows the sellers
auctions and like her style. I myself have a few favorite sellers and I bid on their auctions often.
Just my opinion. The bag is beautiful!
 
#3
sandicat3 said:
With all due respect to you I don't believe that is a shill bidder. Maybe that bidder follows the sellers
auctions and like her style. I myself have a few favorite sellers and I bid on their auctions often.
Just my opinion. The bag is beautiful!
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Hmm really? Cause the Burberry bag was relisted after this buyer won it and then won again by this buyer and every other one of her bags has been sold to this buyer except the cheap Kate Spade. I contacted the seller with questions about the bag and then told her I'd put in a small initial bid to make sure that I wouldn't have a problem bidding since it was an AU only auction. I didn't even think it would cause her to shill. After this, the "shill bidder" bid twice. I find it really, really strange that someone would be interested in so many of her pieces and not just bags but dresses too. To me it seems like a clear cut case of shill bidding but I really appreciate any input to the contrary cause I'm really bummed right now thinking my super wonderful seller might be a cheater.
 
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#4
Shoppinmel said:
Hmm really? Cause the Burberry bag was relisted after this buyer won it and then won again by this buyer and every other one of her bags has been sold to this buyer except the cheap Kate Spade. I contacted the seller with questions about the bag and then told her I'd put in a small initial bid to make sure that I wouldn't have a problem bidding since it was an AU only auction. I didn't even think it would cause her to shill. After this, the "shill bidder" bid twice. I find it really, really strange that someone would be interested in so many of her pieces and not just bags but dresses too. To me it seems like a clear cut case of shill bidding but I really appreciate any input to the contrary cause I'm really bummed right now thinking my super wonderful seller might be a cheater.
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It's possible that this is shill bidding, but it's also possible that the seller had two Burberry bags of a similar style and just used the same title for them. idk whether or not item numbers change when you relist something (if you use the "relist" feature).

For the Artsy auction, the opening bid started fairly high, and didn't go up that much - usually shill bidding shows up in auctions that start at a low dollar amount.

Wait and see what others say. Some people like BB are a bit better at spotting shills.
 
#5
IrisCole said:
It's possible that this is shill bidding, but it's also possible that the seller had two Burberry bags of a similar style and just used the same title for them. idk whether or not item numbers change when you relist something (if you use the "relist" feature).

For the Artsy auction, the opening bid started fairly high, and didn't go up that much - usually shill bidding shows up in auctions that start at a low dollar amount.

Wait and see what others say. Some people like BB are a bit better at spotting shills.
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Yeah I figure BB will be able to tell me for sure with her detective skills. ;) I admit I'm no pro at this stuff but it looks so suspicious to me. I really hope I'm wrong because I was thinking yesterday that this gal has renewed my faith in Ebay sellers (well sellers in general cause my last terrible experience was Bonz) with her wonderful service!
 
#6
I agree with the OP that it's shill bidding.

The 117 feedback buyer "won" this other LV bag:
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/louis-vuitton-galliera-GM-/121437324063?nma=true&si=lFFjvFJerv2tfYcS4Qq3C5h4Vgk%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

She "won" this dress on Sept. 27:
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/zimmerma...D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

The shill won this LV on June 7 and here's a cache of the listing. Notice that it was subsequently relisted:
http://webcache.googleusercontent.c...0260+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox

The "buyer" also won the same Burberry clear bag twice (as indicated in the seller's feedback). Here's one of them:
http://webcache.googleusercontent.c...8979+&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox
 
#7
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#8
Shoppinmel said:
Hmm really? Cause the Burberry bag was relisted after this buyer won it and then won again by this buyer and every other one of her bags has been sold to this buyer except the cheap Kate Spade. I contacted the seller with questions about the bag and then told her I'd put in a small initial bid to make sure that I wouldn't have a problem bidding since it was an AU only auction. I didn't even think it would cause her to shill. After this, the "shill bidder" bid twice. I find it really, really strange that someone would be interested in so many of her pieces and not just bags but dresses too. To me it seems like a clear cut case of shill bidding but I really appreciate any input to the contrary cause I'm really bummed right now thinking my super wonderful seller might be a cheater.
Click to expand...


I have a couple of favorite sellers and bid on a variety of items, from bags to clothing... I visit their listings browsing for great deals on nice items that I would wear... The prices on clothing items beats store prices by far, usually. I look forward to what I will find.... So my point is, I bid on a variety of items with the same seller.
 
#9
Is there anything the buyer can do in this case? Will reporting the seller help her in this instance or just help subsequent potential buyers? I would leave a negative fb to this effect if this is allowable by ebay.
 
#10
soleilbrun said:
Is there anything the buyer can do in this case? Will reporting the seller help her in this instance or just help subsequent potential buyers? I would leave a negative fb to this effect if this is allowable by ebay.
Click to expand...
If the buyer doesn't pay for the item, any negative feedback will be removed.

The buyer can express concern to the seller but she needs to be careful of how it's worded in order not to put the seller on the defensive.

I wish sellers would just start their items at prices they're willing to sell for instead of getting greedy and inflating bids.
 
#11
BeenBurned said:
If the buyer doesn't pay for the item, any negative feedback will be removed.

The buyer can express concern to the seller but she needs to be careful of how it's worded in order not to put the seller on the defensive.

I wish sellers would just start their items at prices they're willing to sell for instead of getting greedy and inflating bids.
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The buyer already paid. Can she bring the shilling to the attention of ebay and request a cancellationof the auction? In the end the buyer bid the price she was willing to pay but it sucks the seller was dishonest/cheat.
 
#12
BeenBurned said:
OMG!! The seller, selectionsbysarah seems to have a THIRD ID she shills with however in this case, she's the shill and another ID is the seller.

Another of her IDs is woody_moody19

There are several instances where selectionsbysarah "won" items from woody_moody19.

Both are from NSW.

The 117-feedback buyer is selectionsbysarah's and selectionsbysarah is woody_moody19's shill. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Bottega-Ven...D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557
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Thanks for helping look into it BB! Man you're good! I looked at woody_moody19 and it looks like my shill bidder has also left feedback several times for this seller but I notice that woody and sarah are careful not to leave feedback for each other.

So what do you guys think I should do? Should I contact Ebay right now and tell them what's going on? Do I contact the seller? If the bag arrives in the condition in the photos, it looks like a great bag but this is obviously not a very honest seller. Plus I do feel I still got a good price but I don't like getting tricked into it when I could have paid less. I wish I would have discovered this before I paid. :sad:
 
#13
Ceeyahd said:
I have a couple of favorite sellers and bid on a variety of items, from bags to clothing... I visit their listings browsing for great deals on nice items that I would wear... The prices on clothing items beats store prices by far, usually. I look forward to what I will find.... So my point is, I bid on a variety of items with the same seller.
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Thank you for your input but that isn't what's happening here. If I had been outbid by another buyer who also wanted to buy the bag then I would be happy paying this price. The problem is that we have a dishonest seller here who inflated the price by shill bidding which is against Ebay policy. I do still feel the bag is a good price if it was accurately represented. My fear is that this isn't an honest person and the photos were taken in a way to not show possible problems. The thing is that I looked at woody_moody19's feedback and assuming the majority of the feedback is real then their bags are usually as described.
 
#14
IrisCole said:
It's possible that this is shill bidding, but it's also possible that the seller had two Burberry bags of a similar style and just used the same title for them. idk whether or not item numbers change when you relist something (if you use the "relist" feature).

For the Artsy auction, the opening bid started fairly high, and didn't go up that much - usually shill bidding shows up in auctions that start at a low dollar amount.

Wait and see what others say. Some people like BB are a bit better at spotting shills.
Click to expand...

I just looked into this because I was curious. I had a couple outfits of my daughter's that I recently listed and they didn't sell so I relisted them for less. They had different ID numbers the second time and the only thing I changed in the whole listing was the start price. So, I think it's likely that was the same Burberry Clear Handbag relisted and purchased again by the same person.
 
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