eBay Shills?

[Bob B.]

Hi all,

I often keep track of various Corvettes on eBay to see price trends, etc. I have started to notice on no-reserve auctions that the high bidder is often a 0 or 1 transaction person. It seems odd that the very first time someone gets on eBay that their first purchase would be an item as expensive as a Corvette.

Do you think these 0's and 1's are legit buyers or are they shills helping the seller get a higher price? Anyone had experience with this?

Thanks,

Bob

[Steven N.]

Re: eBay Shills?

Bob,
Nice meeting you at National's ! It has been my experience that the majority of them are shill bidders.

[Chris L.]

Re: eBay Shills?

Bob...while there are a lot of shill bid on Ebay, not all of them have a 0 or 1 feedback. I just had a high end car on Ebay and the high bidder had a 0 feedback and had just become registered to Ebay that day. I spoke with the bidder by phone prior to the auction ending and he was legit. It's too bad EBAY has gotten the way it has with not being able to identify who is bidding so we could tell the shills fro the real bidders, but I guess it would prevent Ebay for making more money.
Chris

[Tom M.]

Re: eBay Shills?

Hard to track Ebay anymore, I watch all the '67's, and few if any hit reserve.

Tom M

[Steven S.]

Re: eBay Shills?

I sell on ebay, not everyday, but I have done quite a bit of business over the years. Anyhow, regardless of what anyone might think, I can honestly say I never had anyone shill bidding my items and I can't tell you how many times I had a high bidder that was just registered and/or with 0 feedback that would remain high bidder for the majority of the auction. It allways irritates me when it happened because I know either the guy is a deadbeat, or it is making it the auction look suspicious. I guess you can look at it this way, most of your experienced bidders don't do any serious bidding till the end, but your rookie ebayers who don't know any better put in the high bids early. Just my observation.

[Stephen R.]

Re: eBay Shills?

One question and one comment......doesn't the seller still have to pay the shill bid sales commission to Ebay?
Comment.... I've learned my lesson regarding "second chance offers"...this usually happens after the shill has bid up the item and now the seller wants to sell to the second highest bidder...just my observation
Steve

[Steven S.]

Re: eBay Shills?

One question and one comment......doesn't the seller still have to pay the shill bid sales commission to Ebay?
Comment.... I've learned my lesson regarding "second chance offers"...this usually happens after the shill has bid up the item and now the seller wants to sell to the second highest bidder...just my observation
Steve

Yes, they would have to pay the final value fee regardless. As far as the second chance offers go, you are probably correct. Second chance offers are a flawed system as far as I'm concerned. More times than not the second chance offer is because the high bidder did not follow through (not because you have "multiple items"), and the way ebay has it set up you can only send a second chance offer for the next highest bidders max bid, which is not fair if the person that outbid him did not follow through. I have contacted ebay to find out if as a seller there was a way to send second chance offers that are calculated by canceling out the high bidders bid, which in my mind is the right thing to do. Not surprising I got absolutely no help or understanding from them.

[Steve B.]

Re: eBay Shills?

Hard to track Ebay anymore, I watch all the '67's, and few if any hit reserve.

Tom M

Tom, I too watch the 67s and few if any are real as well.