Is it shilling when......?

[retroleds]

Another forum member and I were discussing(via email) whether it is really "shill bidding" when you bid on an item for less than the seller paid for the item - the assumption being they would never sell for that price.

Or if you bid(again low), just to stimulate a little action on a friend's sale, again, at a ridiculously low price point.

Have you ever bid on something JUST to irritate the seller or another bidder/buyer?

[Majestyk]

Shill Bidding (if you read the description on Ebay) is when a seller has a friend or family member bid on their item. What ever the motive, it's against Ebay's policy and since Ebay is a legal auction, it's against the law. I remember reading an article, years ago, about a group of sellers shilling on car auctions. They were caught and were either sued or actually charged...I forget which one.

Jeff

[retroleds]

Majestyk is right - I'll admit, I've bid a few times on things that someone had bought off me, thinking I'd give their sale a little "push". No more.
The more realistic (and legal) situation is to let the chips fall where they lay. On a slightly related topic, I still think it was a bit of a mistake for ebay to hide the bidder's identities on every high-end item......sometimes the desire to be the winner is a huge motivator and stimulates some awesome last-minute bidding. And the "hidden identity" scheme stops consistent collectors from noticing any shilling patterns in sales. It's not like ebay is monitoring anything.

[rewolf]

... On a slightly related topic, I still think it was a bit of a mistake for ebay to hide the bidder's identities on every high-end item......sometimes the desire to be the winner is a huge motivator and stimulates some awesome last-minute bidding....

IMO it was a big mistake, for the reasons you mentioned, but even more because the "community feeling" is totally lost. I used to watch auctions of interesting items even without intention to bid - just to know who's also around... gone. I spend much less time on ebay now (not only for this reason ).

[Majestyk]

According to Ebay they actually are doing some monitoring...As much as they can. I also know a guy (will say Person A) who let a friend (Person B) bid on his auction, but Person B was at Person A's house and made the bid there. Since the bid, from B's account, came from Person A's IP address, Ebay emailed Person A, almost immediately, and basically told him that was a no, no. I was quite surprised when he told me that. And no it's wasn't me. (Kinda sounds like it when you read it)

Jeff

[retroleds]

IMO it was a big mistake, for the reasons you mentioned, but even more because the "community feeling" is totally lost. I used to watch auctions of interesting items even without intention to bid - just to know who's also around... gone. I spend much less time on ebay now (not only for this reason ).

I agree with all of this, especially the lose of "community fee"...no chance to compliment the winner on thier new piece, little point in watching an auction, other than to see where the price went. I personally thought the whole problem of people contacting the second-place(nonwinning) bidder was greatly exaggerated and more akin to avoiding spammers or "second chance" offers that don't come via ebay. I wonder how people in other collectible genres view the new ebay auctions with "hidden identity".

[Fitron]

Yes I too miss the fun of knowing who was bidding - I've not bid on occassions because of who was bidding - other times it's been a red rag to a bull to beat someone. It's also had other uses - I've analysed certain peoples bidding patterns to work out how they bid and used that to win an auction or two and there's always something worth watching out of curiousity. Alas no more....