Quote:
Originally Posted by Athomeatfenway
I've also had many transactions with the seller identified and have had all good experiences. The seller does have a knack of acquiring interesting vintage lots and consistently starts them with low openers. The fact his lots open quickly probably reflects the size of his following of ebay buyers and that a 99 cent opener makes it easy for bidders to mark the lot and later get to it quickly in their Bids summary for further bidding. I do think it is critical that the ebay community at large is vigilant about shill bidding so it's good that we have these discussions and keep eyes open. Back in 1999 or 2000 I think shill bidding was a factor. At that time, I remember the gossip about two local card show dealers who had a shill bidding arrangement on ebay. Given the ease with which shady people can become sellers, vigilance is a must. In any case we can prevent ourselves from being victimized by always reserving the right to walk away when another bidder is trying to take us where we do not want to go.
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Hey, congrats on your first post, and welcome to net54!
Your post was on the mark, as the uber-early bidding strategy is most likely a "marker" or just his way to "watch" an item. I really doubt that it's an earnest attempt to win anything. The particular "early-bid guy" in question doesn't place bids of a caliber that would ever win
anything. So it must be his way of "watching" or some other odd motive.
As for Shill Bidding... it certainly was not limited to 1999/2000. It's been going strong ever since, and shows no sign of slowing down. Ebay does nothing about it, and any legitimate complaints simply fall on deaf ears. Doing something about it might actually hurt their bottom-line.
