1964 topps tatoos shill bidding galore bassik and morris

[D. Bergin]

Originally Posted by bnorth

I do agree shill accounts are hard to spot because there are several reasons(excuses) that could make them a real bidder with strange bidding habits. Here are a few random bidding histories off eBay that seem strange that could be real accounts. I only copied one side so they can not be traced back to the high volume sellers they were copied from.

I also think shilling with the high volume low eBay fee sellers does not need to be done in the same way as regular sellers. With regular sellers the eBay fees would add up quick and make shilling not as profitable without bidding up to the max and retracting bids. Now the high volume sellers have very low eBay fees and any increase in the bidding is a win for them. So shilling up the to the max and retracting the bid is not the only way shilling is done.

I'd like to know what these "very low Ebay fees" you are referring to are, beyond the standard 20% discount TRS sellers get.

What I see are these guys working on very tiny margins, compared to what most auction houses have to work with. I don't know how they do it without going into the red, to be honest, especially after the last Ebay fee increase that drove a few guys out of consignments entirely.

[bnorth]

Originally Posted by D. Bergin

I'd like to know what these "very low Ebay fees" you are referring to are, beyond the standard 20% discount TRS sellers get.

What I see are these guys working on very tiny margins, compared to what most auction houses have to work with. I don't know how they do it without going into the red, to be honest, especially after the last Ebay fee increase that drove a few guys out of consignments entirely.

I honestly do not have a clue what the fees are. I will use Probstein123 as an example. I can consign my cards through his service for less than I can list them for myself. He not only pays an employee to list and ship the cards but also has to have a place to store them. So I really doubt he like other super high volume sellers only get 20% off listing fees.

[savedfrommyspokes]

Originally Posted by D. Bergin

I'd like to know what these "very low Ebay fees" you are referring to are, beyond the standard 20% discount TRS sellers get.

What I see are these guys working on very tiny margins, compared to what most auction houses have to work with. I don't know how they do it without going into the red, to be honest, especially after the last Ebay fee increase that drove a few guys out of consignments entirely.

Ebay's "emerging verticals" customers typically receive better FVF pricing than the standard 20% discount. Sellers like PWCC, Probstein (likely now), battersbox, 4SC/NESC, etc. are part of this program. Some of the sellers who participate are the sellers who have their company logo appear beneath each item in the ebay search lists/screens. All of the sellers above do a minimum of $1M in annual sales, so that is likely a threshold for this program.

A friend of a friend, who oversees the emerging verticals of another ebay category, mentioned to me that the sellers noted above are part of the program and, without any specifics, told me that they do receive some sort of added discount(FVF).

The apparent theory of this program is top down approach designed to help grow various ebay categories by allowing the larger sellers to drive the growth.

Here is a link to an older article concerning this program(however, it mentions that Probstein is not receiving a discount).
http://www.ecommercebytes.com/cab/abn/y12/m08/i29/s01

To get an idea of what someone in this position does for ebay, here is a job description of an emerging verticals intern:

http://jobs.ebaycareers.com/san-jose...tern-ebay-jobs

[the 'stache]

Wow, I just don't understand how anybody gets that many bid retractions. Now granted I don't have the volume of activity on Ebay that some people do, but I've got an Ebay feedback score of 265 with every single win having positive feedback. And I've probably had another 100 + auctions that I've bid on, but did not win. And I've never had a single bid retraction. If I bid on something, it is with the understanding that I am making a financial commitment to pay a specified amount.