"Fined for shill bidding" Topic

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A man has been fined £3,000.00 GBP and ordered to carry out 250 hours community service after fixing an online auction on eBay… the first person to be convicted of shill bidding…

Chalk one up for progress – not often I say that…. :-)

North Yorkshire Trading Board

Not a "Propainter", eh?

I think that is great that they are able to catch somebody. I think that this might be a case of the person ticking off the wrong person at the wrong time.
The unfortunate thing is that shill bidding is something that ebay will publicly be against but privatly they are all for it. Higher ending prices mean higher commissions for them. There have been a lot of privacy changes over the years that make it nearly impossible for the normal user to track down shill bidders. This money that they allege to spend on stopping shill bidding is probably being mostly being used for P.R. to convince people that they are doing something about it.

I have alway thought of eBay as caveat emptor.
That is why I do not subscribe to any of the vaunted "strategies" that people follow.
Bid what you think it's worth, and come back when it's done. The only alternative is working yourself up and bidding to "win", whereas I think of it as just another way to go shopping.
These days I am more of a seller than a buyer, so I have no problem with high ending prices on eBay.

I recently bid up some Foundry Chinese that I wanted, but I stopped bidding when they reached the threshold of what I thought they were worth.
I submitted about 4 bids, nd lost, and the only difference between me and a shill bidder was that I was willing to buy them.

I just bid my top dollar and walk away. A deal is a deal only if I benefit

I've noticed lately that I've been 2nd place in a lot of auctions only to get a notice a few hours later that I have a '2nd chance offer'… this happened 4 times in the past 2 weeks.

I've noticed lately that I've been 2nd place in a lot of auctions only to get a notice a few hours later that I have a '2nd chance offer'… this happened 4 times in the past 2 weeks.

That's happened to me a couple of times lately as well. Is that a shill getting stuck?

I imagine there is a lot of that going on.

I recently saw some auctions that were reasonably priced for some small items.

Those not careful to look at the shipping would probably be shocked by the $55 USD charge for sending them to the customer.

Amazingly, despite lower combined pricing including shipping for a number of identical items, someone bid on the much more expensively prioed ones.

Go figure.

She added: "We have leading technology that enables us to detect when people are trying to do this."

And there is a bridge I want to sell you. I don't get it cause if you bid against yourself you run the risk of winning the auction. Plus you get charge all the fees and don't make the cash.

On Ebay, you should have an idea of how much you think the item you are bidding on is worth. Shills won't beat you then.

That's happened to me a couple of times lately as well. Is that a shill getting stuck?

That was my assumption…

That and it's odd how many times I win by exactly my highest bid… like someone bids it up to right under and stops. Has happened MANY times now. Seems like my wins should be be more randomly space vs. my maximum bids.

Sometimes eBay offers auctions for no cost up front.

These may be more suspect, I imagine.

Just because you get a 2nd chance offer doesn't mean it is a scam.

eBay offers that service to sellers, so you can make more sales quickly, and they make money too. I've sold quite a few things in 2nd chance auctions, where I had multiple items to sell, but didn't want to incur the cost of listing them all at once, in case they didn't sell.

Works great for everyone involved.

Is it illlegal in the United States?