Why Does Ebay Permit Shilling? Opinions?

[14 of spades]

hey folks,

 

we all know how shilling (aka punishment bidding) works. quick primer:

 

Item has a Current bid price of 3.70 leading by eBayerA

eBayerA - has a high bid of 5.00.

eBayerB - starts at 3.70 and bids in $0.25 increments (3.95,4.20,4.45,4.70)

 

when eBayerB finally puts in 4.95, he now knows what eBayerA has bid since the current bid price now becomes 5.00.

 

why does ebay push the current bid price to eBayerA's max bid? i know that it's within the range of the current bid price and the current price + bid increment {i.e. his max bid falls between 4.95 and (4.95+0.25)}.

 

ebay COULD just as easily leave the max bid at 4.95. if they did, it would almost stop shilling cause eBayerB would never know where he should stop bidding. if he continues - he risks (and in this case, does) winning the item.

 

is it simply to increase eBay's collection of FVFs? because in all their other philosophies - eBay seems to strongly discourage false bidding - and i think shilling itself is against the rules (?)

[Darthdiesel]

it simply to increase eBay's collection of FVFs

 

[spy88]

eBay does NOT permit shill bidding! They have a policy whereby if there is enough proof that it is being done, they will pull the item(s) off auction and email you a shill bid warning. They give you the benefit of the doubt before suspending you.

 

This happened to me as I have a young roommate who thought he was doing me a favor by upping the bids on some of my items. Boy, did HE catch HELL from me, especially as I did not know he was doing it until I got the warning email. He no longer has a email address on my computer nor can he log on (I admined him from it) and am trying to get eBay to close his account so he cannot do so in the future from a remote terminal.

 

David

[Darthdiesel]

Why is he still your roommate? and btw, I know shilling is illegal acc to ebay..the current system they use makes it easier for shillers tho

[read_em-migration]

we all know how shilling (aka punishment bidding) works

 

Shill bids and punishment bids are the same thing? I've always seen them as two different types of bids. A punishment bid is not the seller (or seller's friend) bidding on their own auction to push up the final bid (shilling). Usually the one making the punishment bid doesn't really know the seller, but is rather trying to make the high bidder pay more, without being "in league" with the seller. Is this incorrect?

[14 of spades]

we all know how shilling (aka punishment bidding) works

 

Shill bids and punishment bids are the same thing? I've always seen them as two different types of bids. A punishment bid is not the seller (or seller's friend) bidding on their own auction to push up the final bid (shilling). Usually the one making the punishment bid doesn't really know the seller, but is rather trying to make the high bidder pay more, without being "in league" with the seller. Is this incorrect?

 

sorry - i guess i used the term shilling to actually mean punishing. so yes, you are correct in your description of punishing.

 

so let me rephrase...

 

i know that shilling is wrong - but is punishment bidding illegal on ebay? if so, why does ebay's bidding system facilitate (and perhaps encourage?) punishment bidding?

[Darthdiesel]

we all know how shilling (aka punishment bidding) works

 

Shill bids and punishment bids are the same thing? I've always seen them as two different types of bids. A punishment bid is not the seller (or seller's friend) bidding on their own auction to push up the final bid (shilling). Usually the one making the punishment bid doesn't really know the seller, but is rather trying to make the high bidder pay more, without being "in league" with the seller. Is this incorrect?

 

sorry - i guess i used the term shilling to actually mean punishing. so yes, you are correct in your description of punishing.

 

so let me rephrase...

 

i know that shilling is wrong - but is punishment bidding illegal on ebay? if so, why does ebay's bidding system facilitate (and perhaps encourage?) punishment bidding?

 

now that we have shill vs punishment bidding terms straight...my first answer holds...to ebay, there is no such thing as punishment bidding (or such a practice is not considered illegal) AND anything legit to increase their take from auctions, they'll be SURE to take full advantage of...

[DoubleCovaBrotha]

Methinks it would be really really hard to regulate punishment bidding (more so than shill bidding) especially because proving it would be extremely difficult (plus the fact that they don't care). The number of payroll hours plus the expense of actually cracking down on offenders would not make sense from a $$$ standpoint...and we all know eBay is about the $$$.

[jkrk]

I finally got the message from a previous post I made about shilling. I erred when I said, "Most big dealers use shills". I should have said, "many big dealers use shills". Can I prove it? No. I can only check the completed auctions and find patterns. I might have the DNA evidence, a body, the glove, etc, etc. I do not have a witness who will testify. So I can't really prove it. Others have been found not guilty for less. For me, circumstantial evidence works. If you need me to point out specific auctions in which patterns are found I refuse to supply the info. There is a percentage I times I will err and I refuse to label anyone who might be innocent. I will say I suspect some of the biggest sellers are culpable. They are simply playing the game as if it was a heritage auction with the bump. Most problems occur in no reserve auctions and the sellers are unwilling to part with the books are what they see as distressed prices. They are more willing to pay the commish and hold onto the book into the future. At times a very high price book will be put on with no expectation of a sale but simply attempting to give the illusion of the value of the book".