Hi, I was wondering if anybody has run across problems with phantom bidders with the particular eBay seller tzeng_albert. Seems every time I think I am going to get a good deal, always about 1-2 hours before the bid closes I get somebody outbidding me. The problem is, this happens quite alot with this seller and this time I checked the bid history....the bidder had over 90% of his activity with this one seller. Sounds a bit strange to me. 90% of the past 200 or so purchases with the same seller. I have concluded this seller is using a phantom bidder to run the prices up on his products. I am curious if others out there have noticed this type of activity using this seller or others out the on eBay?
Thanks,
Jeff
Thanks,
Jeff
I don't know about this seller but shill biddings are rather common on Ebay. The best way for you to do is to use a sniper program, pre-determine the highest price that you are willing to pay, program it to snipe with 5 - 6 seconds left on the auction. You either get it or not. Either way, it is no big deal as another auction will come along. You do not want to show your hand by bidding earlier than within a few seconds left.
Are you asking me?
There were bids several minutes before the end on items I bid when they started, but still no bids on items with no bids.
When I stopped showing my interest until last seconds nobody tried to get over.
Such a way I suspected that something is going wrong, and stopped showing my interest until last seconds. It works.
My tactic
The problem with e-bay is the "well 5 dollars more isn't to much" mentality. Before you know it you've spent 40 or 50 bucks to much. I only get "buy it now" items. But if its not available for "buy it now" I bid the max amount I'm willing to pay as soon as I see the item and don't rebid. If I see the same item go up again after the initial sale I never buy from that seller again. Outside of that, I always check the feedback. Crooks have large numbers of sales to small numbers of buyers.
The problem with e-bay is the "well 5 dollars more isn't to much" mentality. Before you know it you've spent 40 or 50 bucks to much. I only get "buy it now" items. But if its not available for "buy it now" I bid the max amount I'm willing to pay as soon as I see the item and don't rebid. If I see the same item go up again after the initial sale I never buy from that seller again. Outside of that, I always check the feedback. Crooks have large numbers of sales to small numbers of buyers.
I have a lot of experience selling on ebay (2000+ items over the last 8 years) and I'm struggling with the concept of phantom bidders or shills. The reason is that the seller has to fork over final value fees (which are a percentage of the final price) when an item successfully sells in addition to the listing fees. I never use reserves since I feel that it's a waste of everyone's time and cost more ebay fees; this is the only scenario that I can even remotely see that these shenanigans would be worth it, to get the reserve met. I also know that ebay monitors IP addresses, since more than once when I have been travelling for work and listing items from other states (in hotels, etc) they have called me to confirm that I am indeed listing items for sale.
When I am bidding on an item, I use the same method as mentioned by agent.5, go in as high as you are willing to go, with less than 10 seconds left in the auction. You'll either get the item for your bid amount or less (due to the proxy bid system) or someone else wins the auction because they are willing to pay more than you. This has worked very well for me for years.
If you are suspecting that the "phantom bidder" is in cahoots with the seller in 90% of his auctions, the seller is shelling out lots of cash to ebay for nothing.
When I am bidding on an item, I use the same method as mentioned by agent.5, go in as high as you are willing to go, with less than 10 seconds left in the auction. You'll either get the item for your bid amount or less (due to the proxy bid system) or someone else wins the auction because they are willing to pay more than you. This has worked very well for me for years.
If you are suspecting that the "phantom bidder" is in cahoots with the seller in 90% of his auctions, the seller is shelling out lots of cash to ebay for nothing.
Last edited:
Wow....there was alot more response to my question than I anticipated. Sounds like there is some sort of program that will bid for you up to the last few seconds of the auction. I beleive somebody called it a "sniper" program. I would like to learn more about this. Please give me a website I can refer to if you would. That sounds like the best way to go. Well, thanks for the feedback, at least now I know I am not just imagining things. It would have been hard for me to believe my competing bidder does 90%+ business with Tzeng.....
Thanks,
Jeff
Thanks,
Jeff
Just a quick follow up....I sent an anonymous message to Tzeng_whateverhisnameis just after I suspected this was happening. The suspected shill bidder bid 28c higher than me. I told him I thought I was on to him and I was reporting him to eBay and to this forum, I even posted him the address to this thread. I went ahead and bid one more time for 50c more and I ended up winning against my opponent bidder.....go figure. I won 8 nice Nichicon 100uF 450v caps for about $8.00 (if you were interested). I think I will do this again if I suspect this is what is happening.
Jeff
Jeff
Jeff: Are you clear on how ebay proxy bidding works? The winning bidder may have bid $2.00 more than you but if the bid increment is 25 cents then in this case the final bid will be 25 cents higher than your bid if you are the second highest bidder.
"If you are suspecting that the "phantom bidder" is in cahoots with the seller in 90% of his auctions, the seller is shelling out lots of cash to ebay for nothing."
Exactly,
And also , If one has not won a bid, One should not suspect phantom bidder, Cause somebody might have wanted the item more badly than you do, Or you may have bid too low.
Otherwise, It's the seller's loss, everytime a phantom bidder wins.
Exactly,
And also , If one has not won a bid, One should not suspect phantom bidder, Cause somebody might have wanted the item more badly than you do, Or you may have bid too low.
Otherwise, It's the seller's loss, everytime a phantom bidder wins.
Last edited:
Its worth reporting as Ebay will investigate and if it represents their main market a three month ban will hurt alot. Ebay will find it fairly easy to discover the truth by looking through their history. You have nothing to lose and it will make Ebay a better place.
I have found Ebay has got better at following up complaints - unfortunately they don't tell you the outcome.
Shoog
I have found Ebay has got better at following up complaints - unfortunately they don't tell you the outcome.
Shoog
No, it's cleverer than that.
You get a friend to bump up the bids, they can make an account and say they're from any country etc.
When your friend "wins" an auction, you don't bother with the money or goods, just put it back up on the auction. And 50p loss every auction to make some serious extra cash sometimes is worth it imho.
Chris
Marchel,
The bid history of my opponent bidder ">90%" with this seller is not a fantasized percent.....it is available for all to see if they click on the bid history then click on this bidder. It clearly tells you his business activity is >90% with this seller. I also find it strange that there are the same items with absolutely no bids going in to expiration. Why bid against me when you could bid on an item that hasen't even been bid on yet. For instance, the item I bid on had an opening bid of $1.99, I placed a maximum of $8.03 (I misspoke earlier when I said 28c higher, it was 25c higher bringing the shil bid to $8.28).....why not bid on the same item at $1.99???? Why bid against me??? There was the exact same item available with no one bidding thus, the opponent could have had the item for less with no competition.
Anyway, thanks for the info on proxy bidding, I had heard of it but never took the time to investigate. I don't do too much business with eBay anyway. Every now and then when I am bored and thinking of a new project I will search around there to see if I can get a good deal. Usually I find it less of a hassle to go straight to a good source such as Digikey or Farnell or similar.
Thanks again for the input.
Jeff
The bid history of my opponent bidder ">90%" with this seller is not a fantasized percent.....it is available for all to see if they click on the bid history then click on this bidder. It clearly tells you his business activity is >90% with this seller. I also find it strange that there are the same items with absolutely no bids going in to expiration. Why bid against me when you could bid on an item that hasen't even been bid on yet. For instance, the item I bid on had an opening bid of $1.99, I placed a maximum of $8.03 (I misspoke earlier when I said 28c higher, it was 25c higher bringing the shil bid to $8.28).....why not bid on the same item at $1.99???? Why bid against me??? There was the exact same item available with no one bidding thus, the opponent could have had the item for less with no competition.
Anyway, thanks for the info on proxy bidding, I had heard of it but never took the time to investigate. I don't do too much business with eBay anyway. Every now and then when I am bored and thinking of a new project I will search around there to see if I can get a good deal. Usually I find it less of a hassle to go straight to a good source such as Digikey or Farnell or similar.
Thanks again for the input.
Jeff
- Status
- This old topic is closed. If you want to reopen this topic, contact a moderator using the "Report Post" button.