Phantom Bidders on eBay

[jmillerdoc]

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

[exurbia]

Hi Jeff,
I have noticed the same thing and been outbid. Reporting him to ebay for shill bidding may be the answer. As this appears to be what is happening.
Peter.

[agent.5]

Originally Posted by jmillerdoc

I am curious if others out there have noticed this type of activity using this seller or others out the on eBay?

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.

[Wavebourn]

I suspected similar activity with another mass-sellers, but had no proof. But I decided not to show my interest until the last minute ends.

[marchel]

How can you be so sure that you were not beaten by a real bidder? Did you bid too low?

Fyi, I won a $99- buy it now price , for $34- from albert, I received it, and it works fine.

[Wavebourn]

Originally Posted by marchel

How can you be so sure that you were not beaten by a real bidder? Did you bid too low?

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.

[athos56]

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.

[pheonix358]

I always bid in the final seconds, just the way I like doing it. Doesn't give the other guy a chance. Effective too.

Terry

[boywonder]

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.

[budwiser]

I in fact know someone that does drive up bids on e-bay for a friend. If you do it right, and they have, you don't get stuck to often. I guess they learn who is hot for the items they sell from previous sales. And they work them. I've threatened to report them but its my word against theres