This exactly.

When the opening bid price is 99 cents, and the seller has as varied and eclectic material as Jon does, there are bound to be any number of bidders waiting in the weeds for his next round of listings. That one of them catches them within minutes of new listings appearing is not all that surprising to me (I have been OCD enough to do so with sellers' listings by refreshing their store page over and over on days I knew them to be listing, and it wouldn't surprise me to learn that there are apps that would do the same and send an alert when new items populate). When the starting price is low, it can be easier to place an initial bid on all the items one is interested in than to "Watch" them. I have done this as well with various sellers over the years, particularly when my Watch List nears being maxed out (there is a limit to how many items you can "watch", but there is no limit to how many items you can bid on).

Incidentally, while it's been a while since I've bought from Jon, I have dealt with him a number of times over the years. I'm typically looking for deals to re-sell later, and there are bound to be some from time to time when everything starts at 99 cents. If he was shilling me at any point, he was doing it wrong :rolleyes: He always seems to take the "you win some, you lose some" attitude when selling, and continues to grind out auction after auction, all with the same 99-cent starting price that I wish I had the guts to emulate (cuts down on lingering backstock!) While I too have never met him in person, I have never had reason to suspect Jon of any wrongdoing. Ebay bidders can be weird, plain and simple, and it seems unfortunate to me that an odd bidder is causing anyone to doubt Jon's business ethics in this case.

There is lots of spirited comment but more importantly thoughtfulness and knowledge in this thread. So in an effort to make more clear if shill bidding is occurring lets dig a little deeper. As a group lets take a look at a product not a specific seller or buyer and see if there are notable patterns. I propose we collectively go to ebay, watch and then review biding history for the auction of "1989 Upper Deck Ken Griffey Jr PSA 10". A week of observation should do it.

Shill Bidding
 

I've also had many transactions with the seller identified and have had all good experiences. The seller does have a knack of acquiring interesting vintage lots and consistently starts them with low openers. The fact his lots open quickly probably reflects the size of his following of ebay buyers and that a 99 cent opener makes it easy for bidders to mark the lot and later get to it quickly in their Bids summary for further bidding. I do think it is critical that the ebay community at large is vigilant about shill bidding so it's good that we have these discussions and keep eyes open. Back in 1999 or 2000 I think shill bidding was a factor. At that time, I remember the gossip about two local card show dealers who had a shill bidding arrangement on ebay. Given the ease with which shady people can become sellers, vigilance is a must. In any case we can prevent ourselves from being victimized by always reserving the right to walk away when another bidder is trying to take us where we do not want to go.

Not saying anything about the OP or the seller here but...

Early bidding is a strategy, just like sniping. Say it starts at 0.99 and you immediately bid $50 for a card that typically sells for $60. All the incremental bids come along, they get frustrated after awhile and drop out.

A friend of mine bids early on cards from the 60s and 70s and wins quite a few of them. I did this on a few T206 commons I kept losing on snipes and won a handful.


It CAN work.

Hey, congrats on your first post, and welcome to net54!

Your post was on the mark, as the uber-early bidding strategy is most likely a "marker" or just his way to "watch" an item. I really doubt that it's an earnest attempt to win anything. The particular "early-bid guy" in question doesn't place bids of a caliber that would ever win anything. So it must be his way of "watching" or some other odd motive.

As for Shill Bidding... it certainly was not limited to 1999/2000. It's been going strong ever since, and shows no sign of slowing down. Ebay does nothing about it, and any legitimate complaints simply fall on deaf ears. Doing something about it might actually hurt their bottom-line. :rolleyes:

Yep, eBay could easily go back to the old days of having visible bidder screennames, and that would reduce the likelihood of shill bidding. But they'd also have to crack down on the number of accounts per household, bid retractions, and failures to pay. Three things they barely do, or pay lip service to.

Yeah...It's definitely a marker of some kind but I disagree with those that say it's an effective way to watch an item if you seriously want to win it. I've bid on items and then forgot to put them in my watch list and missed out because of it. You don't get the 15 minute warning if it's not in your watch list.

Unless you've maxed out your watch list which I believe is 200 items, I don't see the point.

And that being said...I still haven't figured out how to bid within 56 seconds of an item being listed. That must be an ebay record.

I guess I’d just chalk that up to the bidder happening to be online when the item is listed. I know (recently, too) I’ve picked up items because I happened to be scrolling through new listings and was the first to see a card that hadn’t been there a couple minutes ago.