A suspect pattern isn't always shilling.
I was the underbidder on a cycling jersey from the 48 olympics, but got a second chance offer about a half hour after it ended. The pattern looked like a clasic shill. Newish bidder, all activity with the one seller. (Sound familiar?)
I decided to let the second chance offer go till later, but not to report anything.
About a month and a half later a second jersey was offered by the same seller. The first one had stains from poor storage. The second one didn't.
I won the second one for a good deal less than the first sold for.
I checked the other bidder again just to see if the pattern held.
Nope, over the weeks in between they had bid on stuff from about 20 different sellers winning about 25% of the time.
The seller was the son of the rider in 48 and had raced himself in 64. And his grandfather raced in the 28 olympics. I've picked up some other great stuff from him, and I'm very glad I didn't accuse him of shilling.
Steve B
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