Posted By:
scgaynorI have some experience in this area so I will throw in my two cents. For about a year I ran about 50-100 private auctions per month on ebay. I recently stopped, but only for a change of pace and to see if there was a significant change in bidding habits (there has not been). I may very well resume using them in the future.
One thing to keep in mind is that there are some bidder who will ONLY bid in private auctions. It has been my experience that people who have some of the nicest collections, don't like to advertise the fact that they have nice collections, and are very discreet in their bidding.
I would advise using private auctions on items where there is a close knit group of collectors who don't like to bid against each other. I had a problem in the past with collectors of high end Cuban cards colluding with each other to keep the prices low. When I began posting them using the private auction feature, they were bidding against each other with out the others knowlege and the prices were more realisitic.
I am sure that shill bidding is a problem with many sellers using the Private auction feature, but the only thing that you can be sure of by not bidding in a private auction, is that you won't win.