Quote:
Originally Posted by Snapolit1
Probstein has about 400,000 positive feedbacks. 14,000 in the last month alone. 78,000 in 6 mos. Often does 1000s of sales a day.
I think it's reasonable to assume that he has studied everyone's in the hobbys collecting habits, carefully evaluated what they are looking for, evaluated what the range of their potential bids are based on the condition of what they are looking for, and then deputized someone (or maybe more than one person) to shill bid to screw that person over. Yep, all 40,000 of the items he is currently selling he has done this analysis for.
Seems very reasonable. While this level of due diligence far surpasses anything our IRS of CIA is capable of doing, I wouldn't put it by this guy.
Seems a little ridiculous to believe this, no?
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I've always thought that the problem lies not with Probstein (or an agent of his) shilling his auctions, but rather the consignor or their agent bidding up an item that they are selling through Probstein. A difficult tactic to police on Probstein's part especially with the number of auctions he has going at any one time. Much easier to just turn a blind eye and plausibly deny any knowledge. And this way everyone - Ebay, Probstein, and the consignor all make more bank. Why kill the golden goose?