shill biddding or just me?
 

I juist won this lot and am happy to have won it until I look at the bid history. It looks like I was Shill bid against by a user whose had HUNDREDS of bid retractions in the last 6 months and nearly 100 in the last 30 days. I appreciate any feedback. Here is a link to the item:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=230690237541


Member Id: natcard( 4540) US $304.47 Oct-29-11 10:08:26 PDT Pay now
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Member Id: n***n( 3 ) US $299.47 Oct-29-11 12:06:59 PDT --
Member Id: natcard( 4540) US $297.51 Oct-29-11 10:06:20 PDT --
Member Id: n***n( 3 ) US $289.47 Oct-29-11 12:06:56 PDT --
Member Id: n***n( 3 ) US $277.47 Oct-29-11 12:06:52 PDT --
Member Id: n***n( 3 ) US $267.47 Oct-29-11 12:06:45 PDT --
Member Id: n***n( 3 ) US $257.47 Oct-29-11 12:06:38 PDT --
Member Id: n***n( 3 ) US $249.97 Oct-29-11 12:06:30 PDT --
Member Id: n***n( 3 ) US $244.97 Oct-29-11 12:06:29 PDT --
Member Id: n***n( 3 ) US $237.97 Oct-29-11 12:06:18 PDT --
Member Id: n***n( 3 ) US $232.97 Oct-29-11 12:06:17 PDT --
Member Id: n***n( 3 ) US $227.97 Oct-29-11 12:06:15 PDT --
Member Id: n***n( 3 ) US $222.97 Oct-29-11 12:06:05 PDT --
Member Id: n***n( 3 ) US $215.00 Oct-29-11 12:05:52 PDT --
Member Id: e***e( 224) US $210.00 Oct-29-11 10:07:30 PDT --
Member Id: e***e( 224) US $199.00 Oct-29-11 10:06:41 PDT --
Member Id: natcard( 4540) US $197.51 Oct-28-11 17:20:36 PDT --
Member Id: e***e( 224) US $170.00 Oct-28-11 13:47:30 PDT --
Member Id: natcard( 4540) US $155.55 Oct-26-11 14:33:52 PDT --
Member Id: e***e( 224) US $149.00 Oct-28-11 13:46:44 PDT --
Member Id: e***e( 224) US $144.00 Oct-28-11 13:46:33 PDT --
Member Id: e***e( 224) US $130.00 Oct-28-11 13:46:21 PDT --
Member Id: e***e( 224) US $125.00 Oct-25-11 22:02:53 PDT --
Member Id: natcard( 4540) US $122.22 Oct-25-11 18:31:16 PDT --
Member Id: e***e( 224) US $120.00 Oct-25-11 22:02:37 PDT --
Member Id: e***e( 224) US $110.00 Oct-25-11 22:02:23 PDT --
Member Id: e***e( 224) US $99.00 Oct-25-11 12:04:05 PDT --
Member Id: natcard( 4540) US $97.50 Oct-24-11 17:02:36 PDT --
Member Id: e***e( 224) US $90.00 Oct-25-11 12:03:47 PDT --
Member Id: e***e( 224) US $80.00 Oct-25-11 12:03:34 PDT --
Member Id: e***e( 224) US $70.00 Oct-25-11 12:03:19 PDT --

wow
 

In the last 30 days he bid on over 400 items, but only has a feedback of 3, with 0% positive and 73 retractions in 30 days. It doesn't look like he has bid with this seller until this auction. Maybe not shilling - just stupid.

good point!
 

Thanks for the opinion.

this is why I've turned to sniping program. initially I was resistant to the idea, cause in principle I shouldn't have to withhold my bid to the last moment, and partially cause I didn't like the idea of giving my ebay account information to a third party. but both for reasons of convenience (don't need to be at a computer at the time the auction ends) and to minimize impact of shill bidding, I've converted to using it nearly exclusively.
--S

I want to know how people like that arent banned by Ebay.

This is pretty blatant

Here is his bid time and retraction time. His reason for retracting was "cannot contact the seller". I'm not sure how hard he tried in those 19 seconds.
Bid: Oct-29-11 12:07:10 PDT
Retracted: Oct-29-11 12:07:29 PDT

IMO, it sure looks like shilling, but I suppose it just might be a lunatic bidder. I can understand hiding Ebay identities during the auction, but not afterwards.

I have not bid on items at an actual auction, so I have nothing to com pare, but with ebay sniping is a must!

I bid the very minimum I can to "mark" my item. This also gives me the opportunity to see who wins the auction if it's not me. Then, I set my snipe bid and wait.

If you lay your max bid out there for all to chip away at, or bid again and again to remain high bidder slowly driving the price up and up (I never understood this one), you are just asking to pay more than you need to. Now this is not something a seller wants to hear, but as bidders we all want the items as cheap as we can get them, right?

In your case, numerous bids and the winning bid placed well before the auction ended subjected you to a greater risk of losing and a much higher end price than necessary. Everytime you placed a high bid, first the one guy would chip away until he outbid you, then you'd bid again higher and he'd chip away at it. Later, 3 feedback guy did the same thing! Why keep letting them chip away at your bids. Wait and pay less!

Any chance this is just some idiot getting his kicks by running up auctions? Shilling to an extent. Not necessarily to benefit the seller(although it does indirectly), but just to be a dick?
Something seems off, and the bidder just seems like an a**hole.

I believe there are a fair number of people who just feel the need to be high bidder on auctions as long as possible. I have proven beyond doubt to myself that bidding early on an item is a waste of time (and money).

I bid early and my bid amount is almost always exceeded, often at small increments until the underbidder is top bidder. People have alerts available to them when they are outbid and jump right online and resume their position as the high bidder. It doesn't make sense to me, but you can't win that game and still get a bargain.

People seem to get more aggressive when there are bids already placed. Hold off and the activity isn't as great. In the end, auctions for good stuff are always won in the closing seconds anyways.