Question on eBay Auctions
 

Here is the hypothetical case:

I create an auction and partner with a shill bidder - Bill

Someone legitimately bids $50 as their first bid, Bill then bids $100 and becomes high bidder at $51. He now retracts his bid and submits a new bid for 49.

Question: Can this happen on eBay?

Reason I ask - just sent a lot off to a consignment house and I was surprised a simple Google search returns so many hits pointing to posts which I would consider to be negative about the same consignment house - the common theme seems to be shill bids, bid retractions, etc. stuff which I knew could happen in theory, but never really bothered me because I'm always using my judgement, if I learn something new, then I apply it next time and take the bad experience as a lesson. (there will always be someone trying to scam and cheat - CNBC made a show about it). Thanks!

P.S. I've never retracted a bid, but I would think your eBay rating would take a hit for that, no?

He could retract the bid, but he wouldn't be able to enter the new bid of $49 because it would be less than the current bid of $50...

Thanks D.P - I'm not so sure though....

If the first and only bid is $50 and the starting bid was .99 (99 cents), if there was only one bidder at 50, the auction shows 99 cents until someone "pushes up" that bid. So once the $100 is retracted, I would think the current leading bid goes back down to 99 cents. If the shill bidder now placed a bid at 49, the legitimate bidder would become the high bidder at 50. So the shill drove up the price, but avoided winning.

Anyway, this is just my example - interested in hearing real stories on why people get concerned when they click on a bidder and it shows a high percentage of bids with same seller and a high number of retractions - just trying to work it out in my head. Thanks.

Yes, the way you explained it in your second post is correct...There are quite a few posts on this board regarding shill billing and bid retractions...

Thanks, wanted to make sure I had it straight. I appreciate it.

I know a lot of board members strongly hold the opposite view, but I find myself on the side of not expecting the consignor to police their auctions. I would think they have enough to deal with. eBay should be the ones doing the policing in my opinion.

I hear what you're saying, but there are quite a few buyers who won't bid with certain sellers when they find out they're not actively policing their auctions. It becomes a moral/ethical thing for the buyers. Anyway, it sounds like you're already aware of all this so there's no need to preach to the choir. Good luck with your consignments...

I agree that eBay should enforce the rules they say they have in place.