I've been trying to think of a way a large volume seller could monitor their auctions or proactively discourage shilling without resorting to measures that would turn off nearly all their consignors.
Automating a system to catch the obvious ones afterward isn't hard. And should probably be done. Not much in prevention, but at 10K auctions a month it's entirely possible that the person writing the checks and the person shipping the item aren't the same person. And probably aren't checking for problems.
I think that they might discourage some of the more blatant shills by stating the ebay name of the consignor if there is one. That would eliminate the obvious since the person wouldn't want to shill if the info was plainly available.
Someone more subtle would probably be hard to catch. It's a pretty trivial thing to ask a friend to bid on an item. I've never sone it as a shill, but I have had friends snipe stuff for me while I was on vacation, and have bought stuff for a friend who has a bad enough relationship with one seller that if he bids the seller pulls the item or makes up a reason not to ship it.
I just can't think of any way to track that.
I've also had at least one experience where it really looked like shilling. Nearly unique item, I was the underbidder and got a second chance offer within 5 minutes of the end. The winner had less than 20 feedback and 100% with that seller. I passed on the second chance offer and eventually won the second of the two items which was actually nicer for less about a month later. (1948 US olympic cycling team jersey - race worn, and from the son of the racer who himself raced in 64)
I don't spend a lot of time worrying about it. But then, most of my purchases are under $100, usually way under. And often under $10. Not much there for a shiller.
Steve B
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