Quote:
Originally Posted by vintagetoppsguy
I can understand why a bidder would do that based on what you're saying(although I think it's unethical). However, you have to realize how that makes you look as a seller. I beilve you, Dan, that you're not shilling your own items, but to an eBay bidder it may look otherwise.
I rarely sell anything on eBay anymore but, if I were a volume seller and I had bidders retracting their bids, I would ban them as bidders.
You have to look at this from a buyer's perspective. If I'm high bidder on an item and another bidder places multiple bids to expose my proxy and then retracts his last bid, to me I feel like I have been shilled up. When that happens to me as a bidder, I retract my bid as well because I think the seller is up to something.
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I've been in that very uncomfortable position of some wacko's crazy bidding strategy making me look bad as a seller several times. So far, it's worked out okay in that I was able to give enough information to whoever was accusing me of shill bidding to satisfy them that it was indeed just a wacko and not me, and I've actually gained a couple of good hobby friends over the course of working things out. In every case though, I banned the wacko from any further bidding, just as I would ban someone from my physical store who came in shouting "HEY HEY HEY HEY HEY HEY" at the top of their lungs the whole time and rubbed everyone's head as they left. Some things you just have to put a stop to because they are disruptive and make everyone uncomfortable, even if the wacko actually makes a purchase and technically hasn't broken any rules.