As a long-time Ebay seller I'd like to think most of these accusations of shilling are just buyer paranoia. I'm sure it does go on here and there, but as someone who has run thousands of auctions over the years, I would hope I'm not in the minority in thinking my reputation is more important then running up an item a few extra dollars with a fake account.
What sniping has done is drive the price down in many areas, because not nearly as many bidding wars go on as used to. I remember the good old days of Ebay selling, before bidding ID's became private, in watching two bidding competitors who you know didn't like each other, drive up the price of an item throughout the course of the week.
As a seller, I would love for Ebay to make bidders identities public again. Would end all these constant accusations of every seller on Ebay shilling up their auctions, and might bring back a little competitive spirit between bidding rivals. Not as much as before because of sniping software, but enough to get the juices flowing, I think.
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