Question about detecting shilling

[itjclarke]

I've seen shill bidding pop up often in various threads. It's clearly a problem, and seems both hard to enforce while fairly simple/easy to execute.

My question- where do you draw the line when suspecting shilling is occurring? I'm viewing an auction now.. a bidder with 800+ feedback, shows 38% bidding activity with this seller. The bidder has bid 15-20 times on this single auction.. each time inching the price up in $5-$10 increments, but never taking the lead. Rather than bidding in round amounts ending in $0 or $5, their bids all seem to end in $2, $7 (like $422, then $427). I won't name the seller as they're feedback is impeccable, and I've bought happily from them before (seems easier to tarnish a hard earned rep than build or re-build one)... but is this suspicious? And more importantly, what % bidding activity raises your radar.. 75%, 50%, 35%, 25%??? or is this even the key indicator?

Any advice greatly appreciated.

[iggyman]

I'm not sure what the correct percentage should be, so that is a tough one. Shill bidding seems to occurs at all levels of the hobby and no one is immune! Sometimes shills happen in ways that are impossible to detect (like someone winning their own card just to drive up the VCP average price). It's part of the prewar playing field and at the end of a long siesta, bid what you are willing to pay, don't get paranoid about perceived shills, try to stay clear of attic finds, if you have little trust in mankind try to only bid with reputable sellers ("iggy-man" is my ebay handle), and enjoy the card once you win..........best advice I can give for what little money Leon is paying me.

Lovely Day...

[itjclarke]

I'd never even thought to check for it until seeing how prominently shilling is mentioned in posts. That said, totally agree, no sense getting too paranoid. I'm not sure I've ever bid/paid more than I was originally "willing" to spend (willing is a loose term). I do think there may have been a few auctions, where I've paid nearer the FULL amount of my bid, watching that gap between "current bid" and my bid close in the last second, than I'd have liked... but all in all, as long as I'm not paying hugely over the market, or what I was originally planning to, I guess I won't worry too much.

Thanks for the feeback

[deadballera]

All bidders have their own bidding style

Some do small increment bids while others do larger


some bid in 5/10 dollar increments and other will use odd numbers.


shill bidders majority of the time will have very low feedback numbers

[camlov2]

I don't think I have ever used a bid that is a "normal" amount, all of mine end in a 1, 3, 7 and never a 0 or 5. I don't think this or the small increments mean it is a shill.
38% seems a little high for a single seller but if you find one person you trust I can understand the repeat business. With 800+ that seems like a lot of repeat business.

[D. Bergin]

The 38% is only for the last 30 days, not for their entire bidding history. It's not unusual at all.

I have yet to understand the theory that anybody who doesn't evenly spread their bids all over Ebay in a 30 day period, must be a shiller.

The biggest hints to me would be a low feedback bidder, with tons of bids with exclusively the same seller, lots of bid retractions and 2nd chance offers being sent out by the seller, almost immediately after the auction.

Maybe I'm naive, but I think more highly of most of the quality sellers on Ebay to think they'd waste their time and reputation with such shenanigans.

I'm not saying it doesn't happen, but it seems all too common for charges of shilling to be flippantly made, without care of the damage it might do to an honest seller.

Bidders are all different and take different paths. Any seller who has done it on a regular basis for any amount of time sees strange bidding patterns on their items all the time.