Another shill? You tell me.

[Bugsy]

42 bids on 23 items. 100% of the activity with this Power Seller. Oh, and feedback of 1.

http://offer.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.d...Buyer_ViewLink

[I Only Smoke 4 the Cards]

That looks like some BS.

[Runscott]

I always cringe when a '1' feedback i.d. bids on my items. If it turned out that they were bidding on many of my things, and ONLY my things, I would send them a message saying "Sorry" and cancel all their bids. You really can't allow that and retain trust from legitimate bidders.

[D. Bergin]

Unless he's retracting bids or not paying for items he's won, I really don't see the issue.

Everybody has to start somewhere, and sometimes it's as an introduction to Ebay from a seller they are already familiar with from doing off ebay deals with.

I certainly wouldn't start canceling bids unless I thought I was going to start getting stiffed by this guy.

It looks like this seller has over 4000 completed auctions in the last 15 days alone and another 2000+ active. I wouldn't be to concerned about 1 guy who has bids on 23 of those items over a 30 day period out there.

[Runscott]

Originally Posted by D. Bergin

Unless he's retracting bids or not paying for items he's won, I really don't see the issue.

Everybody has to start somewhere, and sometimes it's as an introduction to Ebay from a seller they are already familiar with from doing off ebay deals with.

I certainly wouldn't start canceling bids unless I thought I was going to start getting stiffed by this guy.

It looks like this seller has over 4000 completed auctions in the last 15 days alone and another 2000+ active. I wouldn't be to concerned about 1 guy who has bids on 23 of those items over a 30 day period out there.

That's probably all it is. Makes perfect sense - someone who's never used ebay contacts an ebay seller, does an offline deal, then bids exclusively on that seller's stuff, but now through ebay rather than offline. I get it.

[Bugsy]

I have never heard of any collector buying exclusively from one seller. I think it takes much less of a stretch in imagination to think a consignor is shilling his lots.

[D. Bergin]

Originally Posted by Bugsy

I have never heard of any collector buying exclusively from one seller. I think it takes much less of a stretch in imagination to think a consignor is shilling his lots.

If people are this concerned maybe they should contact the seller and see if he can match up the bids with a consignor.

Bid history only goes back 30 days. I still don't understand this shilling theory that says a buyer must spread his money throughout the entire ebay system evenly.

I don't know if this guy is a shiller or not, but you've never had a 30 day span you've only bought from one seller?

[Brent Huigens]

To all who have contributed to this thread:

First of all, I thank everyone for the detective work (honestly) and simply ask that folks PLEASE reach out to us directly when these concerns arise so we can act. Yes, we are members of Net54 but we do not follow the posts on a regular basis.

I do agree that the size of our auctions is no reason to avoid policing the bid, and we never have voiced this excuse. We are actively watching the bid but admittedly watch the higher dollar auctions more closely. Any help from the collecting community is greatly appreciated and we will respond to any flags which are forwarded.

In this case, the buyer in question did indeed participate with with only us for that month. These auctions were not manipulated in any way, and despite what some members think, we do have a good handful of buyers who bid largely with our auctions only and subsequently show 80%+ activity with only our user ID. The buyer was located in Singapore (we ship internationally) and they did buy 2 items in the #1 auction and have returned to buy another 5 items in our most recently #2 auction. Everything is legitimate.

What concerns me most is how negative things have become. Any time a curiosity is noticed, folks instantly jump to conspiracy. And for good reason... I do believe the hobby has some bad apples. That said, we are firmly against bid manipulation of any kind and are the only auction house (that I'm away are of) that actively policies their items and takes action against consignors if impropriety is noticed. Especially in recent years, we have tightened the ship considerably and can confidently say that our eBay auctions are the cleanest venue in the hobby.

Please, do not hesitate to reach out to me directly should any curious bidding behavior be noticed with any item in a future auction. Feel free to post any concerns to the Net54 board if you'd like... not trying to keep anything hidden. I just ask that we please be notified and given a chance to take action before an auction ends, which in our opinion is in everyone's best interest.

Brent Huigens
PWCC Auctions
brent@pwccauctions.com
510-725-7853

[jbbama]

There is so much of this going on at EBAY its sickening......EBAY could care less, it drives up there fees and they just look the other way. Anytime i see a cosignor auction, i just keep going. EBAY knew exactly what they were doing blocking bidder id's.

[Bored5000]

Originally Posted by jbbama

Anytime i see a cosignor auction, i just keep going. (

I completely understand the point you are making about the drawbacks of buying from consignors on eBay. The flipside, though, is that there are so many sketchy eBay sellers looking to rip buyers off through reprints, bait and switch, not shipping items, etc. that it has allowed the major consignors on eBay to flourish because people feel more comfotable buying from them.

I am not dismissing the problem of shilling with the consignor auctions, but there is just so much fraud or attempted fraud on eBay that people like PWCC and Probstein attract a sizable following for their auctions. At least when you buy from people like PWCC or Probstein, you know you are going to get what you paid for and what was advertised.

[MattyC]

Originally Posted by Bored5000

I completely understand the point you are making about the drawbacks of buying from consignors on eBay. The flipside, though, is that there are so many sketchy eBay sellers looking to rip buyers off through reprints, bait and switch, not shipping items, etc. that it has allowed the major consignors on eBay to flourish because people feel more comfotable buying from them.

I am not dismissing the problem of shilling with the consignor auctions, but there is just so much fraud or attempted fraud on eBay that people like PWCC and Probstein attract a sizable following for their auctions. At least when you buy from people like PWCC or Probstein, you know you are going to get what you paid for and what was advertised.

Exactly. There are many periods where I'll find myself only bidding with PWCC and Rick and maybe a few other sellers of quality cards. Does this make me a shill? Of course not. I just like to buy stuff I know is legit and will definitely arrive. If I have to trample on some owner's shill bid with a snipe to get what I want, so be it. As long as a friend or fake account can lob in a shill bid, there will always be shilling. If one doesn't want to bid on a given auction, one doesn't have to. Personally I find it very easy to ask myself what my max is and snipe accordingly, then just let the chips fall.

[HRBAKER]

Originally Posted by jbbama

There is so much of this going on at EBAY its sickening......EBAY could care less, it drives up there fees and they just look the other way. Anytime i see a cosignor auction, i just keep going. EBAY knew exactly what they were doing blocking bidder id's.

+1