1964 topps tatoos shill bidding galore bassik and morris

[gregmorris818]

I am very disappointed and upset to read the comments this evening suggesting that I am engaging in shill bidding. This is absolutely false. I welcome the opportunity to discuss this issue with anyone who would like to contact me directly. I can be reached at 818.517.1612 or gregmorris818@gmail.com. I have detailed back-up information that I can provide upon request demonstrating that the individual in question is not a shill bidder. It seems inappropriate to post information about a specific individual in this public forum, which is why I request that interested individuals contact me directly so we can speak.

[bnorth]

Originally Posted by gregmorris818

I am very disappointed and upset to read the comments this evening suggesting that I am engaging in shill bidding. This is absolutely false. I welcome the opportunity to discuss this issue with anyone who would like to contact me directly. I can be reached at 818.517.1612 or gregmorris818@gmail.com. I have detailed back-up information that I can provide upon request demonstrating that the individual in question is not a shill bidder. It seems inappropriate to post information about a specific individual in this public forum, which is why I request that interested individuals contact me directly so we can speak.

30-Day Summary
Total bids: 3727
Items bid on: 719
Bid activity (%) with this seller: 95% Help
Bid retractions: 25
Bid retractions (6 months): 184
I see the bidder has retracted the bid from the auction in question. I for one would love to hear an explanation for the above bidding pattern if it is not a shill account. Let me also add at this point I am not calling you a shiller. The problem I see is when I pull up your completed auctions and go through bid histories there are several accounts with the same type of bid history as the one shown.
I also understand from PM's from other members this is a new thing in your auctions. If you do not want to answer were everyone can see your explanation please PM me.

[brewing]

I have seen Greg Morris cards consistenly get the highest prices, for no apparent reason. While I have made about 10 purchases over the past few years. Suspicion of shilling has made me either ignore his auctions or bail out quickly the past year.
Brent I ngr@m

[vintage954]

Originally Posted by gregmorris818

I am very disappointed and upset to read the comments this evening suggesting that I am engaging in shill bidding. This is absolutely false. I welcome the opportunity to discuss this issue with anyone who would like to contact me directly. I can be reached at 818.517.1612 or gregmorris818@gmail.com. I have detailed back-up information that I can provide upon request demonstrating that the individual in question is not a shill bidder. It seems inappropriate to post information about a specific individual in this public forum, which is why I request that interested individuals contact me directly so we can speak.

As a consistent buyer in your auctions, I think that you should post any information HERE. I purchase the majority of my set building from you and I think that the least you can do is post the info on here and not over the phone. Honestly, I hope its not true but time will tell.
I will say that your auctions are accurate, you ship your cards well, and you ship fast. Big bonus

[Republicaninmass]

I would agree with an earlier statement that someone made saying Greg has a cult following.

Especially from his consignors

[ALR-bishop]

I have never sold anything on ebay, but I have been an active buyer for some time. Over that time I have seen ebay go from a venue that heavily favored sellers to one that completely favors buyers. And I have come to see there are a lot of nutty buyers out there

If you are a big volume seller, I can believe that you might have some fanatically loyal customers. What do you do if you have a guy who regularly buys a lot of stuff from you and bids in a bunch of auction he does not win, and even retracts a lot of bids in those auctions ...and the guy is not a consignor. I guess you could block him since he might be making you look bad, but if he in fact has bought a bunch of stuff from you on an ongoing basis he could then drop a bunch of negatives on you in retaliation, and you lose his ongoing business

I do not know what the actual facts are here, but a lot of folks seem happy with this seller, and it seems like several big volume sellers have generated similar scrutiny on this board and others over time.

Makes me glad I do not sell on ebay . It would likely drive me to homicide

[gregmorris818]

The bidder has been blocked. Here are his responses to me.

[nolemmings]

If you are a big volume seller, I can believe that you might have some fanatically loyal customers. What do you do if you have a guy who regularly buys a lot of stuff from you and bids in a bunch of auction he does not win, and even retracts a lot of bids in those auctions ...and the guy is not a consignor. I guess you could block him since he might be making you look bad, but if he in fact has bought a bunch of stuff from you on an ongoing basis he could then drop a bunch of negatives on you in retaliation, and you lose his ongoing business

You are exactly right Al, and once again Larry has shown that he does not know much if anything about shilling. It would be nice to examine the so-called shiller's bid on that item Larry linked, but he has retracted everything, no doubt out of anger, since his bids topped out at $48 (I was watching) and the auction is at $312 with four days to go. Looks like now he'll even have more retractions.

So let's see. The top bidder in Larry's "smoking gun" auction has bid 1% with gregmorris cards, the under-bidder has bid 2% with him, and the third-place bidder has 0% bids with the seller--yes that's right, so few of his total bids that it registers as zero. These three are at present slugging it out with several days to go. Which one or more of these is in the "network" of shillers that seller uses to jack up his prices? Seriously. Oh but wait, some nutty bidder put in twenty something bids on the second day of the auction that topped out at $48.00, then stopped bidding altogether. That's your shiller? That's artificially jacking the price up how? When several others have bid 4, 5, 7X that amount and there are still days left on the auction?

Now if this guy bid $325 and then retracted it just so he could see where the top bid was and then re-bid just under that to max out the "honest" bidder, you might have something. But there's no evidence that this is what happened here or anywhere that I've been shown. In fact, that is the type of thing that could and likely would be called to the seller's attention by those at the top, at which point seller could block that bidder. But for mickey-mouse bidding that tops out at 15 or 20% of the final hammer price, it's doubtful that retractions in that range are noticed by or matter to most people, other than those who apparently feel it their duty to bitch and call people crooks without any substantial proof.

BTW, I just saw where the lowest bidder in Larry's "smoking gun" auction bid 9 times in about 11 seconds, topping out at $5.54. He has tons of retractions. Is he another shill? I mean running the price up to five and half bucks on an item that will sell for a few hundred dollars is dastardly and must be the work of some gregmorris henchman, right?

[vintagetoppsguy]

I do not believe any shill bidding was going on. That said, I still think Greg made the right decision to block the bidder. His bidding behavior (25 times in one auction) along with his 179 bid retractions just doesn't look good, good customer or not. It was the right thing to do.

It's kind of like if you owned a brick and mortar store and you had one customer (even a good customer) that always had really bad body odor and the other customers complained because of the smell. Do you get rid of the "problem" customer to appease the other customers even though the "problem" customer really hasn't done anything wrong? I would. It may be a silly example, but my point is sometimes you have to get rid of one customer to keep the rest of your customers happy.

Greg made the right decision in getting rid of a "problem" customer even if he really wasn't doing anything technically wrong, so as to not make the situation look bad to his other customers. Right move IMO.