Can this CJ really be Mint?

[HerbK]

30-Day Summary
Total bids: 158
Items bid on: 41
Bid activity (%) with this seller: 100% Help
Bid retractions: 0
Bid retractions (6 months): 0

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With regards to the bidding, I’m just throwing this out there – more really, to learn myself, than to challenge what’s being stated. If I’m reading the history properly, it would appear that the bidder in question (the one with the 41 bids on the particular seller), placed his/her last bid at 6:32 pm for $700.00 – and that’s it - we don’t hear from him again. Would it be reasonable to assume that a grade 9 Cracker Jack card would go for less than $700.... wouldn’t it be more reasonable to assume that this card would go for much more than $700.00...? The winning bid was placed at 8:58 pm (almost 2–1/2 hours later than the so-called shill bidder). If the shill bidder was active in the last few minutes of the auction – or was involved in the last few bids, then maybe – but such was not the case.

Don’t get me wrong, if the seller bid $1.00 on his own auction, that would be absolutely wrong, but in this case – I don’t see it.

Wouldn’t the seller have more to lose than gain (at least in this case)...? He had 5 unbelievably high grade Cracker Jack cards – there’s no question they were going to sell at a high price. Would you jeopardize your reputation for placing a bid which you’d have to know is going to be surpassed...? (so why place the bid?). Wouldn’t the seller be on the hook for auction fees for an item he sold (actually, bought) if he shilled too much...? Then if you’re stuck with it (after a shill bid win), then you’re stuck having to re-list it again. Doesn’t a re-listed item set off a red flag to everyone participating on eBay...? It sure causes me to raise an eyebrow.

Dunno... not questioning what has been stated here, but it just seems as though the potential negatives outweigh the potential benefits... at least in this case.

[bnorth]

Originally Posted by HerbK

30-Day Summary
Total bids: 158
Items bid on: 41
Bid activity (%) with this seller: 100% Help
Bid retractions: 0
Bid retractions (6 months): 0

-------------------------------------------------

With regards to the bidding, I’m just throwing this out there – more really, to learn myself, than to challenge what’s being stated. If I’m reading the history properly, it would appear that the bidder in question (the one with the 41 bids on the particular seller), placed his/her last bid at 6:32 pm for $700.00 – and that’s it - we don’t hear from him again. Would it be reasonable to assume that a grade 9 Cracker Jack card would go for less than $700.... wouldn’t it be more reasonable to assume that this card would go for much more than $700.00...? The winning bid was placed at 8:58 pm (almost 2–1/2 hours later than the so-called shill bidder). If the shill bidder was active in the last few minutes of the auction – or was involved in the last few bids, then maybe – but such was not the case.

Don’t get me wrong, if the seller bid $1.00 on his own auction, that would be absolutely wrong, but in this case – I don’t see it.

Wouldn’t the seller have more to lose than gain (at least in this case)...? He had 5 unbelievably high grade Cracker Jack cards – there’s no question they were going to sell at a high price. Would you jeopardize your reputation for placing a bid which you’d have to know is going to be surpassed...? (so why place the bid?). Wouldn’t the seller be on the hook for auction fees for an item he sold (actually, bought) if he shilled too much...? Then if you’re stuck with it (after a shill bid win), then you’re stuck having to re-list it again. Doesn’t a re-listed item set off a red flag to everyone participating on eBay...? It sure causes me to raise an eyebrow.

Dunno... not questioning what has been stated here, but it just seems as though the potential negatives outweigh the potential benefits... at least in this case.

All I will comment on this is there are several forms of shill bidding. Bidding the card up at the end and retracting the bid is only one form. There are also shill accounts that just throw out opening bids to get the auction started. Then there are also shill accounts that put in bids like the one shown in the example where they use them to add to the bid count and draw more interest to the auction.

On graded cards you can follow them pretty easily. I have seen one large seller on ebay shill the holy heck out of 3 different auctions using 3 different shill accounts and then amazingly a couple weeks later another large ebay seller has all 3 cards listed but consigned by 1 person.

My opinion is finding a large honest seller on eBay is like finding a real unopened pack of 52 Topps or a real Blue Willie Mays or Hank Aaron card. Yes they exist but are few and far between. When you are buying/selling/trading cards for a hobby it is easy to stay honest, when you and your employee's life style are dependent on buying/selling cards it becomes much harder to stay honest.