Just sad. No, not sad. Pathetic.

[T206Collector]

Originally Posted by the 'stache

But if I should have gotten the card for less, why should I be even remotely ok with paying more?

My view is that you would not have gotten the card for less if shilling had been prevented, because the seller would not have listed his card in an auction in the first place. Or he would have set a hidden reserve, or a higher minimum bid.

The reason ebay is filled with BINs is because most sellers don't want to have to shill to get their prices. But they're not going to list their items as pure auctions because they are afraid of letting a clean market dictate the price of the item. A price point set by a triggered BIN has the propensity to be just as misleading as a price point set by shill bidders.

Frankly, I think a buyer has a false sense of security if he thinks when he bids in an auction that there are only bona fide bidders competing against him.