PWCC & eBay - help us improve the hobby

[nolemmings]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

With due respect, ebay doesn't give a damn. I have reported completely obvious shills when there was no possible innocent explanation (to be clear, not on any PWCC auction), and they politely did nothing.

That's because you've never been very persuasive

[Peter_Spaeth]

Touche.

[calvindog]

"Doug, Your honesty is refreshing, but I'm concerned with the Mastro bidding policy."

2007

[swarmee]

Another recommendation: list a consignor's number/identifier on every card you list. That way bidding patterns from consignor's shill bidding accounts can be readily identified. If f****9 (258) is always bidding on consignor #456's cards but nobody elses, you have a very likely shill bidding account.

"Unlike proprietary auction software, eBay's platform is equally transparent to both the buyer and the seller."

This is copied from your listings. I disagree with your statement, since eBay is constantly finding ways to remove the ability to detect shill bidding accounts or problem bidders/sellers, first by removing full bidding identifiers, and secondly by replacing/improving negative feedback ratings for no reason.

[111gecko]

Bought multiple high end cards from Brent and he has sold a number of items for me over the years.

Class act as far as I am concerned....

[glchen]

Originally Posted by swarmee

Another recommendation: list a consignor's number/identifier on every card you list. That way bidding patterns from consignor's shill bidding accounts can be readily identified. If f****9 (258) is always bidding on consignor #456's cards but nobody elses, you have a very likely shill bidding account.

"Unlike proprietary auction software, eBay's platform is equally transparent to both the buyer and the seller."

This is copied from your listings. I disagree with your statement, since eBay is constantly finding ways to remove the ability to detect shill bidding accounts or problem bidders/sellers, first by removing full bidding identifiers, and secondly by replacing/improving negative feedback ratings for no reason.

I like the suggestion of providing the consigner number. About your second part, I think what Brent is saying is that ebay is still more transparent than major auction houses. At least you have a rough idea of the bidder id even if its mostly scrambled. You have no clue for major auction houses. It'd be nice if major auction houses also followed this, where they provide the consigner id with each lot, and then provide full bidder id for every one who bids on a lot with a % of how often the bidder bids with the same consigner. I doubt that will ever happen however.

For ideas to forward to ebay, I would ask them to unscramble the bidder and feedback id's so that it's easier to detect shilling. I'd also ask ebay to allow an option where you can ban bidders who have a over certain # of retractions. Then I would say PWCC should ban bidders who have over 5 retractions.

For detecting shilling, it's a lot of work, so I would say, don't look for it yourself. However, ask the community to look for shilling in your auctions, and then if someone thinks they see something then look into it. I think this would allow others to do a lot of the work for you. If a consigner is proven to have shilled, then ban the consigner.

[swarmee]

Another topic for your eBay meetings: inform them of battlefield selling sports cards that are creased/chipped/otherwise damaged and editing those out of the pictures they post to eBay. Tell them that it has been going on for years and yet battlefield continues to sell cards. Tell them that sellers that have a high number of returns for issues like this should be banned, and that their negative feedbacks/DSRs should not just disappear in the name of "Protecting their selling accounts."

battlefield's improved scans amounted to fraud. Check out the most recent thread concerning T206s and T205s, but notice that the thread also discussed actions from 3-4 years ago with the same seller.

http://www.net54baseball.com/showthr...ht=battlefield

[glchen]

Another thing about shilling. What seems to occur sometime is that the seller has a friend (or another account) do the bidding for him, and then if the other account wins, he just cancels the transaction. Not sure if this already occurs, but cancelling the transaction if it's due to the buyer should count similarly to a bid retraction. Cancelling it due to the seller should be a strike, and as part of a seller's DSR, ebay should show how many cancelled transactions.

Other things for the ebay meeting may be to see how ebay can match auction houses in certain respects. For example, one reason that some sellers are afraid of using ebay where the auctions start at 99 cents is due to fear that the "right" eyes won't see the auction. Perhaps allow auctions of greater length to match what auction houses do such as 14 days or even 21 days or perhaps even auction previews where buyers can see listings ever before they can start bidding. Also perhaps allow sellers to have the option of ending lots using the 15 or even 30 minute rule that auction houses have where if there is a bid during the "extended" time of the auction, the auction is extended another 15 or 30 minutes. I know a lot of ebay buyers won't like this b/c they use snipe services, but that could be a decent option for some sellers.

[wonkaticket]

Originally Posted by calvindog

"Doug, Your honesty is refreshing, but I'm concerned with the Mastro bidding policy."

2007

Chuckle