Ebay Shill bidding?

[Tim Zwick]

Originally Posted by Fballguy

A one off situation I could maybe understand. But every listing the guy puts out there? How does he know so quickly? Unless he spends his days and nights hitting the refresh button on his search results every 10 seconds, not sure how you'd accomplish that.

The hyperbole by some here has gotten off the tracks. Jon Richmond is a straight shooter and long-time hobby dealer that does not deserve this crap. A simple sampling of the 95 items he has listed on eBay right now shows this whole thread is much ado about nothing.

I just went through the first 20 items listed via the "Best Match" feature and EXACTLY TWO ITEMS had an initial bid by so-called "Shill Bidder 523" albeit it was within five minutes and 11 minutes of their original start times. Far from "every listing this guy puts out there." Plus the guy makes an initial bid and then never bids again. Not my definition of shilling by a long shot. I'm not going through them all, that's more than enough of a sample size for me.

I get near immediate offers or sell things very quickly that I list all the time as Howard mentioned earlier. No surprise there. People's eBay trolling habits are not my concern or worth my time. If people really want to get their panties in a bunch, why not show some concern about the actual heathens in this hobby in the other threads on the first page instead of these useless, trumped up accusations about an honest guy?

[Fballguy]

I'm not accusing him of shill bidding...I'm just wondering how someone gets alerted so quickly so consistently. I don't see much advantage in being the first bidder immediately after an item is listed in auction format, but if an item is put up with buy it now, that could come in handy.

And if you only found 2, how did I find 10? And I found many more than 10, I just got tired after 10. There is no way you looked at 20 and only found 2. 48% of this persons bids are with this seller and he placed nearly 200 bids in the last 30 days. You must've been very unlucky in your research.

[Tim Zwick]

Originally Posted by Fballguy

I'm not accusing him of shill bidding...I'm just wondering how someone gets alerted so quickly so consistently. I don't see much advantage in being the first bidder immediately after an item is listed in auction format, but if an item is put up with buy it now, that could come in handy.

And if you only found 2, how did I find 10? And I found many more than 10, I just got tired after 10. There is no way you looked at 20 and only found 2. 48% of this persons bids are with this seller and he placed nearly 200 bids in the last 30 days. You must've been very unlucky in your research.

Better think about changing the title then - first you're slamming an honest seller and now you're calling me a liar. Quite the shovel you've got there Rob. The link I used to eBay is at the top of this page - click the "see other items" link on the listing page to all his auction items (just taking the tools provided us). Check my work - it's 2 for 20, unless you're too tired.

Not sure what for and why do you care so much? He still bids once and never bids again on the two items I found. What's the big deal? Who knows, every once in awhile the guy may get lucky and win an item - no harm in that is there? I used to deliver to a store that had new eBay listings just rolling up on his computer as they were newly listed almost like a stock ticker. Don't know how he did it or how he had it set up like that, didn't really care. Apparently you do and are willing to tarnish an honest seller's reputation in the process.

[Fballguy]

Well Tim...This isn't my thread so not my title to change. If that's indicative of your attention to detail, I guess we know why you only found two.

If there's an app out there that would alert me as soon as my favorite sellers lists an item, I'd like to have that.

[swarmee]

The eBay app and website allow you to put sellers as part of your search terms on your feed, which they show most recent listings for all your saved searches:
https://www.ebay.com/feed

[Tim Zwick]

Originally Posted by Fballguy

Well Tim...This isn't my thread so not my title to change. If that's indicative of your attention to detail, I guess we know why you only found two.

If there's an app out there that would alert me as soon as my favorite sellers lists an item, I'd like to have that.

General statement Rob, never said it was your thread although you're clearly the one who has taken it in the direction it has went and run with it. By the way, you only found four current examples in your posted findings above. Again, much ado about nothing. Apparently reading comprehension and math are gifts not everyone enjoy.

[Fballguy]

So the original poster suspects shill bidding...but I took it in that direction? What direction did the original post take it then?

If you read my posts they're all in regards to how a bidder can find out about a listing so quickly...and how I can do the same. And what's the point of bidding so quickly? Maybe you should direct your outrage in the right "direction".

[Tim Zwick]

Originally Posted by Fballguy

So the original poster suspects shill bidding...but I took it in that direction? What direction did the original post take it then?

If you read my posts they're all in regards to how a bidder can find out about a listing so quickly...and how I can do the same. And what's the point of bidding so quickly? Maybe you should direct your outrage in the right "direction".

Geez Rob, comprehension is quite the challenge for you eh? You're giving that shovel some workout today. You see I am actually quite attentive to details and the OP's original question was basically answered in post #2 by Bobby for all intent and purposes. It was then that you chimed in and took the thread in another direction and have had the large majority of posts since (should that set off alarms like bidder 543?). The OP actually made his final post in the thread right after your original post, then you started on your mission to sully Mr. Richmond's reputation with this bogus snipe hunt about some guy you found that places mostly a lot of $1.00 and $1.05 opening bids on his items. Just what does this have to do with shill bidding anyway? Do you now comprehend? You changed the direction and basically brought another reason to light with your bogus theory for people to bring into question this seller.

You took dead aim at Mr. Richmond with your first post then expanded it even though you showed only four bids from bidder 543 of his current 95 items listed after your deep dive into bidding records until you got tired. Or were these the only current bids you could find? Doesn't matter. Opening bids such as these are harmless. Then after about 24 hours when no one was taking your bait you post some dribble about this "interesting bidding phenomenon" to try and stir some response to your conspiracy ideals. Then the final straw was earlier today when you made your crack about Mr. 543 bidding on "every listing the guy puts out there."

I don't opine often here but will when I see unwarranted character assassination and something like this take place. There are plenty of good eBay sellers here on Net54 that I would take the same position on and support them also. Look we learned in this thread both how bids can be made so quickly and also how to get recent listings quickly through an app feed (Thanks John!). As I said before, there are plenty of bad actors out there - why not concentrate your efforts where they're more useful instead of at an honest seller who's just collateral damage in your misguided trek?