Shill Bidding defined

[steve B]

Originally Posted by Leon

My comment was meant to address the legality of shill bidding on ehay. I have never done it there or anywhere, but my guess is, ebay has to follow the law just like everyone else. If it is against the law then it is against the law on ebay or otherwise. If it isn't against the law, then it won't be against the law on ebay, and no internet peanut gallery comments (not aimed at you, or anyone in particular, Steve) will make it true. It will be against their policy not illegal (I guess it could be "ebay-illegal"). Ebay is working on getting bid retractors addressed and I hope they ramp up efforts to stop shilling but it seems almost impossible.
I think shilling sucks big time. O

I totally missed clarity on my post.

Ebay being a California company tends to have their policies aligned with the laws in California. Which makes things complicated for everyone, because what's illegal shilling in one state may not be in another. It is true that Ebay makes no laws, just follows them.
My friend also did a lot of reloading equipment, but would get stuff he wasn't allowed to put on ebay, since while it was ok here in Mass, it was banned in California.

I can sort of see if someone is a dealer/auctioneer in a state that allows what we'd all consider shill bidding they might not know that it isn't allowed somewhere else.