Something Fishy Going on Here?

[Republicaninmass]

That actually makes sense. 3 of the same card in a row for the grader to compare and say "ok there is a 10 here somewhere". I've tried it before, never works though

[swarmee]

Nothing fishy. Big collectors/investors may have many raw copies of the same card that they submit at the same time.

[D.P.Johnson]

Probstein = Fishy.
C'mon, someone had to say it...

[mferronibc]

Yeah Daniel glad you brought them up. One thing I've noticed, hopefully just my paranoia, is every time I've won an auction with probstein it just so happens to be exactly the max bid I put in. Like if a card is currently sitting at $20 and I'm winning with an hour to go, but my max bid submitted may be $45.50, as time ticks down sure enough I end up winning for exactly $45.50.

Now I know there's a rush at the end of auctions as people are sitting on the sidelines and pounce at the last minute, but almost seems to me these big consignment houses have hacked eBay and know exactly what the highest bid submitted is out there then bid right up to that point with dummy accounts or something.

Is this a thing?

[swarmee]

Do a google search for shill bidding.

[mferronibc]

Dirtbags. But how do they know exactly when to stop and not push it over everyone's max? Or do they not care because it's all a volume game and they'll just relist it?

[swarmee]

1) It's not normally the consignment company: it's the owners of the cards or their friends.
2) Say the current bid is $25 and you set your max bid at $101.44 . eBay will continue to bump your bid to the highest for any bid up to your max. So if the owner of the card bids $50, yours will show $51. Then they bid $60, you bid $61, etc. But if they bid $100, and the minimum increment (additional bid amount) is like $2.50, your $101.44 bid will now show. Then they stop bidding.
3) This is why people don't bid large numbers until a few seconds before the auction ends; this is called a snipe bid. It makes it harder for you to be shill bid if you bid your number only at the end.

[Empty77]

Originally Posted by mferronibc

Dirtbags. But how do they know exactly when to stop and not push it over everyone's max? Or do they not care because it's all a volume game and they'll just relist it?

Correct, if they do make a mistake and 'win' then it just ends up re-listed one way or another, whether the first 'win' ever gets paid for or not. Then they're just less optimistic with the shills next time. Happened to me a few weeks ago (same seller).