Ebay will now hide bidder ID's for under 200.00

[Archive]

Posted By: davidcycleback

Rob and cmoking are correct. Many shilled auctions are shilled up on day one, and a last second bid doesn't protect the the winner from these shilled bids.

Also realize that the technique of some shillers is to shill up the price high-- with the top bid or bids being the seller's-- in the hope that someone places a last second bid to top all. If a legitimate bid is not placed, the lot will be relisted to try again. This explains why you see obviously fake cards with incredible bidding action on day two or three of four-- where a simultaneous PSA or SGC example is getting a fraction of the bids and price. Most to all of the bids on the fake cards are shills. Whoever snipe wins the fake placed his flag on a mountain of shills. It's possible he was the only real bidder, even though he won the card $200 above minimum.