How to Scam and Make $ on eBay...

mintacular · #1 06-10-2011, 08:37 PM

Jason, my original thread was not intended to torpedo Battleship per se but more so point out a raw vintage model that seems to exaggerate a card's "pristine" condition while ignoring obvious flaws. To add insult to injury for me, is that these sellers with the wonderful specimens purposefully do not provide a decent scan....In terms of shilling, others are better experts how to detect this, but I can't help to think many of these auctions have a "shill" account as the final sales prices are much higher than the graded equivalent, and to me for that to happen consistently sets off some red flags. Many of these cards probably have been cracked out of holders OR contain an original flaw that the seller realizes would prevent it from getting a good grade so they don't send it in in the first place. Worse case scenario, some of these guys alter/trim cards to make them appear ultra high-grade.

In short, these auctions are very suspect and should be avoided IMO.

wheels56 · #2 06-11-2011, 08:37 PM

Makes sense, Patrick. I was reacting more to CharleyBrown's comments on shill bidding and was a bit alarmed because I have participated in several auctions from this seller.

Guess I just want to know if I'm clueless, so I can get a clue.

npa589 · #3 06-11-2011, 09:41 PM

Here we go again............................................. ..........................

http://cgi.ebay.com/1909-11-TY-COBB-...item3cb8c0ded1

bobbyw8469 · #4 06-12-2011, 07:01 AM

WOW!! That green one is such a bad fake, that I can't believe anyone is even bidding on these cards!

Quote:

P.S. I will be bringing more of this collection to Ebay in the next week or two, so please keep a look out. I will combine shipping for multiple orders.

Oh joy! I can hardly wait......

CharleyBrown · #5 06-12-2011, 08:11 AM

wheels,

I don't know for sure if Battlefield is doing shill bidding or selling trimmed cards...

I, too, at one point, actually bid on their items. However, things started to get fishy for me as I bid over VCP pricing for the actual grade they are claiming, and saw my bid topped before the final day.

Battlefield states that the cards they are selling are all from her husband's collection. What I don't understand is how they have already listed at least 2-3 '55 Clementes, 2-3 '53 J. Robinson's, 4 '55 Killebrews... etc. Some of them looking like the exact same card from before.

For 1, I wonder why they wouldn't get them graded. It's clear that they have graded cards, as they have a 1950 Bowman PSA 4 J. Robinson up for auction now. Why would they not send in the other cards to be graded to command a better price on all of the cards?

The second thing that raises my eyebrows is that perhaps they don't have 2-3 of the Clemente's, etc., but rather, a shill bid won the auction, and thus, they are relisting the item.

I hope for your sake that everything is kosher. She does guarantee that all cards are unaltered. I would be interested in seeing how your cards grade at PSA. Are you going to submit them?

Some of Battlefield's new items below:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ROBERTO-CLEMENTE...ht_2798wt_1070

http://cgi.ebay.com/SATCHELL-PAIGE-1...ht_2811wt_1070

http://cgi.ebay.com/JACKIE-ROBINSON-...ht_2811wt_1070

scooter729 · #6 06-12-2011, 08:44 AM

One thing I always watch for when considering whether shilling is occurring is if there are bids which fall just short of milestone prices. Typically, I get leery when I see bids of something like $99.99 or things along those lines. With bids like that, it would allow a bid of $100 to get driven up to its max, without exceeding that bid.

With that said, I know some people do use that bidding mentality. I have someone bidding on a few of my auctions on eBay right now using that strategy, and I wonder why. I'd love to hear a thought if anyone knows why a normal bidder (non-shiller) would use bids of $9.99, $49.99, etc. and not something like $10.05 or $50.02 to try and just beat a milestone number and not fall shy of it.

scooter729 · #7 06-12-2011, 05:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by scooter729

One thing I always watch for when considering whether shilling is occurring is if there are bids which fall just short of milestone prices. Typically, I get leery when I see bids of something like $99.99 or things along those lines. With bids like that, it would allow a bid of $100 to get driven up to its max, without exceeding that bid.

With that said, I know some people do use that bidding mentality. I have someone bidding on a few of my auctions on eBay right now using that strategy, and I wonder why. I'd love to hear a thought if anyone knows why a normal bidder (non-shiller) would use bids of $9.99, $49.99, etc. and not something like $10.05 or $50.02 to try and just beat a milestone number and not fall shy of it.

I just saw a perfect textbook example of the shilling example I referenced above - a brand-new bidder just joined eBay and has made only two bids, both from the same seller despite the items being totally different items (a baseball jersey and a presidential item), while the bid was done for $499, in order to drive the other bidder's price up to the $500 threshold.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Benjamin-Harriso...item4aabd1c931

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