I have some experience with zero feedback buyers who are just having a
good time (I sell a lot of parts on ebay, and have never used a shill
bidder, thank you!). As a seller, ebay allows me to block or remove
zero feedback buyers, but for some reason these jokesters seem to love
restored cars. If I were the seller, I would be able to recover my
fees (after a while) and if there was a real bidder in 2nd or 3rd
place and I offered it to them at their high bid, it is still a bid
they wanted to make. You can argue the ethics of such a deal (If it
weren't for the shill, he could have gotten it cheaper!) but it is
still a price the bidder was willing to pay and a price that he can
refuse to pay if he has second thoughts. I have many arguments with
ebay, but this system isn't one of them.
As a seller, if I have been scammed by a non-paying bidder, I am of
course going to relist it. What else am I going to do? Is ebay
supposed to prevent this?
Bill
slightlyclassics
Tucson
On Feb 3, 2009, at 5:12 PM, Dean Hedin wrote:
> The other day my brother and I were discussing the ebay shill bid
> issue.
> I was wondering why ebay couldn't do something about this.
>
> I have no problem a "zero" history bidder coming in at the last
> moment and winning the item.
> You never can tell, somebody might want the item but does not have a
> current ebay account.
>
> BUT, if after the auction completes the seller contacts the second
> highest bidder (through ebay's email) and offers the item, then
> something is afoul and the ebay machinery should be able to flag this
> situation and penalize the seller and revoke the shill bid account.
> This is what happened to me when I tried to bid on a 210 trans.
>
> Also, If the item payment is managed by ebay, and the shill winner
> never completes the transaction
> then ebay should also flag it. Or if the item is re-posted by the
> same seller soon after a prior auction
> completes.
>
> So I'm telling this to my brother and he brings up a good point. He
> feels that it's not in ebay's interest to do anything about it,
> since the seller must pay ebay it's
> cut when the item sells, regardless if it goes to a shill bidder or
> not.
>
> I disagree with him, I think ebay's reputation and seller's
> confidence is in jeopordy. So given that the incidence of a shill
> bid is easily detectable, then ebay should do something about it.
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Michael Rowe" <mdrowe@optonline.net
> >
> Subject: Re: [Spridgets] Holy SMOKES !!!
>
>
>>> Now if the guy can just collect:)
>> I have been watching BE's on Ebay long enough to see a remarkable
>> proportion of failed sales. Does anyone have a feel for why they
>> happen? Are people just playing around? Are they emotionally
>> unstable or excessively caught up in the bidding? Are they
>> legitimit bidders who failed to get financing? Do they go to pick
>> up the car and reject it? Etc.?
> _______________________________________________
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