this can happen

njoker555 · 03-31-2007

this can happen a lot and is hard to come by.

Sellers have two accounts from two differnt computers and IPs. They make their account and bid on it after someone else bid on it just to get their price up higher so the seller makes more money. And stops or cancels the bid via the sellers main account if he went too high.

I dont think this has happened but it is a possibility dont you think? i am sure ebay should be looking for stuff like this. This just came into my head.

joecool6101 · 04-04-2007

This does happen.. I have bid on a few productions on eBay immediatly after the auction ended i got an email saying the person backed out and didn't want to do transaction.. which i doubt that would happen within 2 mins of auction ending on 3 different products for that seller...

eBay cant track it if 2 different IPs are used..

Althema · 04-04-2007

Sadly, one does not even ned two computers or two IP addresses to do this. If one were to read yahoo groups, some people make it a busines to bid on auctions and retract or back out.

A seller doesn't use just one friend, some use 10 or more to make it appear as if the item is a really good deal. They do this especially for website sales....I got burned by this trick once and another bidder gave me a heads after it was too late.

IrDA · 04-29-2007

This practice is called Shill Bidding and is the worst nightmare for original buyers. When I am bidding on an item and I see lots of bids from newly signed up people I smell shill bidding and don't continue to outbid them.