Bob Miller wrote:

Last night I came across an auction for a Ten Tec xcvr and the bidders
were identified only as Bidder #1, Bidder #2, etc. Is that the same as
shill bidding?

bob
k5qwg

No, it's not. Shill bidding is when a friend or cohort of the seller
(the "shill") bids on the seller's item with no intention of actually
buying it; the point is for the shill to bump up the price that the
actual, legitimate buyer will ultimately have to pay. As far as I know,
a shill could use either their "real" eBay name or use the generic
"Bidder 1" and still be a shill.

The "Bidder #1, Bidder #2" that you are seeing was a new rule imposed by
eBay. I believe part of the reason they did this is to prevent people
other than the legitimate seller from contacting bidders 2 through n and
offering them a similar item, thus doing an "end-run" around eBay and
bypassing having to pay posting fees and commissions to eBay.

BTW, you, as a *viewer* of the auction, see "Bidder 1, 2", etc. The
*seller* still sees the real/actual bidder names and locations.

73,
Carter
K8VT