John Barnard wrote:

dxAce wrote:

Carter-k8vt wrote:

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.

Only if the seller decides to keep the bidders identities private...

Elsewise anybody can see who the bidders are.

dxAce Michigan USA



Beyond a certain value everything defaults to concealed identities (i.e.
bidder1, bidder2, etc.) and I think that the breakpoint is $200.

Here is the information from Ebay:

"As the internet evolves, eBay continues to strike a balance between
preserving transparency and protecting our Community of members. eBay
has decided to change how bid history information is displayed so bad
guys cannot target bidders with fake offers using this information. In
certain cases, some bidders will no longer be able to view Bidder User
IDs on the Bid History page. Your User ID will be shown only to you and
the seller of the item you're bidding on. Other members will see an
anonymous name, such as Bidder 1, applied consistently to the Bid
History page".

Interesting. Shill bidding just got easier thanks to eBay itself.

dxAce
Michigan
USA