Makes it pretty easy for shill bidders, no?

[CaseyJones]

Not exactly news but:

"eBay has changed how bid history information is displayed for higher-priced items. To help keep the eBay community safe, enhance bidder privacy, and protect our members from fraudulent emails, only you and the seller of the item can view your User ID in bid history. Other members will see anonymous names."

It may protect members from fraudulent emails but it's perfect for shills. Just my $.02.

[drhulsey]

It may protect members from fraudulent emails but it's perfect for shills.

I always wondered how you, ebay or anyone would know if there were shils I don't think I've ever bought anything expensive enough on ebay to warrant the effort This won't help

[skyboltone]

It may protect members from fraudulent emails but it's perfect for shills.

I always wondered how you, ebay or anyone would know if there were shils I don't think I've ever bought anything expensive enough on ebay to warrant the effort This won't help

I've bid items early with my high bid. Something like 56.78 to stay just above a $50 bid for instance, then watched as somebody bid it up in minimum increments until my odd cents showed then stop bidding.

That's a shill.

Now I use programmed bidding in the final seconds. I never loose by more than the minimum increment. Win most anything I really want by less than my maximum bid.

My .o2
Dan

[CaseyJones]

I always wondered how you, ebay or anyone would know if there were shils I don't think I've ever bought anything expensive enough on ebay to warrant the effort This won't help

I'm not especially I.T. literate but there are a couple good ways to make an educated guess:

Every computer has its own I.D.. Track the I.D. especially multiple Ebay I.D.s originating from one computer. You and I can't do this but Ebay can. If there's one user who consistently bids a particular user's items up but doesn't win that may be a shill. I wonder about gear that bids up to above current market value then is promptly relisted within a day or so. Sure there are sellers who have inventory, I'm talking about relatively unique items.

If eBay was doing their homework (and they AREN'T IMHO!) it's pretty easy to apply statistical analysis to the situation. Track similar items, establish a bell shaped curve which also establishes the maximum selling price on the skinny end of the curve. A seller who always gets top dollar might be a genius, maybe he or she sells desirable merch in primo condition or maybe they're playin' games. That's where the human element comes in, you need people to analyze the situation.

[drhulsey]

it's pretty easy to apply statistical analysis to the situation...

Damn I guess I shouldn't have skipped Statistics class

[CaseyJones]

it's pretty easy to apply statistical analysis to the situation...

Damn I guess I shouldn't have skipped Statistics class

It's not that difficult and it's applied to EVERYTHING these days. The concept is sound, it's a standard formula to analyze a data set. The part that's not sound is when arbitrary values are assigned to fit a process or system that doesn't readily conform to the formula.

[dartanion]

Bargains on most "hot" items are hard to come by if you do not use some sort of automated bidding, because it is highly likely that someone is using it against you.

Shill bidding isn't always a nefarious act. I often find things that I want, bid on them only to be outbid already. I usually never do the minimum bid though, but it is still frustrating when every thing you bid on is already run up behind the scenes. Yeah, I have started just bidding what I would be willing to pay, at that helps, but not in winning things.

I need to start using automated bidding again.

What ebay has done by obscuring the user name on items that are high priced is to limit the accessibility of user IDs. It easier to break into someone's account if you know the username. Also, packet sniffing can nab you a lot of information. You'd be surprised at how a lot of commercial systems pass credentials as plain text. Any crook worth their salt will target folks with more money than the average Joe. High priced items are a great place to start for a crook.

[Lonely Raven]

Shill bidding doesn't effect me at all unless it's something so ungodly rare that nobody is sure what the price would be.

With a little research, I know what something is worth, and I know what I'm willing to pay. If someone shill bids an item and it goes over my set budget, then I just don't get it.

I don't get into bidding wars, it's not worth it.

[titanicslim]

Personally, I don't know why anyone would want a way to pay more than his or her budgeted amount But to each his own

If I suspect a slicky boy, I look at the people who have bought their previous auctions. By cross checking, you can sometimes detect repeat buyers in the same town or area.

Does it seem to anybody else that there are about a million dealers on eBay these days?