Dont Think Seller Was Happy With Price Of His Coin Has It Relisted For More

I just assumed a few people were doing shill bidding to get more profit. I avoided those auctions even if I wasn't entirely sure and only had suspicions. but I'm buying low cost coins. I'd be really mad if I was bidding on high cost coins and it was rigged against me getting a fair deal. A fair deal means I could pay a little too much or I could pay below average price and That depends on a lot of factors. Some are under my control and others depend on the next highest bidder. I didn't expect the seller to influence the bids. This thread is an eye opener. Thanks for the info. Also I don't bid on reserve auctions because many don't have enough bids to reach the reserve price. Maybe others have a different experience but that's my 2 cents worth.

Ottawavoyageur,
For many years (at least 15), I've been buying off the ebay seller you have posted about. He's one of my favorite sellers on ebay. I don't know him, where he's from (okay, just looked - Nebraska), or anything else about him, but I've never had any suspicion or any problems after winning at least a hundred of his auctions. I have mostly paid less than 50% of TRENDS ! There's no way this guy uses shill bidders.

I posted earlier that I used to track for shill bidding on ebay. Users of shill bidders build up the shill bidders' feedback on very low-cost auctions. There are actually ways to build it up for pennies a feedback. They also don't bid on only 1 item at the last second. The bids are entered at least 4 seconds to catch the last of the snipe bids, or minutes before to force live bidders up. Lots aren't bid on 1 at a time, but over the whole breadth of the seller's items automatically. Check the bidding of the user over the last 30 days. If it's 1000's on the same seller, different categories, same time, then think shill.

I think the fishiness in the sales you showed were a result of the 0-feedback bidders. I also would be wary of buyers with 0 feedback bidding on $100+ items. Looks to me like a "not received" scam would be the next step after the auction, as the seller does not send by tracked mail.

Bill, I realize that CCF member is not one of your favourite numismatists, but let's not turn this into a witch hunt, anymore than it is...