Shill bidding on Ebay

cigrmaster · Jul 15, 2012

I have been doing some research and found that on the guys who run no reserve auctions they seem to have a lot of the same people bidding on their pipes. One guy I saw bid on 11 different pipes from one guy. Another guy has been jacking bids by bidding as many as 35 times on one pipe. I have seen him bid on 5 different pipes from one guy and followed him to other sellers and he does the same thing on their auctions. I am collecting names and once I get enough I am going to have Ebay institute an investigation. So be careful guys, check the bidding history on a pipe you may be interested in and if you see this kind of behavior, report it.

barkar · Jul 15, 2012

Excellent, hope you get them. Obviously there are bidders that are there to bump the price just like a poker game. Also remember you can tell e-bay what your max bid is and it will auto bid you until the max is reached which is likely what some peeps are doing.

adam12 · Jul 15, 2012

These people will pay for their behavior in the afterlife. Shill bidders will be thrown into the lake of fire, it says so right there in the scriptures

cigrmaster · Jul 15, 2012

Dave, I never really paid attention because I never go over what I think a pipe is worth, but when I saw one guy bidding on 11 different pipes, I said this guy is a shill. No one bids on 11 pipes that are completely different like he did.
barkar, so is the reason you see 35 bids from one guy is because he put in an automatic bid and it keeps bidding until he is out bid? Still doesn't explain why he is bidding on 5 pipes from one guy, 6 from another, 5 from another. This one guy is all over the no reserve guys with only 35 transactions of his own. I even caught a major seller bidding on competitors auctions.

cigrmaster · Jul 15, 2012

adam12...lol, too funny. There is one guy in particular who I have always wondered why he gets so much for his auctions. Now that I researched him a little I am seeing a pattern.
I will have my vengeance sayeth the cigrmaster. :crazy:

batdemon · Jul 15, 2012

I agree about the auto bid thing. I'm pretty sure that when you put in your max amount each time you are outbid it is going to show you as bidding again until your max is reached. I am sure there are some shills out there though. As far as a major seller bidding on a competitors auction, I don't see much unusual about that. If I'm a seller and I see something I think I can get and sell for more then why not bid on it. As for the guy who is all over the place but only has a few transactions of his own, it is possible that he is new to pipes and has just gone bid happy, when the ebay bug bites you it can bite hard. I know when I first started bidding on pipes it was not unusual for me to have several bids out there. I'm not saying you are wrong for being suspicious, just pointing out that there are other explanations.

The sellers I really dislike, and there are some very reputable ones, are the ones that want anywhere from $12 to $20 for shipping. They are in the states so shipping shouldn't be anywhere near that.

photoman13 · Jul 15, 2012

Just have to be careful on ebay just as you have to be careful in person with your money.

steyrshrek · Jul 15, 2012

Actually the fact that he's bidding on three different peoples auctions makes it less likely that he's a shill. You're now saying that three different sellers have contacted the same guy to drive up prices, which although not impossible but highly unlikely. Did you look a the bidders buying history that will tell you more than the number of items that he's bidding on.

cigrmaster · Jul 15, 2012

steyrshrek, what I have been noticing is that these guys only bid to a certain point and never very high and they never win. I honestly think that the no reserve guys have a group of shills working for them.One guy with over 10000 feedbacks keeps bidding only a few dollars on so many different pipes and only bids once. I'm tellin ya it's a friggin conspiracy. lol

gwtwdbss · Jul 15, 2012

I will have my vengeance sayeth the cigrmaster.

LOL, I never much paid attention to shill bidders but I guess I should start being a little more observant.

msandoval858 · Jul 15, 2012

Jeez Harris, you really do enjoy a good hunt eh? :lol:
I remember back when cigars were allowed on ebay, you'd see that stuff ALL the time.

cigrmaster · Jul 15, 2012

Mike, I remember when there were tons of fake Cubans and fake Opus being sold on Ebay, and they couldn't have cared less people were being robbed. They have come a long way in protecting the people who buy there.

barkar · Jul 15, 2012

@cigrmaster....I have to agree with you...35 bids on one or two pipes maybe but not 11....shill indeed.

jpberg · Jul 15, 2012

For every pipe I win on ebay, I bid on 30. I find pipes I like, put my max in, and wait and see. I don't know what a shill is, but I may be one.

martiniman · Jul 15, 2012

@cigrmaster.
I have probably 10-12 pipes I'm currently bidding on.

The difference is I'm hoping to get the DEAL that everyone else might be missing. 8)

While i bid on many, i rarely win since I'm bidding about 50% of their value unless i

really want a particular pipe.
I rarely find 2 pipes from 1 seller at the same time that I like.

barkar · Jul 15, 2012

A shill is a plant that helps to push the bids up for the seller or at a poker table does the same thing to raise pot then folds to his buddies hand

weezell · Jul 15, 2012

All this is why I don't mess with it.If I see a pipe at a reputable site new or estate I just buy the damned thing. :wink:

mrenglish · Jul 15, 2012

Interesting. I think I know of the seller you mentioned, it is amazing how much his pipes get for even basic pipes like regular Peterson's and what not. Good luck with the hunt and let us know what you find out.

Perique · Jul 15, 2012

I think this sort of thing is very common on eBay. And not just with pipes.

kcghost · Jul 17, 2012

Most sellers of expensive items have a minimum they will take for the pipe and they may use a shill to be sure they get to that minimum. They start the bidding at very low amounts to get the bidding going and to save eBay charges.

Shill bidding on Ebay

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