Belt Auction

Shills bidding stuff up on EBay?

I was bidding on an autographed photo of a TV show star and experienced "shill" bidding where a "zero" feedback person was trying to boost up the bidding to probably a price that the seller can live with. It was basically me against the "shill", but when I checked the bidding history, I saw that I would have gotten suckered into winning an overpriced item. Has this happened to anyone out there?

Public Comments

1. i cant say that this has ever happened to me but i bid on ebay all the time and i love it i am sorry this happened you....i am sure that there are probably alot of people out there just starting off and needs someone to give them a chance to start off but i am the same way i am very cautious
2. Try to stay away from seller with no feedback and the ones that do have feedback look to see its mostly positive. Unfortunatly ebay is so convinient that the bad people out there try to take advantage of us. =) Dont let this discourage you and Im glad you saw the fake bids before you got suckered into buying item. Better luck next time =)
3. It is an illegal practice, but hard to stop. It does happen but not to a high degree. Bidders just need to be cautious not to pay more than they believe to be a fair price.
4. I hate to tell you this but most of the time its probably a fake autograph you are buying. usually some fat guys faking the signatures and selling them so buy it for the picture not the autograph. Anyways shilling happens when new gaming consoles are released all the time. i usually wait to the last seconds of an auction to bid to avoid shilling.
5. thats usually the seller under a different name. I have noticed it when i bid on certain items....